Violence in American Culture

There are various interesting reactions to the school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut that may raise some eyebrows.

By now, most of us have heard what Mike Huckabee has had to say about it. More than likely, he speaks for the collective evangelical movement.

Hollywood has also responded, with the release date of the new movie starring Tom Cruise, Jack Shooter, being delayed. Also, Jamie Foxx has mentioned that it is undeniable that violence portrayed on television and particularly in movies does influence people, and that actors cannot deny that.

Quentin Tarantino, on the other hand, said that ht was tired of having to defend his movies every time there was some massive shooting of some sort or another. He said "tragedies happen", and that the blame should go to the perpetrators involved.

True, but that kind of skirts around the issue of how much violence is portrayed on media, from television and movies to video games. Watching a Tarantino movie does not make one just pick up a gun and start shooting people up in real life, at least not for normal people. But does it give disturbed people ideas, or perhaps even impetus, to go ahead and carry out their crimes?

That is hard to say, definitively. Surely, it will be a debate that continues to rage for years to come. It certainly cannot be said that any one thing, any one element in society, is to blame. Remember when Marilyn Manson was blamed for the Columbine tragedy, and then it came out that neither of the shooters had listened to Manson, or even liked him? Blame can obviously go much too far, as well. Scapegoating has never been known for moderation.

Their have been vigils and memorial services for the victims in Sandy Hook since the day the shooting took place.

The names and photographs of the victims have been revealed and, to no one's surprise, every detail coming in from Newtown is being shown on every news channel, on a 24/7 basis.

Coverage will surely continue. Again, people are searching for answers.

But answers will not be forthcoming. A large part of that would seem to me to be that people are so entrenched in their positions. Immediately after the event, when I expected some gun advocates to remain respectfully quiet for a little while at least, following such a tragedy, they instead loudly proclaimed the same arguments that they always have. Gun control is not the answer, that people have a right to defend themselves.

Their has been an irrational degree of fear regarding President Obama and his supposed agenda to take guns away from people. Yet, it seems to me that he is not trying to take guns away from anyone. Having tighter gun control laws does not necessarily mean that people will lose their guns. It means that there would be tighter restrictions on the purchase of firearms, that not just anyone can get it, and that not just any weaponry can be sold. Why would people need automatic, or semi-automatic weapons? To go hunting? To shoot a deer? Or perhaps a perpetrator that breaks into your house?

The arguments against gun control continually resound. "Guns don't kill people, people kill people."

Right. But it's a lot harder for people to kill massive amounts of other people without easy access to guns.

I'll be honest: I think we in America have a problem. We are addicted to guns and to violence. It perhaps lends us some measure of power, of control. It gives us the illusion of safety.

But personally, when I think of the statistics, and think that there are more guns per person in this country than in any other country, that there are hundreds of millions of guns here, then the mystery of why we have far more gun violence than any other industrialized nation is not such a mystery after all. Unless things change radically in the near future, it is hard to imagine seeing anything change in the overall, collective mindset, no matter how many mass shootings we might have to witness on the news and hear about on the radio.

What far too many Americans have in relation to guns is an addiction. And, like any addiction, the first step towards a cure is to admit that you have a problem in the first place. Failing that, all we will see is the same repetition of the cycle that proves the sickness that everyone can see but the one with the addiction. The rest of the world sees it, and knows there is a problem. Why can't we?


http://www.boston.com/news/education/2012/12/16/hollywood-responds-deadly-conn-school-shooting/SgxQT3IfVZUy2JHhtLx8vM/story.html