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One of the aspects about President Obama’s address on guns that I don’t feel got much attention is what he didn’t say. For the most part Obama didn’t talk about violent movies, TV show,s or video games. The single reference in his entire speech to violent media was a call for some funding to study the impact of violent video games. From Obama:
And while year after year, those who oppose even modest gun safety measures have threatened to defund scientific or medical research into the causes of gun violence, I will direct the Centers for Disease Control to go ahead and study the best ways to reduce it — and Congress should fund research into the effects that violent video games have on young minds. We don’t benefit from ignorance. We don’t benefit from not knowing the science of this epidemic of violence.
Obama didn’t even blame video games for violence he simple said it is something worth researching.
I’m happy to see that science and commonsense won out over sentimentalism or knee jerk politics. There is very little reason to think video games or movies play a significant role in the United States’ unusually high level of gun violence. The rest of the industrialized world for the most part watches the same movies and plays the same video games, yet has much lower rates of gun violence. There has also been no rise in youth violence rates as video games have become more popular.
There has often been a push by groups like the NRA to focus on video games to try to distract from the real issue, so I’m happy to the White House only gave the concept minor lip service. Obama stayed focused on gun-related solutions to a gun violence issue.
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You can have my games when you pry them from my……
My issue here is that games/movies are already rated. If a parent has a concern then they can easily NOT BUY these type games for their kids.
I just hope the CDC looks at the over prescibing of mind altering anti-depressants. Seems like that is one area that the US differs from many other countries. You dont have big pharma giving kick backs to dr’s for putting kids on mind altering drugs that have evidence of causing violent and suicidal behavior.
i’m not happy he skipped his stupid drug war , not many guns involved there now is there ?
and the drug lobbyists are behind the lack of real research on the issue of impact of prescriptions on health and behavior.
Well, personally, I don’t think this is a surprise.
I distinctly recall in the immediate aftermath of 9/11 Bush II openly and explicitly calling for Hollywood and the various other media to help bolster “American’s” support for the “War on Terror”. Same intent only orders of magnitude more sophisticated and powerful than what we had in WWII.
I think the violent media is a red herring, but I do feel our government’s violent behavior in other countries contributes to our violent behavior here at home.
I don’t think violence inside the country will go away until after the US government stops being violent.
There is a ratings system, but it’s meaningless because their sales cannot be restricted. Indecent materials can be restricted, but ultra-violent video games cannot.
3-D print your guns at home.
If violent games were a big factor in causation Canada would be awash in blood instead of beer. I don’t have marketing stats but would guess per capita consumption and use of violent video games is equal to or above that of the good ol USA.
Japan would be awash in blood and carnage as well. Their video games are incredibly violent, as are many of their films and anime. Yet they don’t have mass shootings.
So, what do you all think is the difference in our violent crimes rates going up? A link to the violence that we do every day in the middle east? Does it go further to the self-perceived Winners with all due entitlements?
Couple hunerd thousand give or take……
We are a very violent country compared to most. Historically, we have glorified and glamorized violence for decades.
You think you wanna do something about. Go ahead, make my day. /s
Well, let’s see……..Tuesday and Wedneaday, all you have to do is watch CBS dramas and all yo need is an abacus to add up the body count. THis week, I think it was 6 on Tuesday and 3 on Wednesday.Hardly a night on TV that you don’t have several murders, couple of rapes, maybe even a serial killer.
Went to a recent Schwarzenegger movie, body count was in the hundreds. Rounds of ammo expended prolly 3-4,000. And I’m not counting the RPG’s.
… and the evidence of relevance to the recent binge of real-life mass murderers is exactly?
This particular culture war is strictly a plutocratic attempt at diversion based not on science and research but on guilt by association.
It would be an error for one to join in the latest elite crusade du jour just because one disapproves of depictions of violence.
Such an alliance would benefit the gun sellers and the winger extremes… and no one else.
yes they can be “restricted”.
The average game costs $40-50. A 12 year old cant even return coke bottles any more for spending money. So mommy and daddy have to buy these games.
Trust me. I have fundy relatives who micro manage every aspect of their kids lives. I dont condone most of what they do but they are an example of how parents can actually keep things they deem inappropriate from their kids.
Was George Zimmerman on anti-depressants when he gunned down Travon or had he just finsihed a 4 hour stint of Halo?
Who knows. Obama’s pattern is to seem to want the right thing, then do a 180. I think he has a major problem with rejection. Pretty decent job with the executive orders though, and glad he ignored video games and movies.
Exactly.
Minors can buy the games. That’s what the court case was all about. California passed a law restricting minors from purchasing ultra-violent video games and SCOTUS said you can’t.