Twelve teenagers and one teacher were shot to death and eighteen others were wounded at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado on April 20, 1999. The killers were two regular Columbine High School students dressed in trench coats who were later found dead from self-inflicted gunshot wounds. News of the Columbine massacre flashed across newspapers and television stations across the world. Immediately, the American people began to question how this terrifying occurred. Some researchers blamed the enormous amounts of violence, which Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris were exposed to, as the reason behind the slaughter (Vega n.pag.). These researchers also accuse television violence as being the reason behind several school shootings, suicides, and murders each year. Other analysts are convinced that television violence does not cause children to become violent and aggressive. Violence on television has no effect on an adolescent's mind and/or actions because every child has the ability to distinguish between right and wrong. .
Many people believe the television violence shown on several programs influences children to become involved in self-destructive activities. They are convinced that the brutal violence found in the media leads young, influential minds to engage in various crimes such as gang fights, school shootings, and suicides. In order to fix the problem, many Americans people the government should regulate the violence shown on television programs. These concerned men and women are convinced that the central problem of television violence is found in the heavy viewing of violent entertainment by today's adolescent, the violent content engrossed in entertainment industry, and the psychological and behavioral effects of combining these two elements (Hepburn 244). .
First of all, today's adolescent watches more television and movies when compared to an adolescent from the early 1970s.