Representative Diane Black (R-TN) says we should discuss the issue of gun violence “intelligently,” and by that she means blaming video games and that damn rock n’ roll.
BLACK: I want to make sure that we’re looking at this issue intelligently and from all — why Adam Lanza did what he did. Unprecedented levels of violent games, music, so on. None of these things that we’re talking about right now that are the biggest in the message is really going to help what happened in Newtown. So I’m disappointed that we’re doing a knee jerk reaction, only talking about it from one end, I think we have to talk about mental illness, about the breakdown of the family, about violence, about holding people who use guns and violent actions accountable, such as in the federal law where there’s a penalty for just possessing a gun.
I can’t tell you how many hours I spent listening to Rage Against the Machine and playing the online first person shooter Counterstrike when I first enrolled at a local community college at the age of 17 back in 2001 (certainly an unprecedented amount), but it didn’t turn me into a murderous psychopath. In fact, I don’t even own a gun and probably never will notwithstanding antiquated family heirlooms that haven’t been fired since the Korean War.
To imply that discussing gun control is a knee-jerk reaction and that we shouldn’t focus on “one end” while simultaneously only focusing on one end (social and mental health) is contradictory and hypocritical.
With that said, I support the Obama’s administrations plans to study the link, or a lack thereof, between violent media and real acts of violence, because I’m confident the results will either be inconclusive or will put the issue to rest by proving there is no link. Furthermore, one of the reasons senators such as Diane Black can get away with making such baseless assertions is because the CDC has not studied the issue with any veracity since the late 1980s and early 90s. That leaves it up to a matter of opinion.