WASHINGTON — The gun debate on Capitol Hill is at a standstill, but the argument – ranging from expanding mandatory background checks to demands that America disarm – rages. At the forefront, an overarching concern: does a society benumbed to violence in the media and on computer screens help breed gun violence?
“We live in a country that is based and built off of violence,” said Luis Cardona, violence prevention coordinator of Montgomery County in Maryland.
Cardona said aggressors often turn to guns as a result of troubled childhoods and also because of easy access to social media, films and video games that tend to glamorize violent behavior.
U.S. AT A GLANCE
According to the National Crime Victimization Survey, approximately 470,000 people were victims of a crime committed with a firearm in 2011. In that same year, data collected by the FBI show firearms were used in 68 percent of murders, 41 percent of robbery offenses, and 21 percent of aggravated assaults nationwide. The data offer a stark conclusion: most homicides in the United States are committed with firearms.
Yet despite the jarring numbers, the overall use of guns in crimes has significantly decreased since the early 1990s. Nonfatal firearms-related crime has fallen from almost 1.3 million incidents in 1994, to a low of 331,618 incidents, based on data collected in 2008.
However, the number jumped back up to 414,562 incidents in 2011, the survey said. It’s a concern that may be a consequence of a proliferation of weapons — there are nearly 300 million guns in the hands of private owners nationwide, according to numbers based on production data from firearm manufacturers.
LOCAL NEIGHBORHOODS IN THE CROSSFIRE
Taking the gun debate from the national stage to a local stage can help researchers and legislators determine how to measure the issue at the grassroots. In Maryland and Virginia, a gang culture is partly responsible for significant illegal gun trafficking, says Cardona.
Stopping gun trafficking through legislation is proving to be a tough order. Gun trafficking is generally defined as making third-party – or straw — purchases of firearms for the purpose of re-selling the weapons to felons or others ineligible for gun ownership.
In some jurisdictions, juveniles and young adults are “easily obtaining illegal guns,” according to the National Institute of Justice. The first half of 2012 saw 165 gang-related crimes in Montgomery County, Md. as opposed to 159 in 2011, according to the police department in the affluent Washington suburb.
In Fairfax County, Va. over the past six years, there were 17,785 crimes involving guns, an average of about eight crimes per day. Five percent of these crimes were classified as gang-related, the Northern Virginia Regional Gang Task Force reported.
“Every police officer on our department should be a gang expert. Not just the gang unit, but the patrol officers,” said Ken Compher, Fairfax County detective.
SOCIAL MEDIA: A RECRUITMENT TOOL
With the rise of technology, gangs like the Mara Salvatrucha, also known as the MS-13, are recruiting in unusual ways – by posting online videos and “advertisements.” And with more people on social networking sites, the group’s reach is expanding.
“It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to get on to YouTube, Facebook, MySpace, or any of those…” said Compher. The detective said he believes that violent media can emphasize and reenforce the violence that has plagued American streets, encouraging young people to be more aggressive in their lifestyles.
But here’s where the argument gets muddled.
Some researchers, like American University professor Joanne Savage, say that violent media have no correlation to violent crime.
Savage has spent the last 50 years studying the relationship between exposure to media violence and violent aggression.
“Although it is clear from early studies that children do, in fact, imitate aggression that they see in films (this has been demonstrated many times), it is also clear that ‘real life trumps TV every time’,” her research states.
As a result, the data that tie violent media to gun crime remain inconclusive.
LEGISLATION
In March, Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, attempted to add an amendment to Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s assault weapons ban, calling for the Justice Department to conduct in-depth reviews on violent and mature-rated video, and its possible impact on national shootings.
The amendment failed, and Congress shelved the entire bill.
Those hoping for an answer or a solution to gun mayhem – and an explanation as to whether or not violent media can is part of the problem – are still waiting. But a direct connection, if any, between violent media and gun violence has yet to be demonstrated in scientific terms.
Cardona meanwhile stands firm in his beliefs. Violent media is a problem that needs to be fixed, he said. But then again people don’t need guns to be violent.
“Guns do kill,” said Cardona. “But needless to say, with or without guns, people are still going to harm each other.”