Friday night’s horrifying slaughter in a Colorado movie theatre raises the same old issue that never seem to get solved in this country: Gun control… and the NRA’s seemingly inexorable grip on Congress.
How many times do we have to compare our country’s atrocious number of gun-related deaths against the rest of the civilized world before we wake up and change our laws?
Both President Obama and Governor Romney need to address this question as part of a renewed discussion on gun violence in America.
I’m also concerned about the effects of the graphic, turbocharged violence we witness in so many movies, TV shows, and video games today.
One of the spookiest aspects of this unspeakable crime is that many viewers thought the initial actions of the shooter were somehow part of the film’s opening night program, and so didn’t think to take cover before the massacre got underway.
Then after the attack, James Holmes, his hair dyed red, announced himself to police as “The Joker”, clearly modeling himself (and his actions) on the demented character played by Heath Ledger in 2008′s “The Dark Knight”.
True, this is not the first time a film has inspired violence, but now that it’s happened again, in the very place where we allow those images to transport us, should we not consider toning down all the violence in our popular culture?
Whatever happened to “All You Need Is Love”?
One of the many reasons I admire great films from the thirties, forties and fifties is that the portrayal of violence never felt totally real…much more was suggested than actually shown, and most often the portrayal of violence looked and felt staged.
This was deliberate, not only because of censorship authorities, but also because the sensibilities of audiences would have been offended.
While many today will claim this is a drawback that lessens the realism of those movies, I humbly disagree. If a violent scene was set up and shot inventively, you could still experience the intended shock and suspense without the need to see a face being smashed to a bloody pulp.
And just what’s happened to our sensibilities? They’ve become so coarsened and benumbed that virtually anything goes. Very little shocks us anymore.
Technology unites us, but at the same time, isolates and distracts us. The level of discourse in our national debate is at a low point. We feast on trashy, tabloid reality shows. And we are awash in violent images.
What does this say about us as a society?
As our hearts go out to the Aurora victims and their families, we should all be asking ourselves this admittedly tough and sobering question.
John,
You go too Farr… There is an answer to your first two problems/questions. The answer is THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, and the first two ammendments in the BILL OF RIGHTS: Freedom of Speech and the Right to Bear Arms. Why must the response to a problem be the taking of the rights of all rather than addressing the individual problem at hand? Why not ban students from college campuses, the mentally ill from poitical rallies, and PhD candidates from the movies? Perhaps educational reform is what is most needed–many recent shootings point toward that–as do your own misguided comments here.
As a Christian pastor, gun owner, law abiding citizen, and proud member of the NRA, I can answer your last question as well. It’s called SIN. Besides the Constitution I can recommend another book for you to read to further your obviously limited education!
John, read the Bible and the Constitution before you embarrass yourself again.
I really am not arguing for censorship…I wish there was a way we could just tone down all the graphic violence in media…
Our culture is more violent than ever…
You really think guns are the problem? So you think had that theater been full of gun carrying NRA buffs that that many would have perished? I think not you could probably cut that level of violence in half had the entire crowd been returning fire. Criminals will find ways to have guns and I for one don’t like the idea of the bad guys having the upper hand. You my friend can go into a gun fight with a knife, but I prefer my good ole Glock and shotgun to remind criminals that my house family and life aren’t to be messed with.
I find it ludicrous the amount of gun supporters that still exist around the United States. Murder fatality rates are staggeringly higher in the US than any other first world nation. According to the US National Library of Medicine the US homicide rates were 6.9 times higher than rates in other high income countries and firearm related homicides were 19.5 times higher than other nations. This is taken from 2011 data.
The simple fact is that if firearms are so freely available in a society it is much easier for people to use these firearms for violence. I definitely agree that weapons are not the cause of this violence and that the mass majority of people with firearms use them in the appropriate manner and that NRA members are probably some of safest and best controlled users of these weapons. This does not take away from the fact that if weapons are so freely available in a society it makes it much easier for violent people, and people not of the right mind as in the Colorado shooting, to get a hold of these weapons and use them in a malevolent way. Further, the Guardian reports that 70% of ALL homicides in the US are caused by firearms.
People have to understand that without the disproportionate number of firearms and its widespread availability within the country homicide rates would be much lower all around the US. It is that simple.
Gun’s don’t cause violence at all. But they do make it far easier for a person to do serious harm to another person.