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Here is another thought that I've not seen a lot of people use-Live Free or Die. That means that even if you can blame Columbine 100% on violent lyrics, violent movies, and violent video games, it's still worth it. I will always take the consequences of free speech over the consequences of government controlled speech.
People have free will. The most they can be is influenced by popular culture. If some nut job watches Taxi Driver then shoots Reagan, is it Taxi Drivers fault? No, something was wrong with that man. Look at the kids in Colorado-of couse they listened to Marylin Manson and played violent video games-all kids do. What set them apart? They were teased. They were bullied. They hit back violently. So, it's easier for the man on the news to say in his five minute segment before commercials, "These kids listened to heavy metal and played Doom" than to say "Our society allows a certain amount of adolescant violence because it's an evolutionary way of weeding out the lesser kids. These kids were hitting back, but they crossed the lines of what is acceptable in our society." That's too ambigious. It's too scary to say we allow certain levels of violence, that we are a violent society, that what those kids did was not too far removed from what they'd endured all their school life. That might offend someone.
No, so they scapegoat it on The Matrix, Natural Born Killers, and Insane Clown Posse. That's a much simpler answer.
So, what? These are popular films, music, and video games. Is the goverment going to get involved? Is that what people want? The industry will make them as long as they are popular. They will always be popular. So, the only way is to lobby them with special interests groups, but that is a facist way of doing something; "I don't like violent videos, so I won't watch them, and I don't want anyone to have the choice of watching them either".
So, violent lyrics may lead to aggressive thoughts. In this case, the medicine is worse than the disease.
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