The federal government focuses blame for violence on guns,entertainment and sometimes on the news media. We agree - up to a point.There are certainly many too many guns in our society. And guns are treatedmuch too flippantly. If no new guns were made or sold for a hundred years,there would still be way too many left. Why would a civilized people needor want so many weapons? Are we all neurotic paranoids?

We support a program whereby all police and law enforcementauthorities, all governmental agencies and all branches of the militaryreduce their vast hoard of firearms by 90%, down to 10% of present levels.We further support a program whereby private citizens reduce their holdingsof guns to not more than one gun per citizen. God, 250,000,000 guns shouldbe plenty for any culture!

We should also keep in mind that in any given 10 yearperiod, the police and the government kill about 11 times as many personsas are killed by other "criminals."

We also endorse, up to a point, curtailing the violencein "entertainment." Where citizens and children observe violence in entertainment,they accept the violent behavior as an acceptable mode of conduct. Theproblem with censoring the "free speech" of entertainment is that it infringesupon an essential liberty which must not be sacrificed even in the police-statethat the United States has become. 

Persons involved in "entertainment' must practice a responsibleself-control. Those who sponsor and disseminate entertainment must exercisediscrimination and social consciousness about the way they are educatingthe citizens and influencing the culture. 

I've used the term "entertainment' broadly to include,among other things, wrestling, talk shows, pseudo-news, films, video games,sports and so forth. Many prisoners became criminals because they learnedthat the mindless violence of "entertainment' was acceptable, even desirable,conduct.

In addition, we deplore the modern "news" media. Whatpasses for "news" in all the mediums and especially in television is reallyan extension of the entertainment formulas. It is designed to earn revenueof the disseminator of the "news," not to inform or educate the public.

News has been replaced with gossip, emotionalism and obsessiveness.It's "continual coverage" where the viewer is a peeping tom. It obsesseson violence, pain and suffering, anything emotional and effeminate.

The news media's fixation upon, and instant replays of,violence, especially where it glorifies the oppressive behavior of thecops, contributes greatly to our culture of violence. 

The federal government's error in assigning blame to gunsand gangs and CNN is that it pretends that there is "good" violence and"bad" violence. The government wants to ignore its direct role in creatingour culture of violence. Of all the institutions in our society, the governmentis, by far, the biggest cause of the violence.

The government is the authority figure for all of us.It is the example. It is the "big brother" who shows us by example what'sright and wrong. The government, on all levels, teaches us that violenceis "good" when you dislike someone enough. The government executes peoplebecause they have offended us. We go to war because our egos/prides arestubbed.

The government justifies and rationalizes the violenceit imposes upon its victims. Citizens learn from that example that violenceis "good" if it can be justified or rationalized.

Violence is almost always undesirable. The governmentand especially its police powers must begin teaching restraint, self-controland negotiation. The government's example must be reason over emotionalism,disarmament over armament and restraint over extremism. The governmentmust stop over-doing things so greatly.

The violence in our culture has been caused more by copsthan by movies, more by the government than by video games, more by armiesthan by guns. Many men are in prison because they were good students. Theysaw what the government did, they learned what the culture respected, andthey became more "robo' than "Robocop!"