VIOLENCE IN AMERICA - MUCH MORE THAN GUNS

Much more than guns... The man we call president has decided to spend much of his time now trying to remove certain guns from our culture. And, that may be well and good but statistics show that there are at least three other key factors that are contributing to violence in society as much or more than assualt rifles and guns


  1) Mental illness: Most of the murders today are tied to people with mental proglems. Most recently, Adam Lanza who committed the Newtown, connecticut murbers and the man who perpetrated the Gabby Gifford murder spree in Arizona both had serious mental issues but they were out on the streets. for Aurora and Columbine it was the same. It was President Kennedy who first signed an bill that began the influx of mentally ill out of instituions and onto the streets. Reagan and others were basically following in the wake of Kennedy's bill. Since Kennedy, violent crime has risen (1963+) and never really stopped, though there have been some yearly spikes along the way.


2) Media Violence: Not to totally blame Kennedy, the media culture in America has become much more extreme since 1963. Movies and TV deal with all subjects now, with an emphasis on violence, which sells. It's largely the baby boom generation and beyond , weened on sex and drugs from the late 60s on, who is now running Hollywood, Fbrom Spielberg to Katzenberg to Tarrentino. I remember learning in psychologoy class, years ago, about copy cat violence and murders; eg the day after a TV program where someone pours gasoline on a homeless person and torches him, several real life copy cat murders occurred. What was supposed to be a kinder, gentler nation following the racist and sexist 1950s may be better for minories and women today but violent crime is through the roof. And wait, are things really better for blacks and women. Rap music with misoginist lyrics leads the way and blacks and other minorities are struggling as much as ever to obtain educations and jobs. Perhaps things got too kind and gentle, like letting people off and out of institutions, providing free passes and now, under current admin, enabling the poor with more generous welfare, food stamp and entitlement programs that actually hinder self improvement and offer idle item for problems to arise.,\


 3) Video games and other violence: The young become numb to violence. It's so commonplace today another life lost is virtually meaningless to the average person. Towns that nenver had a murder in the 50s now are rife with violence. This may or may not contribute to mental issues, but combined with those, we have a reall problem. Our society may have advanced geometrically through technology and medicine but , in reality, the social culture has regressed..

Poor parenting / lack of role models is yet another contributor to violence yet probably the hardest one
to fix so let's go with the first rthree Obama and see what we can do. Not.