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Show August 1969 Page 5 UTAH FARM BUREAU TURMOIL ON THE CAMPUS TELEVISION AND VIOLENCE This year we have seen an outbreak of violence on our college campuses. Hardly a day went by this Spring without reports of trouble on such campuses as San Francisco State, Columbia, Harvard, Cornell, and Kent State University. One estimate is that about 135,000 students, out of a total university enrollment of 6.7 million, were involved in campus demonstrations. Various causes have been for these outbreaks such as: racial issues; inequities of the draft given system; a revolt against college authorities; and failures of the to university meet the needs of individual students because of their size. growing Organizations such as Students for a Democratic Society have been formed on many campuses. Frequently they have joined with black students in such organizations as the n Society to seize buildings and hostages. At Cornell fiery crosses were burned by whites, and black students carried guns. Afro-America- President Nixon has said, "It is time for faculties, boards of trustees, and school administrators to have the backbone to stand up against this kind of situation . . . there can be no compromise with lawlessness and no surrender to force if free education is to survive in the United States." Some administrators and college presidents believe that unrest on the campus must be dealt with, insofar as possible, by the colleges themselves. They believe that young people should have a voice in determining what the rules and procedures should be on the campus. The extent of violence depicted on many television shows and in motion pictures is almost unbelievable. Children and adults are constantly bombarded by a steady stream of criminal acts, cruelty, and unhealthy sex situations. Our children are especially susceptible, and to many of them violence may appear to be normal behavior. The average child watches television from three to five hours a day. By the time he has reached adolescence he has been exposed to about 20,000 hours of television viewing, which surely has exerted some influence on his attitudes and behavior. Some people believe that there is a close relationship' between television programs and strife on the campus, riots in the streets, and other forms of rebellious behavior on the part of teenagers. There are others who deny that violence on television carries over into real life situations. This is the position taken by many television stations and network officials. There are some psychologists who maintain that violence on the screen does not lead to an increase in actual violence. If we disapprove of violence on television and in motion pictures, we can express our disapproval by not watching, and encouraging others to follow our lead. Letters to advertisers, television stations, and motion picture producers are effective ways of expressing our concern. HOW CONCERNED ARE WE ABOUTVIOLENCE ON TELEVISION AND IN MOVIES HOW SHOULD WE DEAL WITH VIOLENCE ON THE CAMPUS CRIME GROUP VIOLENCE Violent crimes are increasing sharply in the United States. This may be explained by the fact that more people are living in cities where crime rates have always been higher. Also the proportion of young people in our total population has increased, and this age group has always accounted for a large share of violent crimes. Arrests of juveniles for violent crimes have doubled since 1960. Some 73 percent of the persons arrested for robberies are under the age of 25. They account for 64 percent of all the arrests for rape, and 37 percent of the arrests for murder. The peak years among arrests for crimes of violence are from 18 to 20, followed closely by the 21 to 24 age group. Many states and he Federal government are taking steps to try to reduce the number of violent crimes. Among other things they are increasing their police forces, . revising their court procedures, and taking steps to reduce juvenile delinquency. WHAT MORE CAN WE DO TO REDUCE VIOLENT CRIMES FIREARMS AND VIOLENCE Guns are part of our American history, and despite the fact that the United States is increasingly becoming an urbanzied society, there d is still a ownership of guns. There are legitimate honorable uses of firearms. However, the illegitimate uses have become a of all violent mounting problem. Guns are used in a high percentage crimes. wide-sprea- The increase in civil disorders in recent years has led more people to buy weapons. The annual sale of new firearms has more than doubled since 1963. More than six million firearms were sold in the United States in 1968, as compared with 2.7 million in 1963. Sales of handguns increased 400 percent between 1963 and 1968. This summer we will probably witness more group violence in the United States. During the past five years there have been racial disorders in our cities of great intensity. We remember all too well what happened in Dayton, Cleveland, and Detroit Similar outbreaks can take place again, because we have done very little to solve the basic causes of these disturbances. A National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders, which issued its first report in Juy, 1967, reached the conclusion, "Our nation is moving toward two societies, one black, one white separate and unequal While some people think this conclusion goes too far, they recognize that in the past five years the United States has experienced strife of greater intensity and greater duration than most other democracies. More than one million Americans participated in more than 370 civil rights demonstrations in the past five years. This is about 1 1 out of every 1,000 Americans. There have been 237 violent urban outbursts from June, 1963 through May, 1968, in which 220 Americans died, and about 9,500 were injured. Property damages ran into the hundreds of millions of dollars. Two out of three Americans now live in metropolitan areas, and it is expected that three out of four will be living in or around cities by 1975. Since World War II hundreds of thousands of Negro and white families have migrated from the farm to our cities. This is one of the reasons for the development of racial ghettoes; deteriorating schools; inadequate police protection; overcrowded housing; and inadequate finances to pay for essential services. Only about 6 or 7 percent of our population is engaged in farming and in Utah the percentage is only tibout 4 percent It is quite likely that in the future many of our needs will be neglected by government, while attempts are made to meet the crisis in our cities. SHOULD THE MAJOR ATTENTION OF GOVERNMENT BE ON PROBLEMS OF URBAN AMERICA! There has been both state and national legislation designed to control the possession and use of firearms, but very little progress has been made. The American Rifle Association and other groups of sportsmen have opposed such legislation, and they have the support of many others. These proposed bills on firearms have been violently opposed by groups who believe that this will be only the first step toward taking g firearms away from people. The argument is that criminals and their them the to will use and over take arms retain groups force. groups are well armed, and in lightest Many government by some instances have openly used their arms in defiance of the law. left-win- SHOULD WE HAVE STRICTER CONTROL OF FIREARMS -- |