[FS]

I typed up a huge reply to this post at first, then realized I totally lost sight of the point I was trying to make. Thing is, I find it hard to pick a solid statement on this issue.

I used to totally dismiss the influence of TV, movies, video games, song lyrics and other fiction (hereafter to be referred to as "fiction) on violent crimes, but that's kind of like sticking my head in the sand. When I see a violent movie, I might get in an asskicking mood. I don't go out and punch somebody. I get over it or play a video game. Obviously, there are people out there not properly able to distinguish the line between make-believe and reality.

I should think that such a mechanism is developed at a relatively early age (sometime after a child grows out of the me-me-me phase). And that the people who do not develop this mechanism either suffered a traumatic childhood or have a specific mental disorder. It'd be great if we could equip these people with devices that automatically switch off TVs, eject CDs and cause books to spontaneously combust whenever they come within ten feet of them, but fact is, we don't know how to detect these people.

A person who might be inspired by fiction to commit a murder at a certain time or in a certain way, might've committed that murder with a different weapon or a week later if they hadn't come across said fiction. Maybe they would never have committed it at all if they had been deprived of fiction their entire life. I don't see how that puts fiction at fault. You can't track it down to the source. Maybe what really set them off was seeing a fight happen down the street. Or seeing daddy play around with his guns like they're sleek and cool gizmos instead of dangerous, deadly firearms. Or something more fucked up. I think that once you've crossed the line of being ready to kill someone, all bets are off. You could pick up a shotgun because your favorite action hero uses one. There's bound to many circumstances that cause a kid to shoot up his school, but one thing I am sure of - it wasn't just playing Doom.

A guy like Joe Lieberman seems to think he can decrease the chance of violent crimes committed by children by banning videogames. I'm sorry, but if you live in a country where people with children sometimes don't even take proper care of where they leave their guns, is there any point? It's like trying to keep a sinking ship afloat by mopping up the water that's flowing in.