Here is an article written by Joe Nocera of the New York Times suggesting that the gun violence portrayed in movies, video games, and other media have an impact on gun violence in America:
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/12/opinion/nocera-the-die-hard-quandry.html?ref=opinion&_r=0
Later this week, the fifth installment of the “Die Hard” movies is
scheduled to open in theaters across the country. “A Good Day to Die
Hard” stars, once again, Bruce Willis as John McClane, a
too-stubborn-for-his-own-good cop who has to stop a highly trained army
of bad guys out to wreak destruction and death. It will undoubtedly be a
giant hit for Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation, the owner of the “Die
Hard” franchise.
In promoting the new movie, both the Regal and AMC movie chains are
holding “Die Hard” marathons on Wednesday. Starting at noon, an AMC
theatergoer can spend 12 straight hours watching all five “Die Hard”
movies.
That’s a lot of “Die Hard.” Among the guns used — and used, and used, and used
— in just the first “Die Hard” are a Steyr AUG assault rifle, a Heckler
& Koch MP5 submachine gun, and a Walther PPK pistol with silencer.
McClane himself relies on a Beretta 92 semiautomatic pistol in the first
three movies, and a Sig Sauer P220 in the more recent films. (He also
favors the bald look in the last two movies.)
Of course, it is cartoonish violence, in the sense that rarely — in all
the innumerable killings — is blood seen pouring out of the victims, or
does anyone cry out in anguish and pain. Incredibly, the Motion Picture Association of America judges
foul language to be more problematic for children than this kind of
bloodless violence, which perhaps explains why the 2007 installment,
“Live Free or Die Hard,” was rated PG-13: the normally foul-mouthed
McClane barely swears in it. (The new one has reclaimed its traditional R.)
What got me thinking about “Die Hard” — and guns in the movies more
generally — is, of course, the furious gun debate since the killings in
Newtown, Conn. On one side are those who believe we can cut down on gun
violence by, among other things, banning the assault weapons that always
seem to be used in mass shootings.
On the other side are the Second Amendment absolutists, who argue that
the real problem is the culture, soaked in so much violent imagery that
it is virtually impossible to avoid. They add that a ban on assault
weapons would be the beginning of a slippery slope that would ultimately lead to a ban on weapons of every kind.
It’s not that I don’t want to see a ban on assault weapons. I sincerely
do. But after poking around the world of gun-crazed movies and other
media, I have to say, the Second Amendment absolutists have a point. For
instance, when you ask a spokesman for the M.P.A.A. about the
real-world effect of gun imagery in the movies, he actually pushes back
by claiming that “there is a predominance of findings that show there is
no consistent or convincing evidence that exposure causes people to be
more violent.”
This is, quite simply, untrue. “There is tons of research on this,” says
Joanne Cantor, professor emerita of communications at the University of
Wisconsin, and an expert on the effect of violent movies and video
games. “Watching violence makes kids feel they can use violence to solve
a problem. It brings increased feelings of hostility. It increases
desensitization.” Every parent understands this instinctively, of
course, but those instincts are backed by decades of solid research.
There is a second reason many people — indeed, many of the same people
who would like to ban assault weapons — shrink from demanding changes in
the culture’s tolerance for violent images. To do anything about it
legislatively would likely violate the First Amendment. Just as an
assault weapon ban is the slippery slope for Second Amendment advocates,
efforts to restrict violent images — or pornography, for that matter —
is the slippery slope for First Amendment absolutists.
Craig Anderson, a psychologist at Iowa State University, told me that
children who watch even something as seemingly benign as Woody
Woodpecker cartoons — in which Woody often pecks on someone’s head — can
become temporarily more aggressive. “If you are going to start to ban
media violence, where do you stop?” he asked.
Violent video games and movies, he went on to say, are certainly not the
only factor that can lead someone to commit an act of gun violence. “If
someone has no other risk factors, he can play Grand Theft Auto all day
and never commit a violent act. But if he has a number of the other
risk factors. ...” Anderson let the thought hang.
On Monday, I called an AMC spokesman to ask if his company was worried
about its customers watching nonstop shootings for 12 straight hours.
“We are very excited about the ‘Die Hard’ marathon,” he replied. “It
will be a great time for our guests.” He added, however, that the
company had its “security measures in place.”
Just, you know, in case.
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