# Guns don't kill kids, MOVIES kill kids **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [May 14, 1999, 12:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guns-dont-kill-kids-movies-kill-kids/7101 "1999-05-14T12:05:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 1999, 12:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guns-dont-kill-kids-movies-kill-kids/7101/1 "1999-05-14T12:05:00Z")
From [www.us.imdb.com](http://www.us.imdb.com): SENATE VOTES TO INVESTIGATE VIOLENT MOVIES The U.S. Senate Wednesday voted unanimously to order the National Institutes of Health to conduct an investigation into the impact of violent movies, video games and music on children and to authorize the Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice to determine whether the entertainment industry intentionally targets children with violent products. _The Senate vote came on the same day that it rejected a proposal that would have made it more difficult for minors and ex-convicts to obtain weapons at gun shows by requiring that all sales be subject to background checks._ Yep, same old same old. * * * \*\* Phil D. \*\* “Not only is the world queerer than we imagine, it is queerer than we can imagine.” –J.B.S. Haldane ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 1999, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guns-dont-kill-kids-movies-kill-kids/7101/2 "1999-05-14T13:41:00Z")
And the annoying thing is, they’ll only pay attention to the study if it backs up their predetermined conclusions. See the marijuana study that was released recently. ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 1999, 5:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guns-dont-kill-kids-movies-kill-kids/7101/3 "1999-05-15T05:57:00Z")
Here’s a story that equals that one. Sorry I can’t provide a cite but I read it several years ago. Back when those high powered squirt guns were a popular fad, several students brought them to school and were squirting other students. Other students, carrying real guns, either in the belief the squirt guns were real or just because they didn’t like being squirted, responded by shooting at the squirters. The administrator of one school district (Boston IIRC) had the solution to this problem; he proposed a crackdown on squirt guns in schools. ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 1999, 5:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guns-dont-kill-kids-movies-kill-kids/7101/4 "1999-05-15T05:28:00Z")
## Guns are tools. They are not animate, they do not posess any intrinsic power to kill or injure on their own. It is lamentable that we have so removed ourselves from any standard of personal responsibility that the instruments employed in the commission of a crime, however horrifying, are blamed more than those who commited the crime itself. Almost all guns are designed to kill. This is a fact. But, unmoved by a human hand and mind, they do nothing. The person who muders another had at the instant of action “a heart to do murder” and shifting blame to an inanimate object is just another way to avoid facing the real issues. “The universe doesn’t give first warnings or second chances” ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 1999, 5:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guns-dont-kill-kids-movies-kill-kids/7101/5 "1999-05-15T05:36:00Z")
Bombs are tools. They are not animate, they do not possess any intrinsic power to kill or injure on their own… Almost all bombs are designed to kill. This is a fact. But unmoved by human hand or mind they do nothing… * * * “When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro.” Hunter Thompson ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 1999, 12:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guns-dont-kill-kids-movies-kill-kids/7101/6 "1999-05-15T12:09:00Z")
Study after study has failed to make a connection between watching a lot of violent movies and tv-shows, and actually becomming violent. The question has been discussed endlessly over the years, but a study by a guy, Brandon Centerwall, suggest that it’s TV in it self that cuses the violence. His study shows a sharp increase in violence in most society efter the introduction of television. It’s not the violent programs that cause this, it’s short attention span, pendulum swings of emotion, immediate gratification, superficial solutions to problems, self-pity and alienation. So watching too much tv is bad for you, as it numbs your brain and gives you a false veiw of the world. In other words: The game shows are to blame. Makes sense to me. CT ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 1999, 1:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guns-dont-kill-kids-movies-kill-kids/7101/7 "1999-05-15T13:01:00Z")
Remember when we were bombing Iraq during Ramadan? The pentagon got all pissed off about a picture of someone writing on one of the laser-guided bombs “Ramadan greetings from Sgt. so-and-so.” A spokesman actually _apologized_ to the Muslims for the “gaffe” and said “we fully respect the Muslim Holy month, blah blah blah…” So it’s ok to drop bombs on them, but don’t dare make fun of their religion. If that’s not the epitome of hypocrisy, I don’t know what is. Some government. ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 1999, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guns-dont-kill-kids-movies-kill-kids/7101/8 "1999-05-16T20:15:00Z")
From CNN April 29, 1999: WASHINGTON (AP) – Two House Republicans are seeking federally funded drug testing in schools as a way to reduce youth violence. Peterson said reduction in drug use could help prevent rampages such as last week’s shootings in Littleton, Colo., from being a regular occurrence. Toxicology tests revealed no drugs or alcohol in the bodies of the Colorado gunmen, but Peterson said there have been incidents elsewhere that involved drugs. For more see [http://cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/stories/1999/04/29/drug.testing.ap/](http://cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/stories/1999/04/29/drug.testing.ap/) TheDude ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 1999, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guns-dont-kill-kids-movies-kill-kids/7101/9 "1999-05-17T18:48:00Z")
Great. The political solution to any problem in any country in the world. Try to look as if you’re acting forcefully by being “full of sound and fury”! Go after the symptoms, not the cause, that is. Oh… “Yet, signifying nothing.” CT * * * ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 1999, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guns-dont-kill-kids-movies-kill-kids/7101/10 "1999-05-18T03:14:00Z")
This is a completely unrelated comment, but I must say, beautiful use of rhetoric and allusion! * * * Die, foul crouton! ---
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 1999, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guns-dont-kill-kids-movies-kill-kids/7101/11 "1999-08-25T02:21:00Z")
From a Doonesbury cartoon: “Mrs. Dole, why do you blame the gun lobby for violence when it’s so much easier to blame Hollywood?” “That’s silly. Europeans are exposed to the same movies, TV shows, and video games that we are, and they have a fraction of our violence rates.” “That’s because they’re soft!” “Soft?” “Europeans aren’t as _manly_! Studies confirm it!” I might add that despite having 1/10 the population of the US, Canada has 1/100 the gun violence. I guess we’re not very manly either 🙂 Go, girl!