I don't want to talk about the Colorado "movie massacre" because I wish it didn't even happen, but it did. Some nut with something to prove (namely, how violence can solve low-self-esteem issues, I gather) took it upon himself to ruin the lives of innocent people who were just trying to see the new Batman movie. And now, once again, we're left trying to figure out "what this means about" modern American society.
The easy thing to do would be to blame society, what with our violent video games (though I'm guessing a majority of the people who play them don't want to see what it would really be like to go on a rampage, with real people taking the place of flesh-munching zombies or Russian super-spies), violent movies (though again, most people who see movies don't feel the urge to act out what they see onscreen once they get past the age of seven), or rap music (hey, because, well...it's violent, right?). Like I said, it's the easy thing to do.
Another easy thing to do would say that it's somehow the fault of gun makers, though (as it turns out) the gunman (whose name I will not dignify here, because that's all he really wants, the attention) purchased them legally. So banning guns isn't the answer (though maybe doing a better job of vetting the people who buy them wouldn't be such a bad idea, as we seem to agree in the wake of every mass-shooting).
It's not the fault of art that this guy went nuts, though yes we do have violent movies and violent video games and they are easy enough to identify and paint as the villains in this debacle (while absolving the folks who maybe should've seen this coming). I have watched well over two thousand decapitations, gunshot wounds, axe-wielding lunatics, cannibalistic space aliens, and Michael Bay explosion-porn epics to well qualify as potentiallu under the influence of such images if I so chose to enact something on this level, yet I never have and never will (and it's not just because I don't like guns that much; in theory, when you're a kid, they're cool, but when you actually shoot one and it feels like a sledgehammer to your shoulder blade, you kinda lose interest). I was brought up to have respect for human life, a basic decency that transcends whatever religious or cultural imperatives that might argue otherwise. Do I like to play video games where bullets take apart the skulls of my opponents? Yes. Do I want to see that happen in real life? Not a chance.
Art can trigger someone's deep-seated notions of depravity, this is true. But let's not issue blanket statements that it is the sole cause of last Friday morning's bloodbath. This was someone with an axe to grind, a call for help that grew into something much worse when he couldn't find another way of making himself heard. The dude needs to go away for a very, very, very long time, and not even sniff a chance at life outside prison walls. But we also need to do a better job of recognizing those around us who could see such beauty in chaos, not on a movie screen but in real life. That's when we stop this crap from happening, not by taking away violent entertainment.
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