Andy Martin says liberal lies quickly contaminate our national grief over Newtown school shooting
Andy Martin, America Newtown , Connecticut Newtown Hollywood violence is the root cause of the growing threat to American society.
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Conservative blogger and Internet Powerhouse Andy Martin
says “liberal lies” are distorting the reality of what happened in Newtown, Connecticut
Andy says Hollywood’s violent entertainment has become a threat to America’s psychological security
Andy says “nothing will change” as a result of the Newtown school shooting, because Republicans have the Constitution in their favor and Democrats are unwilling to confront the impact of violent entertainment propagated by the party’s Hollywood “base”
(MANCHESTER, NH) (December 15, 2012) Conservative blogger and Internet Powerhouse Andy Martin offers a detailed analysis of what happened at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newton, Connecticut and points the blame at Hollywood’s violent entertainment for the latest random shooting.
The nation was and is in shock. National mourning for the lost lives is appropriate. And yet liberal Democratic Party ghouls were quick to pounce on the random tragedy to advance their pernicious gun control agenda. Andy, one of President Barack Obama’s leading opponents, surprisingly opens his remarks with words of praise for the president. Here are Andy’s thoughts:
I. An overview of the tragedy
A. It’s OK to cry
I don’t often have kind words to say about Barack Obama but I believe both he and his administration struck the proper tone on Friday afternoon when the nation was in shock and mourning. Obama could not hide his own tears. I know I felt droplets of water coming down my cheeks as I watched hours of television coverage.
Obama reminded us it’s Ok to cry when we confront extreme violence and sudden death. Although the Newton murders were caused by a single individual, the large number of victims made the school shooting a national tragedy. Obama made an obligatory statement that something “needs to be done” but his administration thoughtfully stated that Friday was “not the day” to begin a political battle over the nation’s gun laws.
B. Sometimes saturation media coverage is also OK
There was, of course, wall-to-wall media coverage of the Connecticut shootings. Evening news broadcasts were extended; network anchors headed for nearby Newtown, Connecticut, 60 miles from New York. Sometimes media overdo their coverage of senseless, tragic, random events. But not on Friday the 14th. Late in the day the anti-gun bias of the media began to seep into the coverage but overall the horrific events were covered in a reasonable manner.
II. The liberals’ response
Within hours attention was shifting from the children who had been murdered to coverage of liberal Democrat demands for “gun control.” Ironically, an Illinois liberal had just penned a column documenting that “concealed carry” laws do not lead to an increase in gun violence (see link #1 below). In other words, excessive gun control does not lead to more safety and security.
In the days ahead we can expect an orgy of media demands to “do something” about “guns.” And yet the Democrats refuse to do what needs to be done: we must stem the tide of violent Hollywood entertainment that is destabilizing children and young adults.
As soon as the dimensions of the Newtown tragedy became apparent the “usual suspects” starting blaming inadequate gun control (see link #2 below) as the cause of the mass murders. Nothing could be further from the truth.
III. My theory of Hollywood-generated violence
A. I have spent parts of my adult life studying violence and mental illness. During the Viet-Nam war I realized how violence in battle could sow the seeds of post traumatic stress disorder. I had a bit role in the My Lai Massacre controversy and ended up on my first presidential enemies list when I commented that men lost control dealing with endless combat. Later I studied violence in Cambodia, Laos, Iraq and Iran.
I grew up in a town with a mental institution, which we regularly visited, and saw the ravages of pre-Thorazine incarceration for the mentally ill. As a young law student I became interested in the connection between law and psychiatry. I have seen close friends devastated by mental illness and advised psychiatric patients on their problems. While living in Florida I had a “concealed carry” permit and regularly went out shooting with friends. Living in Connecticut my life was threatened and I legally purchased a shotgun for home defense. So I have not led a life in the isolated liberal media cocoon where all violence is bad and only guns are the cause.
Over the past forty-six years I have seen violence from every angle and studied mental illness up close. That is why every time there is a random shooting - and the liberal chorus begins to sing for gun control - I fight back and expose Hollywood’s violent entertainment as the greatest threat to young minds, with an infinitesimal number of those minds eventually going berserk and committing random crimes.
Who do I blame for the violence? Well, I’m of an age and cohort (the “boomers”) who grew up watching innocuous 1950’s television. There were westerns on TV, but violence was a sideshow. Even into the late 1960’s excessively violent movies created a stir. Violent “games” had not been invented.
The level of violent entertainment today is unprecedented. And violent entertainment is having an increasing effect on a growing number of young people. Saturation violence has become a serious national problem.
But there was no mention of saturation Hollywood violence in any of the Newtown shooting coverage. In fairness, out of the millions who are somewhat impacted by Hollywood violence, less than a dozen have gone on to commit mass murders. But Hollywood violence is at the core of these individuals’ dysfunction. There also seems to be a “gender gap” with violence. Boys, who often become addicted to violent games, appear more vulnerable than girls, but we don’t really don’t have solid research.
IV. Why nothing will change as a result of the Newtown shooting
The Newtown school shooting tragedy will follow a predictable path. First there will be a sudden awareness of the enormous tragedy. Then the media firestorm will take over. The media barrage will be followed by liberal storm troopers who seek to attack the National Rifle Association (NRA) and who demand “gun control” as a solution to what in reality is a problem rooted in random madness and mental illness.
Reality will set in, eventually. Adam Lanza had serious mental problems. Already he has gone from being the random “gunman” to being a mental case in the New York Daily News (link #3 below) which published the first summary of Lanza’s troubled personal history. The New York Post quickly followed with a headline that Lanza was “autistic” and may have been “home-schooled” (link #4 below), followed by more muted article in the New York Times and Wall Street Journal (link #5). Wait until the parents of autistic and home-schooled children respond.
Like all of his predecessors in mass murder, Lanza was someone with clear indications of severe mental illness and social alienation. But only the New York Daily News coverage focused on Lanza’s predilection for video games (link #1).
Standing back from the media firestorm it is clear that all of the recent mass murderers have had fixations with violent entertainment, and have had emotional developmental difficulties that left them unable to function as adults. Lanza was living “at home” with his mother, who was “caring” for her 20 year-old son.
The only bizarre issue in the entire Newtown shooting episode is why Lanza’s mother had three extremely dangerous firearms in the home when she knew her son had serious emotional disturbances. Was denial a factor? Did Lanza's highly successful, educated, wealthy parents find it difficult to confront the obvious evidence about their son? That’s the real question. In time the truth will emerge. Mrs. Lanza’s poor judgment is clearly the root cause of the latest massacre, not any “liability” on the part of the inanimate guns themselves.
I am not alone if focusing on the serious psychiatric impact of violent entertainment. But the reality of where violent entertainment comes from, and who profits from this violence, are difficult issues for Democrats to confront. Violent video games and films are produced by the real “base” of the Democratic Party: Hollywood. Hollywood money elected Rahm Emanuel Mayor of Chicago. Hollywood money reelected President Barack Obama. How can Democrats challenge their financial base and admit that Hollywood’s violent profiteering is endangering young minds? And so Democrats ignore the “elephant in the room” – the impact of Hollywood’s violent entertainment on young minds – and prefer to attack “guns” as the root cause of our national challenge. Guns, which can’t fight back, are safer targets than psychiatrists, who can identify the real causes of violence.
Even within the last week a profiling pattern emerges from the two violent individuals who committed mass murder: they were both mentally and emotionally challenged young men, socially dysfunctional and part of alienated, separated families. I am not a psychiatrist and I do not have all of the answers; but I do have legitimate questions. Boys appear to be more vulnerable to violent stimuli. Boys also seem more vulnerable to marital breakdowns. And yet we have to keep matters in perspective; despite the fact that children are exposed to an unprecedented avalanche of violent entertainment, the number of people who become mass murderers is infinitesimal.
Another interesting factor is that many of these mass murderers come from suburban home environments. The urban jungle has yet to produce a mass murder at a school. Why? I don’t know. There is certainly violence in urban areas, but no mass murderers. Why not? A fair question.
Blaming “guns” and “lax gun control” are easy answers. And Democrats love easy solutions. But random violence and mass murder do not stem from guns themselves. New Hampshire is loaded with guns. We do not see 20-somethings committing mass murders. Rather, at the national level we confront a psychiatric crisis in identifying that tiny number of people who morph from disturbed children into adults confronted by alienation, despair and vulnerability, and lack resilience and coping mechanisms.
The NRA is not to blame for Adam Lanza; the second Amendment is not to blame for his mass murder spree. “Guns” are not to blame. Adam Lanza was a mentally ill young adult whose principal caretaker, his mother, had the bad judgment to have a small arsenal of legally purchased guns present in the home. Adam’s mom paid with her life for her error in judgment. There is no way society is responsible for parental mistakes. Connecticut has relatively strict gun laws. If a parent is dumb enough to leave guns openly accessible while caring for a mentally ill child, what can you expect?
We can mourn the loss of the children. And we should mourn the loss of the children. As President Obama said, we should clutch our children closely and tell them we love them. But we must also exercise parental and societal vigilance to identify that small number of individuals who may pose a threat to themselves and society. That’s the mundane explanation for what happened Friday. Mrs. Lanza made a tragic error in judgment. And her mistake proved fatal.
After the stripping away liberal lies and media exaggerations, the explanation for what happened in Newtown is that simple. That is why there will be no new gun laws, and no changes in existing regulations. People make mistakes. Sometimes they pay for their mistakes with their lives. We must mourn, but we will survive. We are a resilient nation. America cannot and should now be held hostage by a handful of mass murderers.
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LINKS TO THIS STORY (cut and paste the entire link below and not just the underlined portion):
[1]
http://www.suntimes.com/news/miller/16991348-452/
concealed-carry-will-not-do-us-in.html
[2]
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/15/opinion/
newtown-conn-and-guns-in-america.html
[3]
http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/adam-lanza-
20-deeply-disturbed-kid-article-1.1220752
[4]
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/autistic_
loner_explosion_l4kSMDgX2pADJyjxx1G4mI
[5]
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/15/nyregion/
adam-lanza-an-enigma-who-is-now-identified-
as-a-mass-killer.html?hp&_r=0
http://blogs.wsj.com/metropolis/2012/12/14/
details-emerge-about-family-of-suspected-
newtown-school-gunman/
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Andy is a legendary New Hampshire, New York and Chicago-based muckraker, author, Internet columnist, talk television pioneer, radio talk show host, broadcaster and media critic. Andy’s family immigrated to New Hampshire 100 years ago; today his home overlooks the Merrimack River. He has forty-four years of background in radio and television. He is the author of “Obama: The Man Behind The Mask” [www.OrangeStatePress.com] and he produced the Internet film "Obama: The Hawaii’ Years” [www.BoycottHawaii.com]. Andy is the Executive Editor and publisher of the “Internet Powerhouse,” www.ContrarianCommentary.com. He comments on New Hampshire, national and international events with more than four decades of investigative and analytical experience both in the USA and around the world.
Andy has been a leading corruption fighter in American politics and courts for over forty-five years. [www.AndyMartin.com] He is currently sponsoring www.AmericaisReadyforReform.com. See also www.FirstRespondersOnline.us; www.EnglishforAmerica.org
He holds a Juris Doctor degree from the University of Illinois College of Law and is a former adjunct professor of law at the City University of New York (LaGuardia CC, Bronx CC).
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Labels: Andy Martin, Barack Obama, Contrarian Commentary, Democratic Party, Hollywood, Newtown school shooting, NRA, Sandy Hook Elementary, Second Amendment, violent entertainment
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