[Strategerist]

But a million violent movies have the cumulative power to desensitize and destabilize, to make things worse, and that's what we've been seeing the past quarter century or so, the million movies. Each ups the ante in terms of carnage.

Violence has steadily dropped since 1992, but movies haven't gotten any less violent.

And 1992 was precisely when the first somewhat realistic first-person-shooter computer and video games first started coming out.

There's no mid or long-term explosion in societal violence that needs explaining (the last couple of years in specific places - Chicago, Phildelphia, etc. are of course a different story.)

[Azeem]

“And 1992 was precisely when the first somewhat realistic first-person-shooter computer and video games first started coming out. “

Castle Wolfenstein 3d was first but I remember Doom the most, especially the Alien mod and the Barney mod. And you know it was going to be good when the biggest weapon was simply called the BFG.

[Ken H]

Violence has steadily dropped since 1992, but movies haven't gotten any less violent.

Quit bringing up these pesky facts:)

[Dysart]

We see some apparent increase in the rt of mass killing sprees in terms of narrowing intervals:

Mass Shooting Incidents In The Last Two Decades, At least superficially, they appear to be coming more and more often.

I'm aware of the dropping per capita violent crime rate stats, Noonan is pointing to the aping by some vulnerable people of the acts who otherwise would not act out. (Her POV may not be obvious unless you read the article in full context)

This tiny segment wouldn't move the crime stats appreciably one way or the other; we wouldn't see it reflected. We know already that the vast majority of people aren't driven to carry out film-inspired violent acts, but commit crimes for other reasons. (Concealment of identity in robberies, etc.) So entertainment vehicles really have no inspirational qualities for them. No one really knows why the overall crime rt is dropping slightly.