Letter: Study effect of violent movies, TV shows and video games
The gun control debate seems to be going in circles. On the one hand, the NRA and several like-minded organizations are not willing to accept any additional legislation. Yet on the other hand, some would not be happy with anything short of total elimination of all privately held firearms.
It seems that both sides are missing the most important issue in the debate. The human factor. What is it that brings a person to commit such atrocities as mass school shootings? Or for that matter the incident reported in the TCH (Oct. 15) where a person attacked a children’s chess class in a library in Illinois with two hunting knives proclaiming “I’m going to kill some people.”
There is a growing demand to spend taxpayer money to study the gun violence problem as a public health issue. Maybe some effort should be given to the studying of violent movies, TV, and video games and their effect on the public. It has been estimated that by the time a person is 10 years old they have witnessed literally hundreds of murders and other acts of violence via the media. Surly this has a detrimental effect, especially on the young.
Dennis Carlyle
Kennewick
This story was originally published November 11, 2015 at 5:56 PM with the headline "Letter: Study effect of violent movies, TV shows and video games."