Gavin B.

Welcome back Rickenbacker, haven't seen you around for a few days.

You absolutely right about everything you said and I'm not suggesting censorship. But if a persons is f*cked-out-of-their-mind insane, are you prepared to state unequivocally that a video like that has no effect on their behavior? To the contrary, everything you see or hear as an effect on you, unless you're a dead man.

As for blaming whoever gives a spree killer the weapon. Where do you start? There's a million ways for a kid to get a gun including stealing it, buying it from an owner who isn't required to verify the age of the purchaser, or purchasing it at gun show where nobody asks for proof of age.

Viginia Tech Killer, Seung-Hui Cho purchased a 22 caliber Walther P-22 at JND Pawnbrokers in Blacksburg, Virginia, where Cho completed the legally-required background check for the purchase transaction and took possession of the handgun. Cho bought a second handgun, a Glock 19 semiautomatic pistol, on March 13, 2007 from Roanoke Firearms, a licensed gun dealer located in Roanoke, Virginia. Despite having a history of being an in-patient at a mental health treatment facility Cho had no problems passing the psychiatric history check.

Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris persuaded Robyn Anderson, an 18-year-old Columbine student to make a straw purchase of two shotguns and Hi-Point 995 Carbine for the pair. Anderson was not charged for her part in the straw purchase in exchange for her cooperation with the investigation that followed the shootings. After illegally acquiring the weapons, Harris and Klebold sawed off the barrels of the shotguns, shortening the overall length to below 25 inches, a felony under the National Firearms Act.

The problem is that spree killers are largely anonymous until some unknown stimuli sets them off. We do know is nearly all young spree killers have a common fascination with violent and mobid images on the internet, music videos and computer games.

Many spree killers claimed to be inspired by movies. The film 'Natural Born Killers' may have set a record, however, with at least 14 murderers having claimed to be emulating the film. All of the killers according to author John Gilbeaut in his book Deadly Inspiration weren't noted by school authorities, neighbors or their own families as being psychotic, violent or troubled prior to their killing sprees.

The first impression I got of the Dead Weather video was that it had the same kind of hip ironic attitude toward violence as the Natural Born Killers which was written by Quentin Tarrentino and directed by Oliver Stone.

Both Tarrentino and Stone are important filmakers who should be aware that a few young people will miss irony of their artistic statements and get swept away by the visceral violence of the film. And these young people aren't raving psychotics, at least prior to viewing the film.

Tarrentino and Stone should own up to some measure of ethical responsibilty when a spree killer tells the world "I was inspired by Natural Born Killers." I've heard Stone express regrets about filming NBK and he also gained an unwanted entourage of scary admirers and stalkers after making the film. That may been what he regretted most about making the movie.

If two weeks from now, two kids have a ritualistic duel in a vacant lot and kill each other at point blank range with automatic weapons are you prepared to say the Dead Weather video had nothing with it, even if you found out later that both kids were obsessed with the video.