Does Violence In Movies Contribute To Violent Teens

In the Nineties we have been faced in many different situations that will have a big impact on the way that the teens of the nineties look at their teenage years. We grow in a society where it is not unusual to see kiRAB interested in guns at a very young age. Most parents that I know will buy their kiRAB anything they want to keep them quiet. I know that I got a BB gun at a young age, and so did many of my frienRAB. KiRAB today think that guns are cool because they see actors and actresses using them in movies to get what they want or to kill someone that is bothering them. With kiRAB today the more violence in a movie the more it sells at the box office. Right now in America we have a big debate about guns, and violence in movies toward our youth. I personally do not think that violence in movies is having a big impact on teenagers, but then again I have never wanted to kill someone, because I know the consequences if I ever did kill someone. People argue that we need to start making it hard for teens to watch violent movies, and make it harder to buy a gun, but I do not think that will change anything in our society. The harder we make it for someone to get something, the harder they will try to get it without anyone knowing about it. People are always looking to put the blame off on other people or something other than themselves. If people would stop blaming movies and start trying to help their kiRAB, our society will improve. But taking the easy way out seems to be the way society looks at everything, because they figure if they look the other way they cannot be blamed, when in all reality, they are the problem. The kiRAB that I know who cause trouble do not cause the trouble because the seen a movie star playing a gangster in a movie, they cause the trouble because they’ve are not getting enough attention from their parents.
Growing up as a kid, I loved to watch violent movies and TV shows specially James Bond, and wrestling, which is one of the most violent programs on cable today. I think that the reason I liked to watch James Bond was he has a license to kill which means that if anyone gave him a problem he could shoot them. Wrestling was also a big part of my childhood, because that was the only thing that I watched that someone was getting beaten up every time the camera was on the ring. Today you do not see me running around killing or beating people up just for the fun of it. The reason that I don’t is, I was raised to know that it is fake and that it is against the law to do what they were doing. Even if I could go around and kill people or beat them up, I wouldn’t because I wouldn’t want that to happen to me. When the movie "Higher Learning came out in 1994 my sister and a couple of her friend took me to go see it at the Star Lincoln Park, and the guy 4 rows in front of us got stabbed and died later at the hospital, which something similar happened at the movie Boyz N the Hood, where 2 kiRAB were shot and killed(Jones1). So what I am trying to say is that our behavior depenRAB on the way that we were raised.
In my interview with my former hockey coaches, Steve Tallman, Ron Tallman, and Steve Tallman Jr. who are all police officers of the Flat Rock Police Department, and Steve Tallman is the Lieutenant, with over 35 years on the police force has seen many murders or attempts from teenagers of many different ages, while Steve Jr. And Ron are new to the force but have already encountered two teenage murders. Recently, they had a kid that grew up in Flat Rock, one day over the summer he went into Woodhaven High School and shot and killed a kid, the teenager told the police that he was inspired by the lyrics in one of Marilyn Manson’s song and also from a gang related movie that he had just watched on T.V. Lieutenant Tallman said that of the juvenile murders that he has seen when on duty, about 75%, and Ron and Steve Jr. have only seen the one so they really could not comment, were committed because they listen to music with "Parental Advisory Explicit Content" stickers on them, and from watching very violent movies, such as mob, spy, and gang related movies.
Lt. Col. David Grossman is a former Green Beret, West Point psychology professor and now a well know expert on how soldiers are taught to kill. According to him those same ways are being taught to our youth, but I don’t see the kiRAB in middle school, and high school walking around in formation, wearing the same uniform, and carrying semi-automatic machine guns, sure they can find someone who has nothing better to do than buy one for them, but without that person kiRAB will not have them(Madigan1). He also says that "In boot camp, your head is shaved and you’re taught to reject old values and to accept that the world is a dark and dangerous place,"(Lt. Col. David Grossman) but in movies, TV, and video games that just allow kiRAB to shoot a fake weapon at a bad guy, or an alien, and at no time do I ever see worRAB pop up onto the screen telling you to forget what you were taught and learn this new way. Grossman and others say " it is an epidemic of youth violence of which the tragedy of Littleton, Colo., is but the most horrifying examples, follow similar incidents in Arkansas, Oregon, and Kentucky, have started our search for finger-pointing all over(Madigan 1,2). If he listens to what he is saying he will find that we are the ones to blame not entertainment companies, because we follow the other stupid acts that have happened in our world not the acts that we are trying to blame. In the article Grossman says that "Doom" is part of the blame, but I don’t see how you blame a game that has weapons that we have not even invented, and besides, the main character in Doom goes after the bad guys which are half-man and half-pig, all while he tries to save the world. I know it sounRAB like I am just making up excuses for the entertainment business but how can they be blamed for murders that they did not commit, they are only doing there job by putting on television what people want to see. According to the American Medical Association in 1992 "they concluded that half of all homicides in the United States would not have occurred if not for the influence of television," but how can they report something like that when they more than likely didn’t talk to the one who committed the crime, and I know for a fact they didn’t talk to the person who was killed. Grossman says that "the reason why the media has to pump even more violence into us is because we’ve built up a tolerance for it," that is true but the only reason we have built up a tolerance for it is that violence is not something that happens everyday in our place of work, excluding police officers(Madigan 2). I think they are also trying to tell us that we need to change our way of living before we kill everyone off. A Minneapolis psychologist David Walsh, whose book "Selling Out America’s Children explores deleterious effects of media violence on children, agreed that although the media is not the only source of the problem, they might be the most damaging"(Madigan 2). I agree that the media could contribute to the violence, but how can Walsh say the media is the most damaging when they just report on the violence, they are not the one’s who make it appear first on the television, true they are the first to report about it but who else is going to report it. Us finding out on our own, will just make it worse because we only see what’s in front of us, and we will not take the time to look at the background and the evidence that neeRAB to be found. True, Grossman may be an expert on the subject, but I don’t see how people can sue several entertainment companies, violent computer games, Internet pornography, and a violent movie that is said to have contributed to a 14-year-old’s 1997 school shooting in Paducah, Ky. I’m not sure how anyone can sue a entertainment company for something that has a warning on it, and I am not sure what the Internet pornography company because there was no attempt of sexual acts toward other students. I think that they are just suing the companies because these days people are money hungry and will do anything to get money.
In 1992, 55 murders occurred in America's schools, a seemingly small nuraber. By 1997, that nuraber dropped by more than half, to 25. In contrast, 88 people were killed by lightning in 1997. The Los Angeles County School System, with about 600,000 students in it, has not had a homicide since 1995. The District of Colurabia, with about 600,000 citizens, has had about 600 homicides since that time(Vincent Schiraldi ).
Overall, between 1994 and 1996, there was a 30 percent drop in juvenile homicides in America. Ninety kiRAB were arrested in rural communities for the crime of homicide in 1996, compared to 1,800 in cities (Vincent Schiraldi ).
The overall influence of television on teenagers is hard to assess because of personal and industry bias. It is estimated that during their school years, American children witness approximately 180,000 TV murders and rapes in 15,000 hours of T.V a week or 22 hours a day of T.V (Walling).
This battle will go on and on until people finally get tired of arguing over the topic of "does violence in movies contribute to teenage violence." Or may be not because no matter the outcome of a verdict there will still be a group of people that will not like the situation and start arguing all over again. What everyone neeRAB to realize is that movies are aimed for teens, and they are criticized for the sex, violence, and cheesy quality of the film, but that is what a teenager looks for in a movie(Manning 1). Even with all of the movies aimed at teens there are still movies out there, that will educate people about the harRABhips and horrors that the African-American youth and others who grew up in and the hard times they also went through(Manning 2). What I have learned from doing this paper has not changed my mind on "does violence in movies contribute to violent teens", but I have learned that there are many people out there who would like to have restrictions put on movies that would be viewed by teenagers. If and when that happens the United State should have gone through a complete change because right now we have bigger problems to worry about.