The recent school shooting in which a 1st grader shot their teacher raises many questions. Potential factors:
▪️ effect of media violence on kids (those younger than 8 can find it more difficult to distinguish between reality and fantasy)
▪️ easy access to unsecured guns (4.6M U.S. kids live in homes with loaded unsecured guns)
@publichealth
@edutooters #violence #prevention #PublicHealth #media
@crecente @publichealth @edutooters
...sure you're listing those in the right order here? 🤔
@MrBerard @publichealth @edutooters
I didn't mean to imply they were in order of importance.
This is the order used in the article and it didn't occur to me they might be perceived as being ranked.
I don't want to let media off the hook ... but 4.6M U.S. kids around unsecured & loaded firearms is outrageous.
@crecente @publichealth @edutooters
The mere fact another factor is listed beyond gun access is this uniquely US-centric head-in-the-sand thing the moment it come to guns. It's like fish not being aware of water...
The rest of the world also has violence in media, but no such accidents.
Freakonomics famously contained a chapter on how private pools kill more children than guns. I don't remember Baywatch being put on trial...
@MrBerard @publichealth @edutooters
(1/2)
Many of us in the U.S. are acutely aware of the impact of the gun ecosystem. But that does not mean we believe that in the absence of guns we would no longer have violence. (Though that violence would be far less deadly.)
The NGO I work with, for example, follows the Social-Ecological Model to understand & prevent violence.
In that model, social & cultural norms also play a role. Media helps shape those norms.
🌐 https://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/about/social-ecologicalmodel.html
@MrBerard @publichealth @edutooters
(2/2)
Just because Media is not *the* factor in U.S. violence that does not mean it is not *a* factor.
I highly recommend everybody take a free online course called 'Understanding Violence' offered by Emory University.
⭐ It includes conversations with President Jimmy Carter.
It also includes a brief presentation by myself where I talk about research supporting the use of video games to prevent violence.
@crecente @publichealth @edutooters
Sure, the media is a factor in "violence".
A six year old shooting an adult? I daresay the prime factor is a six year old having access to a gun.
The standard playbook of doubt is to confound the issue by including other factors.
E.g. The tobacco lobby, who sponsored a swathe of studies arguing for other factors for cancer. This delayed sensible health policy by at least 20 years.
Ditto the fossil fuel lobby.
@MrBerard @crecente @publichealth @edutooters
Thank you for making this point.
There is a very clear link between access to and violence from guns, lots of case studies within the US as well as other countries who have had tight gun controls for a long long time like Japan, and counties that shifted policies.
Sure exposure to violence on TV desensitizes us, but that is not a US unique thing. What is unique is the collective societal priority and value to have gun manufacturers make lots of money at the cost of lives.
https://www.healthdata.org/acting-data/gun-violence-united-states-outlier
