Doug Robinson: Utahn's tragedies, Newtown show 'lost balance'

But it's not as simple as guns, and Joel eagerly concedes this. If a being from another planet were to size up America simply by watching TV and movies, he would conclude that shooting and killing people were as routine as driving to work every day. The Hollywood people who make our movies are largely the anti-gun liberal crowd, and yet they can hardly make a movie that doesn't involve guns and killing people (but not animals — in "Jurassic Park," they never shoot a dinosaur, not even to save their fellow man, presumably because the animals are an endangered species, one of their pet causes).

Then, there are the video games. There are hundreds of games whose only objective is to hunt and kill people in the bloodiest, most realistic way possible through computer technology.

Do we even need a social scientist to tell us this is damaging and de-sensitizing?

Add to this equation the erosion of families and religion, and you have a recipe for mayhem and violence.

"We must change," Obama said Sunday.

Says Joel, "I hope this at least starts a debate on the issue."

Email: drob@desnews.com