Availability of Guns Doesn't Explain Why so Many Individuals Use Them Today to Kill...

Availability of Guns Doesn't Explain Why so Many Individuals Use Them Today to
Kill Random Strangers, Says MIM President Bob Peters

NEW YORK, Feb. 16 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Following the mass murder at
the Omaha, Nebraska mall in December, Robert Peters, President of Morality in
Media, wrote a 3,000 word article, entitled, "Mass Murder by Individuals and
the Role of Guns, Religion, and Popular Culture," which is published at the
www.moralityinmedia.org website, on the Miscellaneous Issues page. In that
article he commented:
"Growing up in the 1950s and 1960s in North Central Illinois farm country,
I often felt left out when friends went hunting ... Despite the availability
of guns and despite the fact that bullying and fistfights were common among
kids back then, never once did any of us (or our parents) use a gun to shoot
someone else. I think I am also on safe ground in saying that we didn't grow
up fantasizing about shooting other human beings in real life in order to
exact revenge or just for the sake of shooting them. Nor do I recall hearing
or reading about mass murders in other similar communities."
Mr. Peters had the following comments in response to the mass murder at
Northern Illinois University:
"As the crow flies, NIU is about 40 miles from where I grew up. Several
high school classmates went to Northern, and three boys that I played high
school football with also played there.
"One of the three boys punched me in the face when he was in eighth grade
and I was in seventh (we also went to the same grade school), and I must admit
that I still remember crying! What I don't remember is thinking about going
home and getting my father's rifle and blowing Bill away.
"But things were different then. Religion had a much stronger influence on
people than it does today, and while there was already too much violence in
films and on TV, it was generally clear who the good guys (heroes) were and
who the bad guys were. Good guys (heroes) didn't commit murder.
"Children today grow up in a popular culture saturated with deadly
violence graphically portrayed -- not just in films and TV but also in
videogames and RAP lyrics. The line between good and bad guys is often blurry;
and in many TV programs, films, video games and RAP lyrics, mayhem is
celebrated.
"If nothing else, present day popular culture acclimatizes kids to the
thought of killing other human beings for just about any reason, good or bad;
and some violent video games prepare them to do it.
"This is not to say that media violence alone can explain the horrific
incident that took place at NIU on Thursday. But it would be a mistake to make
availability of guns a scapegoat of this and other similar mass murders.
Availability of guns in North Central Illinois, and most of the rest of
America, is nothing new. Widespread use of them to kill random strangers is."
Web sites:
www.moralityinmedia.org
www.obscenitycrimes.org

SOURCE Morality in Media

Robert Peters of Morality in Media, +1-212-870-3210 after President's Day;
Morality in Media, +1-212-870-3222, fax: +1-212-870-2765,
mim@moralityinmedia.org