Bill Clinton: “Well, that's something of course we'll have to review. But most States have lowered the age at which people at least can…”

“Well, that's something of course we'll have to review. But most States have lowered the age at which people at least can be tried as adults. In our State, in Arkansas, the way it works is a determination can be made--the prosecutor can ask and then a court can decide that a young person under the age of 18, but 14 or over, could be tried as adults if the circumstances warranted. It looks to me like one of the things this case will do is probably launch a debate in America about whether there should be some intermediate step. That is: Okay, maybe people below a certain age shouldn't be tried as adults, but should there be some means of keeping them incarcerated after their 18th or their 20th birthday if the circumstances warrant that, either the severity of the crime or concern about their mental condition and stability, should they be released. Again, I'll make no judgment on the facts of this case, but I think that there will be a serious debate about that. But the real thing is, I'll say again, is to try to prevent things like this from happening in the first place. You just have to--we have to work very, very hard at hammering home to our children what the consequences of using guns are. We have to keep the guns out of the hands of the kids that shouldn't--when they shouldn't have them. We need to make sure that the gun safety practices are very strong. They need to be kept out of the hands of kids. The child safety locks ought to be on them wherever possible. And then, again, I'm hopeful that the Attorney General and the Secretary of Education, when they get all the facts of the these three cases and, as I said, any others if there are others out there, that they will show a pattern--practice maybe that will tell us something else we can do, if not legislation, then practice, that will reduce the chances that this will happen. Mr. Donaldson. What is your hunch? Do you think we're in for an epidemic? I mean, there are copycat crimes, as you know. Until these three incidents that you referred to, I don't recall another one.”