Ashcroft Asks for Study of Violence, Rejects Gun Curbs

Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft on Friday said the El Cajon shooting should prompt society--and the media and entertainment industries--to examine why some young people embrace an “ethic of violence” as a solution to their problems.

But he rejected calls for more gun control.

“This is a tragedy, and to have it happen within a stone’s throw of the last event, in the same school district, obviously must be terrible for the individuals in that district,” Ashcroft said on ABC’s “Good Morning America” in one of three appearances he made on the morning talk show circuit Friday to discuss the shooting.

Everyone--including the news media--must consider if they should take greater responsibility to prevent school violence, he said.

“And, of course, the entertainment industry, with its video games and the like, which sometimes literally teach shooting and all, we’ve got to ask ourselves how do we as a culture respond to be more responsible?” he said.

The shooting, he said, “prompts us all to think we’ve got to be more comprehensive in our approach and to think of what we can do to curtail this sort of ethic of violence that young people seem to embrace, that if they’re disenchanted or angry, they resolve . . . their problem by violence.”

In a frequent mantra of the Bush administration, he said enforcing current laws is more important than enacting new ones.