The Blame Game - Comments

I think that this was amazingly well written, well done. :)

I agree with you that it is down to a lot of different factors why this happens.

Me and my friend were discussing this, and a lot of other points were raised like gun laws and media coverage of certain shootings.

Here in England, shootings like this just don't happen; and that is all down to laws. So I do find it rather ironic how the media can point the finger at video games and movies while people that commit these crimes have easy access to guns. I know the problem won't stop if America just changed the law, but it is undeniably the main factor to why so many shootings occur.

We were also saying about how the media ignores shootings that are far more of a daily occurrence in deprived areas with a higher black population; "Firearm related homicide is the second leading cause of death among teenagers who are ages fifteen to nineteen and is the leading cause of death among African Americans in that same age group. "

Let's look at the facts; Eric and Dylan were white kids from a 'nice' middle-upper class background, kids that are ideally 'good' and are from the kind of upbringing that stereotypically made it a stranger occurrence. Was it the fact that it was strange, or the fact that they were white and middle class that it was so largely covered? I know that at the time this was one of the biggest mass school shootings in America, but do you think that a big part of the reason why it was so covered was because people were puzzled to why this could happen, to why this was committed by two kids from two seemingly 'normal' backgrounds? Even 10 years on it is the most memorable shooting.

So no, I don't agree that the media is completely to blame, although I definitely believe that people watching violence that are already in an unstable state of mind can be triggered by films. This was seen quite recently in Britain when two men re-enacted a scene from a horror film, which ended in another man being murdered.

This was a very well-written article, and I respect you for taking the time to properly research the topic and your own theories, while also taking into consideration theories of others.

Good job.

I mostly agree with your idea, that it's a number of factors and how they interact with each other that can influence teenagers to violence, although I think it to be most specifically to do with upbringing and social networks.
That's personal theory, though :) Anyway, the article was very well written and researched. Informative, with the statistics to support your points, and with even the slight emotional underline to it all.

Plus your finishing line that no one will ever be completely accustomed to violence, although unsupported by any facts or whatever, does address the point which many people target video games for "causing": are people becoming desensitized to violence? Thanks for giving me something important to think about today ^.^

....what?
GTA is the norm these days. Where have you been?

Grand Theft Auto would definitely not win the "Most Violent Video Game Award". What makes the Grand Theft Auto Series "violent" is the ability the developers gave the gamers, and that ability is to almost do anything in the game. Gears of War 2, Dead Space, Comdemned: BloodShot, Doom 3, Call of Duty: World at War, and et cetera are A LOT more gruesome than Grand Theft Auto. You just can cause more terror and destruction in Grand Theft Auto, which is why some people say it should be banned; which is a load of shit.