RAMPAGE SHOOTINGS

This blog entry by Mahmood Sultan

The story: "Availability of Guns Doesn't Explain Why so Many Individuals Use Them Today to Kill Random Strangers"

The analysis:

This story by Bob Peters explains that the availability of guns doesn’t explain why so many individuals use them today to kill random strangers. This article interested me because of the recent shooting and violence in pop culture. The article focuses on what derives people to use guns to kill others. Bob Peters explains that it is not the availability of guns that are responsible for the killing that have occurred but it is the violence that children are exposed to through television and music.
He explains that television is not clear in explaining who the good guy and the bad guy is and children are exposed to graphic violence in movies, video games and music. He claims that this is the cause of violence. Since children are continuously exposed to this they start to fantasize about killing people and use the means that are portrayed by popular culture. Bob Peters states that popular culture acclimatizes kids to the thought of killing anyone whether they are good or bad and video games are used as training.
One of the main issues that this brings up is the fact that guns still cause the violence. Although the point he makes about popular culture portraying violence as everyday life makes sense, the fact that without access to guns the murders would only be a fantasy and would not take place still exist. It is still the easy access to guns that make the mass murders possible.
A counter argument to this is that “those that want guns will find a way to acquire them” but then analyzing this particular incident and those like this one, it is safe to say that because guns are available to anyone anywhere the planning is the difficult part, not the means of accomplishing the plan. Obtaining the weapon to go through with the fantasy is the easy part.