[Electric Squirrel]

As I was listening I agreed with a lot of what Ron was saying. I grew up in rural Alberta Canada where most farmers, including my family, owns a gun. Usually something like a 22 or a 38 rifle for farming purposes. You simply need a rifle when farming to put down animals in pain or to butcher animals for personal use. Of course here, it is illegal to own an automatic weapon. All of what he said about personal responsibility really resonates with me because I grew up with this kind of respect, you just know you never point a gun at a person. You just know this stuff.

However he started loosing me when he talked about Hollywood and video games. Of course I would never say that these thing help in anyway, but I don't believe that they cause more gun violence. There are many arguments but there are two in particular that say that these things aren't the problem.

1) Simply look at other countries that aren't as lax. All first world countries have these video games and movies. Some have a even higher percentage of sales and thus a high consumption. Yet the US has more gun crimes by miles. The only explanation I can think of for this kind of thing is that EVERY other first world nation has more gun control. For example, NO AUTOMATIC WEAPONS!

2) I grew up raising and butchering most of my own meat. I still do it to this day despite living in town. I do this because the meat tastes better, its cheaper, and I know the animals lived good lives. I know a lot of people who've played FAR more violent video games than I have. Yet everyone one of them I know who've butchered an animal in later life end up swearing off meat till they can forget about what it's actually like to kill and cut up an animal. The point I'm making here is that obviously the killing of animals and people in videogames and watching it on tv didn't desensitize them to the reality.

Now maybe violent media does affect that small percentage who are mentally ill. That's a fair assumption to make. However looking at other countries its pretty clear that limiting and controlling guns DOES work.