VT
please keep everyone involved with the Virginia Tech incident in your thoughts.
i have family at that school so today has been pretty rough.
posted by Stephanie @ 5:43 PM
Marker Splotches
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Monday, April 16, 2007
i have family at that school so today has been pretty rough.
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19 Comments:
That was awful. Thoughts on gun laws anyone? If someone else had had a gun, they could have shot him back before he killed so many people. Without one, all they could do is cower under their desks and hope he missed them.
On the other hand, if guns were really hard to get, maybe mentally deranged people like that wouldn't get a chance to use one.
No, there is no way to stop murderers from getting guns. You might as well let everyone else have access to protect themselves. Besides, the government shouldn't be able to control who has guns.
I am sorry, Steph. I hope everything turns out ok.
Letting just anyone have guns will only perpetuate the harmful mentality of violence and fear in this country. We've got to stop thinking that if we're not always on the offensive we're going to get hurt (Bush's horrendous policy on terrorism maybe?). Allowing everybody to have guns is only a bandaid for a societal problem that needs much more. Reducing the amount of violence, racism, and sexism on TV and in video games on which we basically raise our children would be a good start. Personally, it would scare the fuck out of me if I knew that anybody walking down the street could have a weapon on them, even if I had one of my own.
Creepy word verification: masrc....massacre?
Like you said the violence is much less an issue of accessibility to guns as it is a problem with the movies, music, and video games kids listen to. If you want to turn the country away from violence address those issues and people won't have the need to buy guns anymore.
You would have to nuke the entire bible belt before stricter gun laws could even be conceivable. Sad, but true.
The insecuritites of this nation are deeply roots. In this 'Christian' nation of ours, we have been raised to fear our neighbor, to strike first and ask questions later, and to put our own immediate interests in front of what is necessary for this country to grow and prosper. Hovis, you are absolutely right, if we made guns illegal and someone wanted a gun, they would absolutely be able to get one. That is very obvious. But don't you think that making guns much more inaccessable would curb the mindless and petty violence that we see on the news everyday? Wouldn't you want your children to grow up in a world where there didn't have to be a sign on the door of their school saying that concealed firearms are prohibited? Personally, I feel less and less safe everyday with guns on the streets.
I feel more and more safe. My dad has a gun safe that only he knows the combo to. If someone were armed and were to break into my house I feel much safer knowing my dad has a gun to protect his family. Makes me feel 100% safer.
laura, what if your dad wasn't home? no one else would be able to use the gun. then what?
and i have more to say on this issue, but right now i have to shower.
Oh yeah I forgot my mom knows the combination too. And at least one of them is home every night because there are young kids in my family. So, yeah.
p.s. Merge you never respond to my calls anymore! I called and left you a message to see if you were the Mary Murphy in the credits of that one SLU 72 movie
I'm with Hovis on this one. Gun laws create an uneven playing field. If someone is warped enough to want or attempt to kill someone, they're certainly not going to let a law preventing guns from being purchased / carried get in the way of acquiring or carrying the gun. It just makes it more difficult for the good people to defend themselves.
If you're up for a long read, see here.
Pip, you raise a perfectly legitimate point. There is a lot of violence on tv and various other media outlets. However there is absolutely no conclusive evidence that this causes violence or aggression. Frankly I find it insulting that someone would argue that I'd define my entire personal demeanor upon the TV shows I watch. And specifically the violent scenes in those shows.
As for the guns as bandaid theory, I suppose you could argue that fairly well, but even I'll say that's a little twisted. (I think immunization works a little better.) But the problem is that you provide no possible or practical solution. There's no conclusive evidence that violence in movies, video games etc cause violence in the real world. Desensitization, certainly, but not aggression. That's misplacing the blame.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but...
Someone has pointed out in this thread of comments that American society perpetuates a mentality of violence by allowing "anyone" have guns.
I wonder, is that true? Does the government let anyone have guns?
The simple answer to that is no. There are laws and regulations that serve to check the illegal use of fire arms.
How many of us have even seen a loaded weapon outside the context of sport or law enforcement? I can think of of possibly 2 persons out of the readership of this blog who can claim the above.
But with this thought in mind, Reine observantly notes the failure of our inefficient legal system. There are too many guns, gun makers, and profiteers to regulate a process akin to recording sand grains on a beach.
Perhaps quick to point out the problem, the blame is placed on the government's "shoot first, question later" policy, then is attributed the problem to President Bush's "horrendous terrorism policy".
That seems only half right.
President Bush's policy is not to blame for an increase in the development of a violent psychology or mindset.
Rather, what is to blame is this "horrendous" policy of War, the leading cause of our lack of any domestic policy -gun regulation, social security, immigration, and labor laws.
The effect? Bush Sr. might call it trickle down legislation. After the foreign interests of the country are served, the domestic issues can be handled with the leftover scrap budget.
So, in the face of these problems what solutions do we have? Taking away the constitutional right to legally own guns from 96.9% (percent of American population who have never served prison sentences for crime) of honest, law abiding citizens would be unconscionable.
The best way prevent violence is to start at home. It's not the media to blame. Recent scholarly journals suggest that the connection between violent video games and aggressive or violent behavior is negligible, if existent. Even so, some find this paltry excuse of a connection is enough to restrict the regulations of video game entertainment further. A double-standard they fail to recognize, however is the state of contact sports spanning all ages. The link of violent behavior in participants of sports is exponentially higher, yet, they are the pride of many nations.
Does a child who is regularly exposed to violent television and video games become more violent because of those supposed influences, or is it actually the fault of a negligent parent that fails to provide a proper moral grounding?
The remote is in your hand and if you don't like what you see turn it off, and furthermore, even if you like what you see but there's a kid in the room, turn it off anyway and take that child to a park or museum, or better yet buy him or her a squirt gun and play war. Trust me, it'll be fine.
I wasn't implying that just "anyone" can get a gun now. That was a response to the comment that the goverment shouldn't be able to control who has guns, which would, in effect, allow anyone to get one.
The issues of violence in the media is debatable. I've seen persuasive data on both sides. Yes, parents have some responsibility, but you can't monitor your child 24/7. I never played war games or video games or watched TV when I was younger, but I recently aquired a Sega Genesis from my grandmother. When I play Street Fighter II, I personally get very aggressive; I can only imagine what could (note: could!) happen to someone who's been playing those games his (or her) whole life. Most current media, especially video and computer games, glorify war and that's just not the message we need to be sending anyone, much less our children.
Peter and Tom are both talking about studies that show that video games do not lead to agression. My first comment on that is you show me as many studies as you can find saying that video games, tv, music, etc don't lead to violence and I will match the exact number with studies that show that media does lead to agrssiong.
And explain to me how there is any possible way to perform a study about this. It is not something that happens within a year or two. I am talking about years and years, since a child is born until they are in highschool of exposure to violence and sex that not only desentizes the child but glorifies sex and violence without showing any of the true consequences.
Kids and teens always feel invincible. Even adults do. But no one ever thinks something will happen to them. When I heard I had lost one of my closests friends in a car accident my first thought was that it was a joke and I didn't think it was true. I knew something like that could never happen to me. When I got into two serious car accidents my mentality was the same. Every time I drive I never think about getting into an accident and I never think it will happen to me. That's just human nature. So for kids to see sex and violence on tv without much consequence (ex: people have casual sex and cheating all the time never resulting in an unwanted pregnancy or people murdering and not getting caught) kids begin to think that those things are ok.
Tom, the one who argues that video games do not lead to agression, has sat in his room playing Battlefield 1942 on his computer (a war game) getting very into the game saying "Take that you motherfucker" and getting aggressive while playing the game.
While I don't agree with Pip about gun laws I do agree about the media and how that is the major source of many of our societies problems. Girls with eating disorders because the media portrays it as hot, unwanted teenage pregnancies because most shows don't address the fact that you need to have safe sex, making alcohol and drugs look ok, killing, fighting, etc.
The media is not the only one to blame. I believe most of the responsibility is on the parents. Pip you are right, you cannot watch your kids 24/7. I even had a mom who stayed at home with us kids but she never could watch us 24/7. There are other ways parents can make sure their kids are not getting exposed. As much as I hated it my mom used to check every movie I went to go see when I was younger to make sure she thought it was appropriate. There are parental controls for the tv and internet now that parents can set up to control what kids watch while they aren't there. Parents need to pay attention to the video games they or their kids are buying or the cds the kids listen to. If you don't know enough about your own child to realize they are being exposed to adult content, you are probably not the best parent. I've seen hundreds of times while I am shopping kids roaming through the cds picking out ones that have a warning saying there is mature content or picking video games rated mature and the parents are shopping and just throw it in the cart without looking.
Yes the media has an effect on children and yes I hate how much violence and sex and cheating etc there is on tv, in music, in video games, etc. But I do not think it is all the medias problem, I think most of the responsibility lies with the parents
I accept your challenge, Hovis. I'll have the relevent data later today. (We just discussed this in class last week so I have all the studies noted in my book.) To answer your question though, this is how they study these matters. These studies have been performed since TVs first started appearing in households.
Right now I need to nap. Before I do, let me say that it's ludicrous and patently ignorant to liken the tragic events of VT and Columbine to playing a video game. Yes, aggression levels while playing such games are notably higher than average. They're also higher during a game of Egyptian Ratscrew. Or a debate between O'Reilly and Geraldo. You will find absolutely no statistics even correlating any of the above activities with increased aggression, violence or homicidal tendencies. It would be foolish to suggest that we ban Egyptian Ratscrew because it's turning our children into sociopaths.
son of a bitch...have you ever written out a really long post that took you like half an hour where you got all into it and you just let yourself go...making great points and arguing your case well...citing personal experiences that really touched home for you...and when you got done you just looked at it and took a deep breath cause you felt so much better...and then you pressed "publish" and it disappeared without publishing...kinda like some supernatural being took it and stored it away in some kind of heavenly archive on how you really feel but no one who you actually care about will ever get to read it? and you know you could never write it again cause it will never be so eloquent...
yea that just happened to me...
guys, i didn't mean to turn this into a huge debate. this subject is really sensitive to me b/c i know someone that was killed and my family was there and i cant do a damn thing for her.
please keep that in mind as you argue and debate. that wasn't the point of this post.
Sorry if we offended you; that was certainly not the intention. I assure you I am praying for everyone involved.
stephanie, i'm really sorry. that was insensitive. i hope that you're doing okay, and that you've got people at school you can talk to. i'm thinking about you.
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