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Fighting
Back: Education, Legislation, Litigation
We
must work against child abuse, racism, poverty and children’s
access to guns, and in rebuilding our families, but we must
also take on the producers of media violence. The solution
strategy that I submit for consideration is, “education,
legislation, litigation.”
Simply put, we need to work toward “legislation” which outlaws
violent video games for children. In July, 2000, the city
of Indianapolis passed just such an ordinance, and every
other city, country or state in America has the right to
do the same. There is no Constitutional “right” to teach
children to blow people’s heads off at the local video arcade.
And we are very close to being able to do to the media,
through “litigation,” what is being done to the tobacco
industry, hotting them in the only place they understand--their
wallets.
Most
of all, the American people need to be informed. Every parent
must be warned of the impact of violent visual media on
children, as we would warn them of some rampant carcinogen.
Violence is not a game, it is not fun, it is not something
that we let children do for entertainment. Violence kills.
CBS
President Leslie Moonves was asked if he thought the school
massacre in Littleton, Colorado, had anything to do with
the media. His answer was: "Anyone who thinks the media
has nothing to do with it, is an idiot." (Reuters.
2000, March 19). That is what the networks are selling,
and we do not have to buy it. An educated and informed society
can and must find its way home from the dark and lonely
place to which it has traveled.
*
* * * * * * * * * *
Lt.
Col. Dave Grossman, is a retired Army Ranger, West Point
psychology professor, and an expert on the psychology of
killing. He has testified before the U.S. House and Senate,
and his research was cited by the President of the United
States in the wake of the Littleton school shootings. He
is director of the Warrior Science Group in Jonesboro,
Arkansas, and has written Stop Teaching Our Kids to Kill:
A Call to Action Against TV, Movie, and Video Game Violence,
(Crown/Random, 1999) and On Killing: The Psychological
Cost of Learning to Kill in War and Society (Little,
Brown and Co., 1996).
References
- Centerwall, B. (1992). Television and violence: The
scale of the problem and where to go from here. Journal
of the American Medical Association, 267: 3059-3061.
- Grossman,
D. (1996). On Killing: The Psychological Cost of Learning
to Kill in War and Society. New York: Little, Brown,
and Company.
- Grossman,
D. (1999). Aggression and Violence. In J. Chambers (Ed.)
Oxford Companion to American Military History.
New York: Oxford University Press (p. 10).
- Grossman,
D. (1999a). Weaponry, Evolution of. In L. Curtis &
J. Turpin (Eds.) Academic Press Encyclopedia Academic
Press (p. 797).
- Grossman,
D. & Siddle, B. (1999b). Psychological Effects of
Combat. In L. Curtis & J. Turpin (Eds.). Academic
Press Encyclopedia of Violence, Peace, and Conflict.
San Diego, CA: Academic Press. (pp. 144-145).
- Grossman,
D. (2000, May). "Teaching Kids to Kill, A Case Study:
Paducah, Kentucky." Paper presented at the American
Psychiatric Annual Meeting, Chicago, IL.
- Interpol
International Crime Statistics, Interpol, Lyons, France,
vols. 1977 to 1994.
- Marshall,
S.L.A. (1978). Men Against Fire. Gloucester, Mass.:
Peter Smith.
- Murray,
K. (1999). Behavioral Psychology. In L. Curtis & J.
Turpin (Eds.) Academic Press Encyclopedia of Violence,
Peace and Conflict. San Diego, CA: Academic Press.
- Reuters
Wire Service (2000, March 29). CBS airing mob drama deemed
too violent a year ago. The Washington Post.
- Statistical
Abstracts of the United States, 1957-1997.
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Read
a different article:
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Encyclopedia
of Violence, Peace, and Conflict, Volume 3, p.159
©
1999 by Academic Press. All rights of reproduction in any
form reserved.
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