Frank Haertlein
Moderator
When the movie "Throw momma from the train" came out one scene had a robber using a pressurized container of gasoline to spray the teller behind the bullet proof glass. He says something like "give me the money or I light this lighter". The teller would have been burned to death had she not handed over the money.
Lo and behold, it wasn't 2 weeks later that someone robbed a teller in exactly the same way. This is a matter of public record if any of you want to check into it.
The question is "do you blame the producer who was exersizing his freedom of speech for the act commited by the robber? The robber got the idea from the movie so why don't we blame freedom of speech for this event? Maybe it's because it is ludicrous to blame the law abiding movie producer for a scene where someone gets sprayed with gasoline and thus gives the idea to a lunatic.
Then why do people blame a gun owner for someone going into a school and killing a bunch of children? Did you know the recent spate of schoolyard killings were "COPYCAT" in nature and many people suspect the juveniles got their ideas from seeing news reports on similar occurences? Then why don't we blame the media just like they blame gun owners? I'll tell you this much, it isn't gun owners who are going around teaching a nation of children how to kill! It's the media who is doing that. Now of course you may say baloney to that! Well then, my friends, what if I printed out some literature on how to kill someone you didn't like with the use of gasoline? Let's say I teach how to pressurize a fire extinquiser with gasoline in it and then teach children how to spray people and light them afire? What if I disguised this information as entertainment and used my freedom of speech rights to go to all schools and distribute this information to every child I could? Would you come after me for expressing my freedom of speech? Do you think that maybe a small percentage of children would actually resort to such methods to "get back" at those they don't like? Would you call me irresponsible for teaching children such things? WHY OF COURSE YOU WOULD!
Then why do you not consider the media irresponsible for bombarding our youth with countless scenes of gun violence in movies, television, cartoons, etc? Is it because the producers are exersizing their freedom of speech and its curtailment would be too high a cost for freedom even though the negative effect that media has on society is clear? Would you blame the gasoline if a child were to actually use the information I gave him/her on how to kill with it?
The recent, modern phenomena of children going into schools and killing children is learned. It is learned from somewhere yet you would never consider blaming the movie producer for someone using an idea learned from the screen to kill another individual, would you? Then why, in God's good name, would you blame guns for the violence in our schools?
I have a very simple question for you. If it could be proven that the amount of murders would go down after severely restricting freedom of speech by curtailing violence in movies, violence in television and learned copycats killings because of news reporting would you be willing to give up freedom of speech as well as your violent entertainment?
PS. The US Surgeon General has already determined there IS a link! And that was 20 years ago. Also, virtually evey study of the subject has yielded similar results. That is to say there is a conclusive link between what people watch as news and entertainment and violence in society. Please, answer the question, truthfully. Or is freedom of speech a freedom anti gunners hold dear and thus they don't want it curtailed? If they can understand that, then they can understand gun owners and their fight for gun rights. We will not give up our freedoms because of the deranged acts of a few......just like a movie producer wont give up his freedom of speech to make violent movies that lead to killing!!
[This message has been edited by Frank Haertlein (edited November 05, 1999).]
Lo and behold, it wasn't 2 weeks later that someone robbed a teller in exactly the same way. This is a matter of public record if any of you want to check into it.
The question is "do you blame the producer who was exersizing his freedom of speech for the act commited by the robber? The robber got the idea from the movie so why don't we blame freedom of speech for this event? Maybe it's because it is ludicrous to blame the law abiding movie producer for a scene where someone gets sprayed with gasoline and thus gives the idea to a lunatic.
Then why do people blame a gun owner for someone going into a school and killing a bunch of children? Did you know the recent spate of schoolyard killings were "COPYCAT" in nature and many people suspect the juveniles got their ideas from seeing news reports on similar occurences? Then why don't we blame the media just like they blame gun owners? I'll tell you this much, it isn't gun owners who are going around teaching a nation of children how to kill! It's the media who is doing that. Now of course you may say baloney to that! Well then, my friends, what if I printed out some literature on how to kill someone you didn't like with the use of gasoline? Let's say I teach how to pressurize a fire extinquiser with gasoline in it and then teach children how to spray people and light them afire? What if I disguised this information as entertainment and used my freedom of speech rights to go to all schools and distribute this information to every child I could? Would you come after me for expressing my freedom of speech? Do you think that maybe a small percentage of children would actually resort to such methods to "get back" at those they don't like? Would you call me irresponsible for teaching children such things? WHY OF COURSE YOU WOULD!
Then why do you not consider the media irresponsible for bombarding our youth with countless scenes of gun violence in movies, television, cartoons, etc? Is it because the producers are exersizing their freedom of speech and its curtailment would be too high a cost for freedom even though the negative effect that media has on society is clear? Would you blame the gasoline if a child were to actually use the information I gave him/her on how to kill with it?
The recent, modern phenomena of children going into schools and killing children is learned. It is learned from somewhere yet you would never consider blaming the movie producer for someone using an idea learned from the screen to kill another individual, would you? Then why, in God's good name, would you blame guns for the violence in our schools?
I have a very simple question for you. If it could be proven that the amount of murders would go down after severely restricting freedom of speech by curtailing violence in movies, violence in television and learned copycats killings because of news reporting would you be willing to give up freedom of speech as well as your violent entertainment?
PS. The US Surgeon General has already determined there IS a link! And that was 20 years ago. Also, virtually evey study of the subject has yielded similar results. That is to say there is a conclusive link between what people watch as news and entertainment and violence in society. Please, answer the question, truthfully. Or is freedom of speech a freedom anti gunners hold dear and thus they don't want it curtailed? If they can understand that, then they can understand gun owners and their fight for gun rights. We will not give up our freedoms because of the deranged acts of a few......just like a movie producer wont give up his freedom of speech to make violent movies that lead to killing!!
[This message has been edited by Frank Haertlein (edited November 05, 1999).]