But maybe they have more reason to worry today. Through the Internet, television, video games and other media, Americans have a 24-hour pipeline into a pop culture seemingly more violent and graphic than even a decade ago. The family of a boy who shot five people last year at an Arkansas school said he may have been influenced by violent rap-music lyrics. But simply hearing a song or playing a video game does not a violent heart make. Pop culture in Japan is rife with violent and sexually explicit images, but that country continues to have a far lower crime rate than the United States.
Japan is also more strict about . .
The hot-button issue has heated up again in the wake of Columbine. The U.S. Senate voted last week to place fresh restrictions on the sale of guns, including requiring trigger locks or a storage device for every handgun sold. But many conservatives and others pin part of the problem on a failure to fully enforce existing gun laws. The killers behind the spate of school shootings all had easy access to guns and other weaponry. Two came from his father's unlocked cabinet, the third from a family car.