Twowheeladdict - I wanted to thank you for your comments on this thread. First, I thought it was very enlightening that you posted about video games affecting you personally, and that you had to get ahold of it. A picture into a tiny bit of what we may be dealing with. Really, thanks for that level of honesty, I learned from it. I also think your point about folks having free time to while away the hours in a video game (Or the internet, like I'm doing now) can lead folks to make some really bad choices.
All - To carry it on step further, we all have heard about people seeking love, or becoming addicted to porn via the internet. go back 30 years - this NEVER happened. Society didn't have that problem. Why? HMMM, no internet maybe? Using this analogy, can we see how gun violence can be fostered by exposing the wrong person to violent video games or movie violence? It wasn't around when we were kids. and kids today don't go out and play like we did. Many spend hours a day interacting with video games rather than other people. It's not hard to see how the video games can become reality for a person who prefers that interaction instead of interpersonal relationships.
Here's something else to consider - autism is on a rapid rise. I don't know alot about it, other than it's much more prevalent. If so, why the sudden increase? Could there be food additives causing it? Could this be a root cause for why "times have changed" could that be a response to Barts question about why the USA is different from other countries (if indeed we are?).
Bart - I'm not opposed if you have a different position than mine. I believe that the answer to this problem will be a compromise, which means everyone is unhappy. I see the assault weapons ban being enacted; I see magazine capacity restrictions; I hope to see armed school staff; and hopefully we'll have more forceful laws to deal with mentally ill folks. And after all that, some loon, somewhere, is going to do something horrendous that violates all kinds of laws and shocks the sensibilities of rational people. Steve