CDC and Violent Media

Graphic, gratuitous depictions of violence on television and in the movies . . . encourage young viewers to act more aggressively, desensitizes them to real-world violence and instills a distorted, pessimistic worldview. Media violence also makes children more restless, more fearful and less creative.

They are trying to brand guns a social disease. Why not look at one obvious root of the social disease of violence (which is present, too, in nations with strict gun controls, and which did not exist here 50 years ago) and take the logical step: put warning labels on all violent media, indicating to parents that violent TV, movies, and video games cause real social ills, and retard many children from full social maturation?

Personally, I view smoking as far less injurious than teaching children to take pleasure in gratuitous violence and cruelty. We all die, but need not live our years in the middle in fear and cynicism.