Posted on 02/22/2018 3:47:08 PM PST by EdnaMode
President Trump on Thursday warned about the influence of violence in movies while discussing school safety and mass shootings, suggesting it could be a contributing factor to recent mass shootings.
Trump made the comments during a meeting at the White House on school safety attended by lawmakers and top administration officials, where the president addressed a number of issues in addition to gun violence.
"We have to look at the internet, because a lot of bad things are happening to young kids and young minds, and their minds are being formed, and we have to do something about maybe what they're seeing and how they're seeing it. And also video games," Trump said, according to pool reports.
I'm hearing more and more people say the level of violence on video games is really shaping young people's thoughts. And you go one further step and that's the movies. ... maybe they have to put a rating system for that," he added.
However, ratings systems already exist for both video games and films in the United States. The Motion Picture Association of America and Entertainment Software Rating Board both rate and classify content based on its suitability for specific audiences.
The president's remarks come a week after 17 people were killed in a mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla. The alleged gunman, 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz, was a former student at the school and reportedly used an AR-15 rifle he legally purchased.
Trump held a "listening session" on Wednesday with parents of victims as well as survivors of last week's shooting, where the president stressed that his administration would take action to strengthen background checks for gun purchases.
"We're going to be very strong on background checks," the president said. "It’s not going to be talk like it has been in the past. It’s been going on too long. Too many instances, and were going to get it done."
Trump also tweeted earlier Thursday in support of raising the age required to purchase a rifle like the one used in the Parkland attack to 21, as well as banning the sale of bump stocks, which let semi-automatic rifles fire more rapidly.
“I will be strongly pushing Comprehensive Background Checks with an emphasis on Mental Health,” Trump wrote on Twitter. “Raise age to 21 and end sale of Bump Stocks! Congress is in a mood to finally do something on this issue — I hope!”
Once upon a time, violence in movies consisted of the Good Guy and the Bad Guy facing off and the Good Guy would dispense justice in a tense show down.
Today, the hero bursts into a room, kills the 20 people in the room (with lots of blood) then moves on to the next room and kills 30 more.
Yeah, that might desensitize people and make them think they can shoot up a whole building and walk away. It’s not a good aspect of our culture.
Awesome point that most politicians are afraid to make...
Well, I would not mind asking the question as to why fully automatic rifles in Canada are heavily restricted by grandfathering since 1978 and in the United States since 1986 and yet Hollywood still produces movies that feature people being cut in to pieces with these types of firearms?
One hundred percent. And music like rap and “death metal.”
The equation goes like this:
(gun laws + behavioral effect of movies and pop music) x progressive values = school shootings
(gun laws + behavioral effect of movies, pop music and video games) x progressive values = school shootings
And who is allowing it?
Parents or lack thereof.
Two actors playing The Joker (fueled by drug abuse) went batsh!t crazy, one died.
One Joker obsessed fanboy stormed a Bat-theater and mowed down the crowd.
Bobcat Goldthwait even made a movie where a brain diseased Lefty decided to go out in a blaze of glory gunning down those who he was annoyed by (Glenn Beck, Fred Phelps, American Idol type shows...). It was sold as a comedy.
The 1990s John Woo movies were over the gun in their gunplay (The Killer, Hard Boiled...) but there’s far more violence in the Capt. America/Avengers films (which is the one where everyone at the CIA/FBI/oh yeah SHIELD is a Hydra-NAZI?).
When they stopped having to wire up squibs to do gun stunts (and switched to computer animation) they amped it up.
Is the lack of blood “less violent”? Is shooting people in the kneecap less violent than shooting them in the chest?
I saw where the new hot movie, Black Panther ??
Has 163 shootings in it..
Plus FBI ignoring people seeing something and saying something...
So true.
Also, today's cop shows are about rogue cops breaking the rules and getting away with it - even the good guys are bad guys!
How many shootings in Kingsman? Or John Wick?
Well, a few decades ago, someone would point a gun, there would be a BANG! and the bad guy will fall in a heap. Pretty simple, neat and quick. It represents a "death" certainly, but the level of "violence" was pretty minimal.
Today, people get their brains blown out, bullets enter the chest and blow out through the back. There is blood, there is screaming, and sometimes you need to pump in a few extra shots just to be sure. It's kinda violent.
Also, in the old days, the Good Guy would often just "shoot the gun out of the hand" of the bad guy. I suppose that stung a bit, but by disarming the evil-doer the hero would Right the Wrongs without bloodshed.
Of course that's silly, but that's pretty much the point. It's a family-friendly cartoon which you wouldn't try to replicate down at your local High School. But in today's movies, you can unleash Hell on all of those who "have it coming". This poisons peoples' outlook. It is inherently different from the stuff I grew up with.
Of course he’s right. We’ve been talking about this for so long that we kind of forgot about it.
And Hollywood has the nerve to preach gun control.
Good question. Yet these same people scream about gun control.
163 people “died” in Black Panther. And it’s a hit.
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