May 22, 1998
Firearms Key to Stopping Cycle of Violence (330)
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. -- Keeping firearms out of the hands of children is the first step to stop the cycle of violence that this week left two dead and two dozen injured in school shootings.
Dr. Greer Fox, a professor in child and family studies at UT-Knoxville, said Friday the availability of firearms increases the possibility for death and multiple injuries when incidents occur at school.
''Take away the firearms in these situations and you would have fewer deaths and less serious injuries,'' Fox said. ''It's an absolute fact that when kids don't have guns available to them, they use weapons that aren't as lethal.''
Fox is president of the National Council on Family Relations, an organization of professional family scholars and researchers.
The second step toward breaking the cycle would be to pay closer attention to how much time adolescents spend in the presence of adults, Fox said.
''There is no way on earth, given the current way American family life and work life is structured, that one or two parents can be the only adults in the life of a kid,'' Fox said. ''Parents needs help and kids need help.''
Fox said if she could be ''dictator-king,'' she would restructure the work environment.
''I would have a wholesale restructuring of the lifetime working career so that the work expectations of people from ages 25 to 45 would be for partial time,'' Fox said. ''And I would extend the working life of all men and women to age 75.
''You would have 30 years of labor at the top end, leaving people who are in their parenting years with enough time truly to parent their children.''
Fox also recalled her own growing-up years when adults in her neighborhood extended themselves to become involved in the development of everyone's children.
''We had neighbors who were what we would consider to be busybodies today,'' Fox said. ''We need that -- adults who are concerned about the moral development of every kid in their neighborhood.''
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Contact: Dr. Greer Fox (423-974-0748)