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Following the killing of 32 people at Virginia Tech by
deranged gunman, Cho Seung-Hui, the anti-gun lobby came in force once again,
demanding the confiscation of all guns in the hands of citizens.
For people who grew up in
Australia in the 50s, gun ownership was commonplace and unremarkable. Most families in country towns owned guns, along with
many city dwellers. Yet gun massacres were unheard of. Gun-related homicides by registered gun owners were extremely rare.
What changed? Back then there was no TV, no video games and little in the way of media sensationalism.
Since those days society has been subjected to an increasingly violent American culture. Our senses are saturated with violent movies, violent video games and with gangsta rap celebrities such as Snoop Dog, glamorising violence, drugs and mistreatment of women.
Young people are being fed a visual diet of glorified
and unrestrained violence.
Violence has been a staple of US director, Quentin
Tarantino since his sensational debut film Reservoir Dogs. During the 1990s
Tarantino unleashed a tidal wave of blood-letting with his mix of pop culture
references, low-life comedy and shocking violence. Tarantino reached a bloody
crescendo with Kill Bill, said to be the most violent movie ever
made by an American studio. In the 20-minute nightclub-set climax, limbs are
liberally hacked from torsos, sending fountains of blood squirting in the air.
US death metal band, Cannibal Corpse glorifies child
rape, suicide, murder and necrophilia in its lyrics. The band has Dismembered
and Molested, and Necropedophile which details "the pleasure gained from
killing, then raping, children".
The last few years have seen a surge in the number of
computer games featuring graphic violence. Yet dozens of studies around the
world are finding increasing links between violence in video games an violent
behaviour by game adherents.
In Grand Theft Auto, one the Top
10 Ultra Violent Video Games, as rated by Family
Media Guide, the player has sex with a prostitute then beats her to death
with a baseball bat to
get his money back. Nice.
There was a strong link to violent video games with the Columbine killers, Eric Harris and Dylan
Klebold. In an unsuccessful court action, some of the families of those killed in the Columbine High School shootings
sought US$5 billion in punitive damages against the manufacturers and distributors of video technology. They say the massacre would not have occurred without the marketing of video games, particularly the game "Doom," which they say influenced the two gunmen.
Cho Seung-hui’s video ramblings made it clear he idolised the Columbine killers.
The
links are proven
A 2005 study by researchers the University of
Birmingham in the UK analysed data from six laboratory studies into children's
behaviour after they had watched scenes of violence. They found there was
"consistent evidence of an association between younger children watching
media violence and showing more aggressive play and behaviour".
Four United States health associations have
directly linked violence in television, music, video games and movies to
increasing violence among children. In a joint statement the American Medical
Association, the American Academy of Paediatrics, the American Psychological
Association and the American Academy of Child and Adolescent
Psychiatry said, in relation their study of entertainment violence, "Its
effects are measurable and long-lasting. Moreover, prolonged viewing of
media violence can lead to emotional desensitisation towards violence in real
life."
"The conclusion of the public health
community, based on over 30 years of research, is that viewing entertainment
violence can lead to increases in aggressive attitudes, values and behaviours,
particularly in children", the groups said. "Children exposed to
violent programming at a young age have a higher tendency for violent and
aggressive later in life than children who are not so exposed".
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It's a fair bet that each saturation coverage of the mass killings by a sensation-seeking media helps breed the next copycat killer.
After the massive media coverage of the massacre at Virginia Tech there is probably already a bunch of loners and misfits pinning Cho’s pictures to their bedroom walls as they plan how to outdo his slaughter and so gain fame and notoriety in death that they could never achieve in life.
It’s time that we the media consuming public, together with media themselves accepted some responsibility for these horrific events, instead of blaming guns and gun owners. For starters, the media should impose a media blackout on mass killings, as they do for suicides, and for the same reasons.
If you accept that the studies detailed above demonstrate the link between
entertainment violence and violence in society, then consider this: each time you buy a
violence-saturated video game or a ticket to a movie featuring excessive violence, you are supporting the culture of violence and may therefore be contributing to the next massacre.
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