Violent video legislation
We are all struggling with the murders of innocent children and educators at Sandy Hook. We all know something needs to change and immediately our reaction is to further legislate gun control.
I cannot help but think that the answers rather lie elsewhere. Let me ask: How many of us have in our homes, or wrapped as gifts under our Christmas trees, violently murderous video games. The “heroes” and villains contained there execute hundreds in explicit, dramatic horror.
These games train killers in the same efficient training methods used by military training videos. These videos numb the trainee to reality and inspire them to become the shooters themselves.
We think that by putting suggested age ratings on the violent videos inspiring brutally will not occur. How foolish. Your children will aspire to “be like dad or mom” while watching adults enjoy the violence. Worse than that, parents may think it is “good family time” to share the violent games with children, praising the children when they successfully “eliminate.”
While we are thinking about inspiring executions as only games and fantasy, what about all the CSI-like TV shows and movies?
Are these games and violent films raising up cold-blooded killers?
Would we as responsible adults do more to stop killings if we removed from our lives these sources of killer-training venues?
Elizabeth Higgins
Corinth
Guns don’t kill people
In the latest lurch to control guns, supporters have found another opportunity in the horrible tragedy of Sandy Hook. But opponents of gun control have nothing to worry about. Controlling guns just is not going to happen. Americans are incurably addicted to weapons. Nothing will change that. We know all the reasons.
Cigarettes do not kill people, tobacco kills people. Bottles do not kill, alcohol kills. Guns do not kill people. Bullets kill people. We control, restrict, and tax alcohol and tobacco. Why not ammunition?
Gun addicts will have their guns but they will not be able to kill without ammunition. Restricting ammo sales and taxing each round will both limit access and raise significant revenue. Let the experts tell us just how much the flow of ammo will be decreased and how much money will be raised. At this point it does not really matter.
Unrestricted access to a substance that is so universally dangerous is an insane policy. Not taxing users who freely feed their craving for more of their deadly dope is a wasted opportunity.
Control and tax, like tobacco and alcohol. At least some people will have a harder time getting their shot off. And the victims will have some funds for recovery and compensation.
Anthony Aman
Penobscot
Deploy our troops
School rampage killings are now a part of our lives and another will happen again. No gun law is going to prevent it. The strict gun laws in China didn’t save children and babies from the hammer and cleaver attacks of 2010-2011.
Instead of deploying troops to some country to fight a war that has nothing to do with us and kill people that have never attacked us, why not send our troops to our schools to protect our children? How far would Adam Lanza have gotten had armed guards been stationed at Sandy Hook? What more honorable use of our soldiers is there? We have a defense force, so let’s use it. That’s what they’re trained for and I’m sure they would much rather be deployed locally than to some foreign country. Isn’t that a better use of our military?
We need armed guards where masses of people, especially children, gather because crazed gunmen target masses of people. I know we might not like the image of soldiers at our schools and malls, but I’d rather see that than lifeless bodies of children. And this solution might cool the gun control issue.
Daniel Patterson
Presque Isle
Meaningful safety education
Clearly the time has come when the nation must undertake effective safety education targeted on gun use. The purpose of government is to protect “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”
We value the states as laboratories to experiment with local ways of protecting these rights. The federal government should provide a five-year grant to each state, to be matched by that state, and given to local units (counties, cities, towns) to devise their own systems to prevent gun
violence, including domestic abuse. At the end of five years there should be a national conference to highlight “best practices.”
The NRA has demonstrated its effectiveness in protecting the right to bear arms. I call upon the NRA to now use its effective methodology to support local efforts to promote meaningful safety education that leads to a national culture change in regard to the proper place of guns in an open, democratic society.
Stanley Freeman
Orono
We can say that guns don’t kill people but that somehow video games do? Come on. If the thesis is that these wildly popular video games, movies and television shows desensitize us and/or produce violence, then how is that compatible with essentially the entire nation’s shock and horror at the events that took place in Newton? You can’t claim violent media creates killers when the vast majority of us consume the same media and the resulting product is polar opposite. That makes no sense.
I think the impressionable minds of children are much more amenable to suggestions of violence. But I agree, violence in entertainment is much less harmful to most adults.
I see quite a variance in what people watch in the media. I don’t care at all for video games, violent or otherwise, and like PBS TV. I am not alone. I realize a lot of people do like those “wildly popular video games” but it would be incorrect to say everyone does. Not everyone sits home playing video games a lot. Many of us attend plays (Annie at the Penobscot Theatre for one!! …cannot recommend it highly enough.) and have other interests. From interviews with many of the families of the victims in Newton , I got no sense they spent much time with porn, video games (violent). I know Emilie Parker’s father was teaching her Portugese and he spoke of their strong faith. Many families try to instill good values. It is an uphill climb with all the influences out there of course.
Funny, cannot show two people having sex, but we can show two people killing each other on TV.
Depends on your cable subscription.
Taxing the ammunition should not be taken lightly, if that route is taken remember that the Pittman Robertson act is already on the books. If you make it cost prohibitive than fish and game and other conservation projects inadvertently take the hit. When the act was put into place it undoubtedly saved many species of animals that we very well might not have today in many regions. Something needs to be done to prevent tragedies occurring, and a tax isn’t likely to be a good deterrent. Someone intent on doing harm isn’t going to spare expense to do it and would probably liquidate belongings to do it. Not to mention the difficulty in getting a tax like that passed. Too many sportsman and recreational shooters are constituents and if a tax like that gets on the books they will not be pleased if it makes things cost prohibitive for their activities.
I learned to hunt with single shot weapons. More sporting.
I’ve never taken more than one shot on big game. But you miss the point, a tax could in essence be the one reason that reasonable legislation fails, and often does.
Never been hunting, but how many bullets are shot before a deer is taken? I don’t think a tax would make hunting cost prohibitive (although the target practice might be!).
It’s not just deer, for many it may not affect them but there are many out there that buy a box of ammo for the season that is already in excess of 40 dollars a box. Duck hunters can go through cases in a season. Small game hunters can do as much, and those are by far the more popular hunting activities. Recreational target shooters that go to skeet clubs can do several cases in less than a year. Even the back yard plinker can go through boxes in an afternoon. When I’m just shooting clay I can do over a 100 shot shells in an afternoon alone, with friends we can much more. But the point was that trying to add a tax can be the straw that breaks the camels back for legislation to pass.
Can we all agree that the underlying reason for these types of tragedies is untreated/under-treated mental illness?
This time the right blames violent video games and movies… When the AZ shootings occurred the left blamed violent political rhetoric… and every time there are calls for more restrictions on gun sales.
Until we can get serious about funding mental wellness efforts in this nation, we will continue to see these cases of mentally unstable people who should have been institutionalized before they harm themselves and others.
We gutted our mental institutions in the early 80’s, and nowadays it’s almost impossible to commit someone against their will. This needs to change.
After all, if gun laws worked, this tragedy would not have happened. He had to break the law to bring weapons into the school.
You have to know that someone needs help before mental health care would do any good. It sounds like his mother was getting pretty good at hiding the fact that she had a little monster on her hands. What ever possessed her to introduce that kid to firearms is beyond me.
…and I’d heard his mother was in the process of trying to get him committed. It’s not even been a full week since this event unfolded, there’s a wealth of wild speculation and knee-jerk reactions going on.
That’s why I was not speaking of this specific tragedy, but rather the pattern we have seen time and time again behind these types of tragedies.
Oh, I just read this post of yours now, after I posted what I did.
There have been eyewitnesses…..gardener/landscaper friend who was around their home, people at the bar she frequented,etc. She kept a lot about her son hidden though, it appears.
I completely agree !
Without resources she could turn to she had no way of knowing how mentally ill her son was. Had she had mental health resources available she would have learned that introducing Adam to firearms was a dangerous move. People don’t instinctively know what behaviors are best for every situation. That’s why we need mental health services and resources for people to turn to. We don’t have them and I fear we will continue to pay the price.
From what I have read, the son could not feel physical nor emotional pain and had severe social anxiety issues that the school knew about. How could the mother have not known the same thing?
From what I have read she was a gun nut survivalist…. enough said.
If her deranged kid had not killed her first, she would have been arrested. What ever possessed that woman to introduce her little monster to firearms is the real question here.
You make some really good points. There is some “evidence” (there will be more later to come out ) that Adam Lanza’s mother was about ready to take some steps to get professional help for her son. (institution?) He found out and look what happened. He shot her in the face before going to the school. There is much to be said for the thinking that this Adam Lanza needed some intervention , counseling/therapy or something long before . It was too late. It became too late. He sat in that house from all accounts, isolated from his peers and all people really, playing games on his computer (shooting games and others.)
“Can we all agree that the underlying reason for these types of tragedies is untreated/under-treated mental illness?”
No, because research shows otherwise. People with a mental illness are no more likely than the general population to commit violent acts.
The last 5 rampage killings were clearly done by people with significant mental illness issues.
That means nothing. You have to look at a much larger, RANDOM sample to draw the conclusion that the “underlying reason” is mental illness.
I think if you took a random sample of rampage killers, you would still find an underlying factor of mental illness.
When all 5 of the latest rampage killings were mentally ill I’d say it was about time to stop sampling and start thinking of some actions that ought to be taken.
Note: if you go further back than just the last 4 years you will find that almost all of the rampage killings are done by people with a clearly identifiable mental illness
The sheer act of killing another human being suggests mental illness. Killing 20 little kids carves it in stone. While you may still need more proof that kid was crazy, I don’t.
You can see it in their eyes. They might as well have CRAZY tattooed on their forehead.
My comment is not intended to make us distrustful of people struggling with mental illness. And I’m certainly not advocating anyone be denied equal protection under our laws.
But it is clear that untreated/under-treated mental illness is behind many, if not all, of the mass shooting rampages this century.
I’ll put it this way— “mental illness” is a very broad term that covers everything from crippling anxiety and depression to schizophrenia with homicidal tendencies.
Not everyone who is mentally ill is homicidal, but everyone who is homicidal is mentally ill.
“Not everyone who is mentally ill is homicidal, but everyone who is homicidal is mentally ill.”
Absolutely false.
I have to agree with you. I don’t believe everyone who is homisidal is mentally ill either. Do some people think every sociopath is mentally ill? Not necessarily so.
Being a sociopath is the extreme form of antisocial personality disorder, which is a very real mental disorder under the classification of personality disorders, like borderline personality, paranoia, and schizotypal disorder.
How? How can you be homicidal but not be mentally ill? That’s like saying not everyone who is schizophrenic is mentally ill.
“Homicidal” is not a mental illness.
Okay, sociopathic… Better?
The two kids at the Columbine high school in Colorado were declaired not mentally deficient.
The gutting of psychiatric hospitals began in the 60’s and continues today.
elizabeth higgins – first, hyperbole much? second, video games have ratings, just like movies. if a child is playing an adult game, that is the parent’s fault, not the video game industry’s. oh, but having a rating system means that parents are required to actually parent and act like a responsible adult, doesn’t it? we can’t have that, let’s just take them away from everyone, all because you’re trying to shift the public eye away from your precious guns.
I don’t know that they are “precious” gun, but you are spot-on with the rest.
just for the record, i really don’t have a strong opinion on gun control. i think at this point in american history, the genie is out of the bottle, and meaningful regulation will be problematic at best. what i do have a strong opinion about is this “shifting the blame” to non-issues because people are too lazy to be responsible parents. just remember, they tried blaming all society’s woes on rock and roll once, too.
They certainly did try to blame it on “that rock and roll rubbish.” Personally I am for reasonable regulation of guns just as I am for reasonable regulation of abortion. The folks who think either one is a slippery slope while the other is a moral imperative aren’t helpful to either discussion.
It is not enough to do nothing. You are right.
In would like to see a lot more focus on the fact that Nancy Lanza was in complete denial about anything being wrong with her baby. She moved him around in different school systems and eventually home schooled him. It sounds to me like she was trying to avoid the stigma that goes along with afflictions like autism or Asperger’s syndrome which is somewhat understandable. What I don’t understand at all is why she decided to introduce her deranged little monster to firearms? There is your smoking gun, no pun intended.
I agree. He is to blame , he pulled the trigger. No excuses for that monster. It does strongly appear, though, that his mother’s behavior did not contribute in a postive way at all to her troubled son. In fact , quite the opposite.
Yes, parents and other adults need to provide guidance, model appropriate behavior…..you are right. I don’t think it is beneficial for a young child to see his or her parent enjoying violence on TV, video games,etc. What does that teach a young child or teenager? This often leads to desensitization. There is way too much of that in today’s world.
yet again, its about being a good parent. watch the violent movies or play the violent games after the young ones have gone to bed. for a healthy, well adjusted person these forms of entertainment are a pressure release valve, not an instigator. most humans have aggressive tendencies that need a release, whether that be through a healthy outlet (video games, sports, etc) or unhealthy means (violence).
You’re asking for discipline in the home. These days, that consists of how long the time out is.
Let’s require that all guns be painted a bright iridescent pink, so as to better warn potential victims of a shooter’s approach. Those who deny that their love of guns is tied up in the gun’s status as a phallic symbol can’t be heard to complain.
Half
Daniel Patterson- He could have stuffed a Cessna full of diesel fuel and fertilizer and then flown it into the building. Armed guards would not have been able to stop him. He could have stolen a propane tanker and driven it into the side of the building at 80 mph. Armed guards would not have been able to stop him. There are a thousand ways to kill, guns are but just one. Unfortunately, people crack up all the time. Sometimes they kill when they do. There is probably no preventing it in the final analysis.
Maybe he couldn’t fly a plane or drive a truck so he used the preferred method of many killers. You can’t stop people from killing people but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try to make it harder for them to do. To not even want to try to do something to help is like condoning the act.
And he could have secretly planted a slow acting poison in the schools water supply too….
That is just as silly as your examples
Daniel Patterson: We have a culture where semi-automatic assault weapons and high capacity magazines are easily available; where there have been 4 rampage killings in the past 4 years with these weapons, a culture where 20 little kids were just gunned down. You see nothing wrong with this situation that can’t be fixed by posting armed vets at schools and public gathering places. Does this seems like a normal culture to you?
IN the US on average every two weeks there is a gun attack with multiple fatalities
S. Freeman; good letter.
A. Aman: you may be on to something, should be tried.
D. Patterson: welcome to the police state. Martial law, anyone? Middle East,anyone?
Stanley, the NRA has been a leader in firearms training and safety since it’s inception in 1871. They provide free gun safety training for school children to any school that wants it, Too many administrators and parents, see the big bad NRA and refuse even free training.
That’s because the NRA has changed their focus. When I was a child growing up their focus was on hunting. Now it seems that they wish to take over national defense.
Correction: The NRA was a leader in firearms training and safety. They are now right wing political group now.
They have become something different, tho. It is more obvious today that they are the lobby for the gun manufacturers more than the gun owners. And because of the overlap between “gun owners” and far Right ideologues, I don’t see them as my advocate for hunters and trap shooters. They look more like a big industry lobby that supports the nuttiest parts of our Base, which I do not.
When you cut taxes to social programs there are consequences, maybe not immediately but eventually society pays a price. We have cut and cut and cut again funding for mental health resources. We no longer have sufficient facilities or personnel for either hospitalization or outpatient clinics. We no longer have the out reach and educational programs that would assure that people recognize mental illness and understand how to seek help.
We seem to be in the process of switching the focus of our anger to gun control only, ignoring the fact that the last four rampage killings were done by people that had serious mental illness that went unrecognized until too late.
We need to deal with the availability of high capacity magazines and the assault weapons that use them for mass killings, but we also need to deal with our almost non-existent mental health services.
Absolutely right in what needs to be done. Unfotunately I believe that what will be done is a big dog and pony show on gun control and nothing done in regard to psychatric care. The first puts pols names in the headlines the second costs money.
Miss Higgins asks, “Are these games and violent films raising up cold-blooded killers?”
The answer is “No.”
Mr Patterson- Have we really gotten to a point where we are putting armed soldiers with machine guns in our schools? What type of message do you think that sends the children?
I come from a family of hunters and we have gun cabinets of shotguns and rifles. I see absolutely no need of anyone owning anything more high powered. Find another hobby.
Do those gun cabinets happen to contain a 30-06? Or a 308? Or even the old favorite, a 30-30, which is much less powerful then many other hunting rounds. But even that 30-30 is much more “high Powered” than the 223.
All of those guns you named are designed for hunting and are relatively slow to fire multiple rounds.
The AR15 is designed to kill people, plain and simple, the high velocity .223 round is not good for hunting large animals but excellent for killing and maiming people.
Big difference.
Many 30-06 and 308 chambered guns are semi-auto and can fire as quickly as the AR15. As for the 30-30, someone highly skilled can fire a lever action much faster than you may think. And accurately as well. I cannot because i simply haven’t practiced enough but my father could accurately fire his 30-30 as fast as most people can ACCURATELY fire a semi auto.
AS for the 223 round, it depends on what game and in what kind of terrain you are hunting in. Use HP, (Hollow Points), instead of FMJ, (Full Metal Jacket), and it is very effective on large game. Also, the smaller round doesn’t spoil as much meat. I’ve seem half a deer carcass ruined when hit with a 30-06, one reason I don’t particularly like it. And you do realize that the AR15 is capable of being configured to use many different cartridges, not just the 223.
One reason the military likes the FMJ 223, besides the fact that the lighter weight lets soldiers carry more, is that it is more likely to wound than kill. This ties up large numbers of the enemy taking care of wounded casualties.
Evil walks among us. Always has, always will.
Those that don’t want to succumb to Evil’s efforts to kill must have the tools to defend themselves.
The best tool to defend yourself against the evils of the world resides in between a person’s ears.
Put a gun in a person’s hands and that tool seems to lose its effectiveness and is instead replaced by a false bravado.
Here’s an idea;
Why not use both?
The same people who scream about a police state if there were no or limited guns are the ones advocating officials with guns in schools? Do you not see a contradiction there?
I see many comments about gun laws etc etc . . I see people invoking the will of God to solve this issue . .soliciting His intervention . . well . .for those that are theistic fans . .God gave us free will . . we (mankind) make our own decisions . . so in that vain . . I submit this for your review:
It was flooding in California. As the flood waters were rising, a man was on the stoop of his house and another man in a row boat came by. The man in the row boat told the man on the stoop to get in and he’d save him. The man on the stoop said, no, he had faith in God and would wait for God to save him. The flood waters kept rising and the man had to go to the second floor of his house. A man in a motor boat came by and told the man in the house to get in because he had come to rescue him. The man in the house said no thank you. He had perfect faith in God and would wait for God to save him. The flood waters kept rising. Pretty soon they were up to the man’s roof and he got out on the roof. A helicopter then came by, lowered a rope and the pilot shouted down in the man in the house to climb up the rope because the helicopeter had come to rescue him. The man in the house wouldn’t get in. He told the pilot that he had faith in God and would wait for God to rescue him. The flood waters kept rising and the man in the house drowned. When he got to heaven, he asked God where he went wrong.
He told God that he had perfect faith in God, but God had let him drown. “What more do you want from me?” asked God. “I sent you two boats and a helicopter.”
All liberty comes with risk.
That is the nature of true freedom.
I for one am more than willing to take said risk.
They that can give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.
Mr. Patterson, you don’t counter lunacy with lunacy. That’s got to be the most over the top, ridiculous suggestion I’ve heard yet, and I’ve heard a lot.
Mrs. Higgins, if you don’t like violent games or shows, don’t watch or play them and don’t buy them for your kids. Hearing about implied censorship is getting really old.