The glorification of killing.

[Shardik]

It's in every other detective show when the good guy goes ahead and kills the bad guy rather than send him through the "ineffective" legal system. That started way back in the Dirty Harry days.

It has continued. It seems to be in every other TV sow today except the dancing shows where I personally wish it would happen. I might watch them then.

It seems accepted today that to kill the perceived bad guy is acceptable and there is never repercussions when the killer has been done a wrong.

Is this part of the problem today in the upsurge in gun violence?

[NightWatcher]

1. any increased gun violence (which I dont believe is happening) is not based on "justice"

but as the economy goes into the toilet, crime increases.

Most gun violence today is initiated by the offender and not someone seeking to get justice from the barrel of a gun (a la Dr. Harry)

[Shardik]

3. The guy wronged by X because of Y?

The kids at Columbine fell into that category.

The Cop at BART fell into that category.

Knee jerk reactions with an easy remedy to the perceived wrong.

[anonymous171]

2. The ending of Shooter was pretty good.

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

4. At least Dirty Harry was considered dirty.

Although I'm curious as to what statistics you'd cite for your claim that there has been an upsurge in gun violence.

[Shardik]

5. Jesus, read the news.

If you can show me a downturn in the last twenty years, I'll eat your hat.

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

8. Do you have something to cite or not?

You're the one who claimed an upsurge in gun violence. I'm asking you to support that with data.

[Shardik]

13. Since you asked.

Check our our rating in the chart on this site: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_homicide_rate

Compare the rate per 100K population with West Europeans & Australians in the 2000's.

As to other data, we (hopefully reached a peak in the 90's but it seems to be rising again: http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/homicide/tables/regionjuvtab.htm

[AtheistCrusader]

10. It's been trending down since about 93, actually.

http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/guns.htm

I hope you like Hat! Maybe some salsa or something. (Kidding, this is actually a serious subject)

[AtheistCrusader]

6. Have you seen 'Mystic River'?

Lots of media, movies and more, get into the 'what if you're wrong' vigilante justice question.

I agree, that the theme you are describing is pervasive. 24 is widely popular among conservatives, yet it portrays some of the most Un-American forms of abuse of civil liberties I can think of.

[malaise]

7. I disagree

Those cowboy and Indian movies were no different and they were long before Dirty Harry.

[TahitiNut]

9. Yup. That's when homeless men were heroes and cowardly weasels lived in houses.

:evilgrin:

[malaise]

12. Well put

:D

[-..__...]

11. Life imitating art...

or the other way around?

Movies... video games... music... "thug life"... the Internet, etc. IMHO are primary contributors to the problem.

I don't think they motivate or drive some people (mostly kids and younger folks), to do the things they do , but they do desensitize
and marginalize the violence to the point that it's cool, acceptable or get "street creds".

We never had this random/senseless "gun violence" 30-40-50 years ago (unless it was connected to existing criminal activity). And that was when gun control laws were much more relaxed than they are now.

"Is this part of the problem today in the upsurge in gun violence"?

Yeah... 'it's the NRA's fault'.

:sarcasm: