The point being, the head of the NRA stood up and said don't you dare step on the 2nd Amendment and then proceeded to blame the 1st Amendment for the problem. Hypocritical don't ya think?
Go ahead and argue that based on the 2nd Amendment you have a right to own a AR-15 with a 100 round mag if that's your belief, but don't turn right around and then blame X-Boxs or movies for the problem.
Not many headlines where you see "20 year old breaks into school and kills 26 with an X-Box."
Be real clear on this. I exposed my kids to guns. My son had an AR-15 I purchased for him and he had a number of AKs that he bought as he got real interested in the different versions. I still have 2 of his AKs along with my AR. Also understand I played shoot em up video games with my kids. My son was a big time Counterstrike fan. Day of Defeat was good fun, Quake, Rogue Spear.. I just saw somewhere that the shooter loved Counterstrike. Oh no! My son had AKs and played Counterstrike! Seems to me my daughter and her husband consider "Scarface' one of their favorite movies along with "The Godfather". She's a 4th grade teacher. She still comes home to play "Army of Two' and Halo with me on occasion. How dare she teach children! She and her peers want nothing to do with guns in their school. She teaches at an inner city school where there have been two officer involved shootings within a block of them.
I'm not suggesting banning guns. Nor do I think putting armed guards in school is the way to go.
Is it not possible to have a discussion on all the possible contributors to the tragedy without the gun owners panicking? I don't feel threatened by folks looking at how access to guns played into this anymore then I do them looking at how to get address dealing with mental health issues, or looking at how movies and media might contribute as well. None should be untouchable. And in the end I don't think anything will change. At best we'll quit cutting resources for mental health and social services so that parents don't have to deal with those issues on their own.
And all the guys who blew their bank rolls on panic buying will be stuck with over priced guns just as they were when the last totally ineffectual "Ban' ended.
Rights carry with them, responsibilities. Not all speech is protected. Specifically, speech that can cause serious harm or speech that threatens or is used to frighten. The entertainment industry certainly contributes to our broken culture. When criticized for the extreme violence they push for profit, they refuse to accept any responsibility, but point to guns. This industry needs to be accountable.
I think that kids with reality issues can be adversely affected by the non-stop violence in film, TV and video games. Clearly, desensitizing kids towards violence isn't anything good.
When I grew up, violence on TV was minimal. Violence on film was tame in comparison to what we see today. We did not have video games. We did not have the now common mass killings. Kids played with toy guns, but didn't shoot people with real ones. There was a clearly defined line between reality and fantasy. That line is now anything but clear in the minds of some young people. The number of fistfights at the high school I graduated from in 1971 has risen from less than a dozen in 1971 to over 80 in 2011. Why?
Today, violence dominates current pop culture. Endless, excessive violence fills most films directed at young adults. TV is nearly as bad, and the level of violence in video games is pretty stark. This nation is growing a generation of desensitized and confused young people. Add some mental illness or metal disorder and you have mayhem. Mental heath care in this country is a mess.
I know a woman whose 26 year-old son is mentally ill. He frequently gets extremely angry and abuses his mother, threatening her, pushing her and sometimes even striking her. She calls the police, and the son is taken to and admitted into a hospital for few days of observation. They adjust his medications (which he often refuses to take at home) and release him to abuse his mom again. Over and over it's happened. Sooner or later, he'll do her serious harm or simply kill the woman. This screwball spends much of his waking hours playing video games. His mom attempted to stop this, but his reaction was so violent that she backed off, badly frightened. She's hired a lawyer to begin the process of getting him probated. This is how our nation deals with this situation in the 21st century... It's nothing less than idiocy.
These mass shootings are a recent phenomena. They are perpetrated by young, college age men, and sometimes high school age too. There's a pattern to be seen, and it is part and parcel of the prevailing culture, as well as the lack of a real mental health policy and not the result of firearm ownership.
