Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, January 3, 1993 TAG: 9301030009
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LESLIE TAYLOR STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
BELL: ATTITUDES - NOT GUNS - AT FAULT
State Sen. Brandon Bell wonders about the attitudes of young people - attitudes that have crept into the schools, too often manifesting themselves in violent ways."When I was in school, you didn't challenge the teachers, the principals," said the 34-year-old Republican, who represents Roanoke and three-quarters of Roanoke County in the state legislature.
"You understood authority and you respected authority. I'm interested in why that's changed so much. What's the root cause? Why do kids start to feel by the time they are in high school that they can do just about anything they want to do? Use of weapons is part of that."
But Bell sees the solution not in toughening existing laws related to guns, schools and juveniles, but through measures that would foster respect for the educational institution at an early age.
Bell expects to incorporate those measures into legislation being prepared by a joint Senate and House Education subcommittee on school crime and violence. The subcommittee - composed of 11 state legislators, including Bell - plans to meet Jan. 12 to finish drafting a package of bills devoted to school safety.
As its base, the subcommittee is using recommendations from the Education Summit on Violence in Schools. The report, released last year, in part recommended legislation to reduce the availability of handguns to minors.
While some people might expect the legislation to incorporate gun-control measures, Bell sees the panel leaning more toward providing early intervention and giving school officials greater access to student discipline records.
Gov. Douglas Wilder's proposals to limit handgun purchases to one gun per person, per month and to bar juveniles from possessing handguns "intersects" with proposals examined by the subcommittee, but only "to a degree," Bell said.
"There was some discussion about laws currently on the books relating to guns in schools, but [the subcommittee] hasn't spent a lot of time on it," he said, referring to the subcommittee's last meeting on Dec. 18. "There was very little gun discussion."
Some have suggested toughening several guns-in-schools laws passed by the 1992 General Assembly, such as raising the penalty for selling a gun to a minor from a misdemeanor to a felony, Bell said. He views that notion as premature.
"What we've got to look out for, and not put as much emphasis on, is making penalties more severe without understanding whether the current laws are effective," Bell said.
One of those laws made it a felony to carry a loaded gun onto school property or to fire a gun on public property within 1,000 feet of a school.
To toughen penalties merely for the sake of having accomplished something "is not addressing the core part of the problem," Bell said. "You've really addressed the core problem when you intervene at an early age and assist principals and superintendents in working with students."
While bills are being written, Bell would speak only off the record about specific proposals on early intervention. But his concern is for measures that would help develop respectful attitudes about schools at an early age.
"We may not have first-graders bringing guns to school, but attitudes are formed very early," he said.
Measures to increase access to student records - urged by state Secretary of Education James Dyke - include requiring school superintendents to share with each other information about violent students. State privacy laws now limit educators' access to such records.
"If a student has taken a gun to school and was expelled, we want to provide a way for principals and superintendents to know that," Bell said.
Bell said he intends to examine closely Wilder's proposal to bar juveniles from possessing handguns. Such a ban may be out of bounds, he said.
"I have a problem banning guns as an outright ban," he said. "If a 16-year-old can't go hunting with his father, it's going a bit too far."
Bell, who owns a shotgun, said the one-gun-a-month proposal - designed to stop gunrunning - could have a trickle-down effect on guns in the schools. But restrictions do not excite him.
"I have a pretty tough litmus test," Bell said. "Prove that this is going to stop criminal activity. Prove that this is in some way going to do just that. Don't go so far as to infringe on those who collect guns or hunt and have no criminal intent. That's something we have to be cautious about."
When Bell challenged two-term incumbent Granger Macfarlane in 1991, the National Rifle Association supported Macfarlane. NRA members may be surprised to learn that Bell agrees with some of their positions, though "I'm not as overzealous as they might be," he says.
"We've got some pretty good laws that just passed this last session," Bell said. "We've really got to get back some more information to see if they've been successful before we go out and start throwing more laws out there."