[We must] deal with all of the contributing factors to gun violence as a whole, because it's like a leaky bucket - if you've got a bucket with six holes shot through it, [and] you plug up five, you've still got a leaky bucket. Joycelyn Elders More Quotes by Joycelyn Elders More Quotes From Joycelyn Elders As long as I was in Washington I never met anybody that I thought was good enough, who knew enough, or who loved enough to make sexual decisions for anybody else. Joycelyn Elders good-enough decision long But I'm saying we are loosing the people who are going to pay my social security. And that bothers me. Joycelyn Elders humorous stupid people You can't keep an ignorant population healthy. Joycelyn Elders ignorant population healthy Condoms will break, but I can assure you that vows of abstinence will break more easily than condoms. Joycelyn Elders vow condom abstinence What I can do is to go out and talk about the problems and solutions, make people aware of the scope of the problems, get them to become advocates for a turnaround, and convince them to develop an action plan, targeted to their community, to deal with young people. [They need to] find out what the kids want to do - dances, midnight-basketball leagues. Joycelyn Elders basketball kids people My biggest challenge is to educate the American people, to make access to health care available for all, and to make sure that prevention plays a big part in health care. In the case of guns, prevention means we prevent homicides and devastating, expensive gun injuries by preventing those who shouldn't have guns from getting their hands on guns. Joycelyn Elders gun mean hands I support a total ban on handgun ownership for anyone under eighteen. Uzis should be absolutely banned from entering this country. Automatic weapons of any kind should not be for sale in America. For that matter, toy Uzis should not be available for kids, either. There would be a minimum seven-day waiting period between applying for a gun permit and obtaining a gun. Joycelyn Elders gun country kids Gun owners would have to be evaluated by how they scored on written and firing tests, and have to pass the tests in order to own a gun. And I would tax the guns, bullets and the license itself very heavily. Joycelyn Elders gun want order If I could be the "condom queen" and get every young person who engaged in sex to use a condom in the United States, I would weara crown on my head with a condom on it! I would! Joycelyn Elders united-states queens sex I think we should have a very, very heavy tax on handguns and on bullets. Joycelyn Elders bullets should-have thinking Judge Thomas was a man who had used the system to get where he wanted to be, but then felt that everyone else should pull themselves up by their own bootstraps. Joycelyn Elders used judging men I always say my God will take care of me. If it's my time I'll go, and if it's not I won't. I feel that He really has a lot of important things for me to do. And He's going to make sure that I'm here to do them. Joycelyn Elders care important god Given a choice between hearing my daughter say "I'm pregnant" or "I used a condom", most mothers would get up in the middle of the night and buy them herself. Joycelyn Elders daughter mother witty I don't know how anybody can say that who looks at what's happening to our young people and what's happening to our country, all because of guns. The NRA is putting themselves in a position where people will no longer trust them. They've been trusted in the past, but now their credibility is on the line. Joycelyn Elders gun country past [On masturbation:] I think that it is part of human sexuality, and perhaps it should be taught. Joycelyn Elders sexuality taught thinking If men went through menopause, we'd know everything about it, but we still don't even know if we should be taking hormones. Joycelyn Elders hormones should men Who is the NRA anyway? They are usually middle-income people who only think of themselves, who want to have no government, really, except self-rule by themselves. I think that little cracks are starting to emerge in the NRA armor. Joycelyn Elders government self thinking Guns are far too accessible and too readily available. There are over 200 million guns in our society - and that's just the legal ones, the ones we know about. Every ten seconds, another gun is produced. And every fourteen minutes, some person in America dies from gun-inflicted action. Joycelyn Elders our-society gun america Marijuana is beneficial to many patients Joycelyn Elders marijuana beneficial patient We can begin to address the issue of guns by teaching our young people how to deal with situations in nonviolent ways. Someone said to me the other day, "What our adolescents need is not so much health care, but healthy caring," and I agree. Parents and churches need to provide that. Curricula in our schools [need to] provide that. Joycelyn Elders caring teaching school