By Sue Kiesewetter
Enquirer contributor

TRENTON - Edgewood High seniors had done their homework before their congressman visited.

Student Robin Barnhill said U.S. Rep. John Boehner, R-Ohio, addressed many of the issues she was interested in when he spoke Thursday with about 190 seniors.

"We had been researching political agendas of the two parties and I knew what he was going to say. He stayed pretty Republican," said Barnhill, 18.

During a 50-minute assembly, the seven-term congressman from West Chester Township addressed questions on several issues.

He told the teens they were living through an important historical event - the war on terrorism.

Never before has the United States "gone in and pre-emptively take out a leader,'' Boehner said of Saddam Hussein. "When you're old and gray ... we'll see if it was successful or not.''

In response to a question about what he thought would stop teen pregnancy, Boehner drew chuckles when he told a story about what he had told his then 15-year-old daughter.

"Keep all your clothes on. Not many bad things can happen," Boehner said. "If you don't have sex, you can't get pregnant."

Senior Charles Albright wasn't satisfied with Boehner's lack of support for gun controls.

"Guns don't kill people. People do. We don't blame cars because a drunk person gets behind the wheel of a car and kills someone," Boehner said.

Charles said Boehner didn't take into consideration the experiences of countries where handguns are banned - they have few deaths a year from guns.

"If they're harder to get, there would be less spontaneous shootings," said Charles, 17, of Trenton.