Talking Points on HR 2036:
Children's Defense Act of 1999

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I.  H.R. 2036 could imprison booksellers for selling First Amendment-protected books.

Under H.R. 2036, a bookseller can be sent to jail for up to five years for selling a minor under the age of 17 a book or magazine that contains pictures, photographs or drawings or detailed verbal descriptions or narrative accounts of “explicit sexual or violent material.”  These books and magazines are protected by the First Amendment.  Although many states have laws forbidding the sale to minors of sexually explicit material, the courts have consistently ruled that banning the sale of violent material to minors is unconstitutional because it is impossible to define violence in a way that prevents access to “gratuitous” and “exploitative” depictions without also preventing minors from obtaining works that deal seriously with the subject of violence.

II.  H.R. 2036 would prevent minors from obtaining anti-violent and other important works.

Although there is a three-part test for “harmfulness,” most booksellers would not try to decide for themselves whether a particular book is covered by the law.  To avoid five years in jail, they would simply refuse to sell minors any books with violent content, including those that are anti-violent or anti-war like Stephen Crane’s Red Badge of Courage or Erich Maria Remarque’s All Quiet on the Western Front.  According to the American Library Association, books with violent content are challenged frequently in libraries and schools around the country.  In 1997-1998, they included  Maya Angelou, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, John C. Gardner, Grendel, Robert M. Lipsyte, One Fat Summer, Walter Dean Myers, Fallen Angles, John Steinbeck, The Red Pony, Alice Walker, The Color Purple, and Richard Wright, Native Son.

III.  The media do not contribute significantly to the level of violence in the United States.

The role of the media in causing violence is controversial.  While there are many studies that claim that TV violence causes increased levels of aggressiveness in some test subjects, the National Research Council did not consider the media a significant problem in its 1993 study, Understanding and Preventing Violence. The NRC, the principal operating agency of the National Academy of Sciences, devoted chapters to the role of drugs and alcohol, violence in the family and firearms but not to the role of media.  In a book of 354 pages, it gave the issue only four paragraphs. 

III.  Government censorship is far more dangerous than the worst book or movie

Like all Americans, booksellers were deeply shocked by the Columbine High School shootings and passionately wish to see the level of violence in our society reduced. However, they fear that efforts to achieve this by censoring books and other media will undermine free speech.  When government attempts to suppress even hateful ideas, it threatens democracy itself.