This country doesn’t have a chance.

[Abraham]

ShootDontTalk,

You stated "but it does injure everyone to one extent or another"

I disagree.

EVERYONE is not injured.

Your insistence doesn't make it so.

BTW, Everyone = Blanket Statement

The sky is not falling!

[ShootDontTalk]

It sounds to me like you just want to argue for the sake of arguing. Have a great day.

[Cedar Park Dad]

It sounds to me like you just want to argue for the sake of arguing. Have a great day.

I think you just defined 90% of all internet conversations...

[VoiceofReason]

A question. You don’t need to answer but be honest with yourself. When watching a movie, don’t you have at least as little desire to kill that $#%^ that raped that mans wife and killed his whole family?

"I mean, I wanna, I wanna kill. Kill. I wanna, I wanna see, I wanna see blood and gore and guts and veins in my teeth."

Interesting smoke screen,

If graphic violence doesn’t desensitize people, I wonder why movie and video game producers feel they must keep pushing the envelope more and more to get the desired effect?

[BigGuy]

This is an anecdotal observation. Not scientific at all, BUT:
Back in the last century when I was a kid, I talked to the "old" folks about things in their life. One I remember in particular was the their reaction to the original "Frankenstein," with Boris Karloff. My mother told me that people literally passed out from fear. Many more fled the theater in fright and didn't finish the movie.
Years later I happened to catch it on a Saturday morning. I almost choked to death laughing. I had tears streaming down my face. Cheech and Chong, at their best, weren't as funny. You wanted scary? James Cameron scared the bejeebers out of me in 1982 with his remake of "The Thing," then did it again in 1986 with the original "Aliens." Now that was real horror.


except ....


I caught them again here recently as an afternoon time slot filler. Meh!
You can catch a lot worse weekly in any one of a dozen Sci-fi TV shows.

Working the problem from the other end, as a youngster I hunted. Other than hamburger, I didn't by meat at a store until I was in college. The first time I bought fish, I almost asked the guy to wrap in it a brown paper bag so nobody would see what I had. It was really embarrassing to admit that I was having to buy it. That I couldn't simply supply my needs from the wild. I killed a lot of things, cleaned, cooked, and ate them. I knew at a very basic level that when I pulled the trigger and the gun went "bang," something was going to die. Cleanly if I could, but not always. I've heard a few thing leave this earth crying in distress because of my actions. I wasn't sadistic. I didn't enjoy seeing or hearing something in pain and fear. But I didn't lose a lot if sleep over it either. I knew then, and I still know now, that for me to live other things must die. But in those days it was a part of my daily existence, and I simply had developed mechanisms to deal with it.
My life has changed and I discover that it has been almost 30 years since I was in the woods to take game. And I also find that though my stated philosophy has not changed, I'm squeamish at the thought of killing an animal. I would if I had to, but it would bother me. This has not been a part of my routine, and I find that I am now sensitive to it.

Again, I realize that this is anecdotal. But my experience shows me that exposure to something normally unpleasant desensitizes you to it.

[nightmare]

Way back on page 2

Last word from me.

[mamabearCali]

I have to agree with you Big Guy. That one can and sometimes must desensitize yourself to what must be done (in order for me and my kids to live something must die) chickens, pigs, and cows usually.

I know I was scandalized when I saw the movie tremors as a teen at a neighbors house. That was because my parents chose to not show me scary things. A choice I make for my kids.

What I am always concerned about is the slippery road. I am all for warning labels, but people need to make choices. I choose to not permit scary movies in my house. I choose not to permit my children to watch graphic war videos. The most scary thing we have on is scooby doo. The most graphic thing I can think of that we have permitted our children to see is probably the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, and or Star Wars.

I think we need to not treat adults like children. I think we need to call people higher and say "this is what watching violent and graphic movies do to children." Here are your precious ones. They are your responsibility. You will (and they) have to live with the results of your choices. Choose wisely.

[nightmare]

Here are your precious ones. They are your responsibility. You will (and they) have to live with the results of your choices. Choose wisely.

Proverbs 22:6

[BigGuy]

mamabearCali, you've very well stated what for me is the crux of the issue. We, (the State) can't treat adults like children. If we truly believe in freedom, then we will have to accept that people will occasionally make bad choices. Some parents will decide to allow their children to play violent video games, and watch violent movies. I don't feel comfortable giving the government the power to forbid that. But we do need to make certain that people at least have valid information upon which to base their decisions. While I'm not aware of a scientific study that absolutely settles the matter, I find it probable, almost to a certainty, that violent movies and video games will desensitize children to violence. The next very logical assumption is that children desensitized to violence are more likely to be violent. I will encourage people to follow your example because I believe that.

[VoiceofReason]

My point behind this whole issue is that if we can get people to think beyond the propaganda that “guns cause violence” we can knock the wheels from under the gun control issue.

If every time Dianne Feinstein and her ilk try to make guns the culprit, we remind people that many more causes are at work here, then we can enlighten the public on the Second Amendment and that someday Feinstein may go to work on the First Amendment.