When you wake up to the news that 59 people have been murdered and over 527 more injured in Las Vegas, many of them in critical condition, and realize that one man—one!—did this to 600 people in 9 minutes, you have to wonder: why do we live in such a violent country? In the U.S., more than 30,000 Americans are killed each year with guns. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/oct/02/us-gun-control-ownership-violence-statistics So what did the killer do as a child? My bet is he was affected by violent shows, just like the recent Washington high school shooter, Caleb Sharpe, who was enamored of TV shows like “Breaking Bad” and “Game of Thrones,” and movies like “American Psycho.” http://heavy.com/news/2017/09/caleb-sharpe-freeman-high-school-shooting-suspect-bullying/
Hundreds of scientific research studies show the effect of violence in the media on both adults and children—television, movies, video games, and whatever is available on your phone, tablet, or computer. In 1969, the Surgeon General’s Scientific Advisory Committee on Television and Social Behavior, and the 1982 follow-up report by the National Institute of Mental Health, showed that watching violence (this is before children could participate in the violence while playing realistic video games rather than just viewing it) had some serious consequences: the children were desensitized to the pain and suffering of others, became more fearful of the world (no kidding), and were more prone to be aggressive or to harm others. [http://www.apa.org/action/resources/research-in-action/protect.aspx]
And every decade since has reinforced the connection. The American Academy of Pediatrics issued a Policy Statement on Media Violence in 2009 that said: “Extensive research evidence indicates that media violence can contribute to aggressive behavior, desensitization to violence, nightmares, and fear of being harmed.” Council on Communications and Media. From the American Academy of Pediatrics: Policy statement—Media violence. Pediatrics. 2009;124:1495-1503.
Emanuel Tanay, MD, a forensic psychiatrist with over 50 years experience, told Psychiatric Times: “What we call entertainment is really propaganda for violence. If you manufacture guns, you don’t need to advertise, because it is done by our entertainment industry.” http://www.psychiatrictimes.com/child-adolescent-psychiatry/violence-media-what-effects-behavior Consider that when you think about what your children might be doing in their bedrooms. Today, almost 100% of American homes have televisions, and there are television sets in the bedrooms of over half of all children, not to mention devices like the cell phones none of us let out of our hands. And children watch more television per week than the hours they spend in school. Before the age of 18, a typical child will have watched more than 200,000 acts of violence, including 16,000 murders. https://www.aacap.org/aacap/Medical_Students_and_Residents/Mentorship_Matters/DevelopMentor/The_Impact_of_Media_Violence_on_Children_and_Adolescents_Opportunities_for_Clinical_Interventions.aspx
What might they be watching? Well, all animated feature films made in the U.S. (between 1937-1999)—100% of them—portrayed violence. Yokota F, Thompson KM. Violence in G-rated animated films. JAMA.2000;283 (20):2716– 2720 Then they graduate to superhero movies like the 2013 Kick-Ass 2, which Jim Carrey, the star of the movie, said in the wake of the Sandy Hook massacre that he could not support the film’s graphically violent scenes. Maybe they’re watching TV shows like “Family Guy” (FOX) where a Halloween episode featured Brenda being dragged off-screen and then hearing her be physically abused; or ”Game of Thrones” (HBO) where each episode is rife with over-the-top violence; I got as far as the third episode and bailed when, in addition to ripping a human to pieces, they decapitated a horse; or “Stalker” (CBS), where the first five minutes of the pilot showed a women being burned alive. Or they’re playing video games, like Grand Theft Auto V, which includes a torture scene of waterboarding, electrocution, breaking knees, and more. Or Homefront: The Revolution, where you can “play” with machine guns, pistols, grenades, and other weapons as you engage in guerilla warfare. Or you could watch a movie like “Martyrs” (2008) on Netflix or Hulu, with some of the most violent scenes in any horror film, or “Rambo” (2008), replete with beheadings and Sly eviscerating someone’s intestines.
Yes, we have to do something about gun control, but we also have to stop thinking of violence as entertainment. We have to stop watching so much violence that we become numb to it and to its consequences. We have to stop allowing our children to become immersed in the world of violence. No, violence on the screen is not the only factor in creating mass carnage, but it’s a contributing cause, as shown over and over again in research. But just because the First Amendment protects the right to free speech (and therefore the right to show any grizzly mayhem), and the Second Amendment protects the right to bear arms (what did the Founding Fathers know about automatic weapons), doesn’t mean we can’t take a stand on the side of common sense and human decency and take action to amend these out-of-date Amendments.
In Jimmy Kimmel’s emotional monologue on Monday night after the Las Vegas massacre, which took place in his home town, he wearily said: "We'll pray for Las Vegas ... bills will be written, they'll be watered down, they'll fail, the NRA will smother it all with money and over time we'll get distracted and will move on to the next thing. And then it will happen again. And again." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ruYeBXudsds But it doesn’t have to. Nineteen years ago, after the worst massacre in the history of Australia in which 35 people were shot to death with a semi-automatic rifle and another 18 were badly wounded, the government passed the National Firearms Agreement and Buyback Program, with strict controls that banned the possession of many deadly weapons. The risk of being shot to death in Australia dropped by 50% and stayed that way, and the rate of suicides by firearms dropped 80%. http://www.cnn.com/2015/06/19/world/us-australia-gun-control/index.html
How will we elevate the consciousness of the world if we cannot elevate our own awareness above our numbness about violence? How will our own minds and hearts be clear channels for love and compassion if we steep ourselves in violence and call it entertainment? How will we keep our friends and lovers, our children and ourselves, free from the fear of a rain of bullets? There are now thousands of traumatized victims of the Las Vegas massacre—those who experienced the sheer terror of the event and its bloody aftermath as well as those whose loved ones died or are fighting for their life in hospitals, along with the rest of us who saw it on TV or online. Yes, send out your prayers and healing thoughts, but also take a personal stand against violence in the media and the weapons that embody it. Enough is enough.