On July 19/20 a gunman dressed as the Joker killed at least 12 theater-goers at a mignight screening of the new Batman film, Dark Knight Rises. At the moment the gunman's motivation is not clear.
There have again been calls for gun control in the USA. One of the few politicians who has long taken a stand is New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, the billionaire backer of Mayors Against Illegal Guns, a coalition of mayors advocating for stricter rules on gun sales and ownership.
“I don’t think there’s any other developed country in the world that has remotely the problem we have,” Bloomberg said. “ We have more guns than people in this country."
But is the problem also to do with a culture of films in which extreme violence is commonplace? Many people were shocked at the levels of beating and killing in the preceding film, the Dark Knight - which was not R-rated in most countries, enabling 12 year olds to witness a deranged joker shooting people dead apparently just because he felt like it.
Is it time for such violence to be controlled and restricted, in the ways that 'adult' movies are?
Do you agree with the proposal below???
[Remember to check out the Board for this case too...]
It is proposed that films that depict extreme violence (eg: murders and severe beatings) should be restricted to over-18s