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I'd like to express my complete agreement with Matt. The video games and the violent movies provide the lecture material - death and destruction with none of the grief or pain. Yes, we of the older generation may have had more simple classes in the manner of cartoons (how many times was Wiley Coyote crushed, smashed etc by the Road Runner), but the "realism" was never there. We preach individualism to our kids and inform them of their "rights". Why should we be surprised when two kids who see themselves as victims (armed with Marylin Manson, Hitler, Satan, bigotry & religious prejudice), seek to wreak the sort of havok they can on "Doom" or "Die Hard Trilogy". What if they were armed with a baseball bat or a kitchen knife- would the mortality have been as high? Of course not!! Instead they were armed with "bombs" from the Internet, and guns from the Constitution. It is times like these I am glad that I can bring my children up in a country where gun ownership is still NOT the norm, where ownership of semi-automatic rifles etc is illegal and where children under the age of 18 are not allowed to buy knives. We learned a lesson from Port Arthur & for the sake of your beautiful children, (the "Cassies" of the USA) I pray that you will learn a lesson too. By all means feed your children healthy food, but are you talking about the chicken or the egg here. Could there be some correlation between providing our children with "good" health food and taking the time to listen (truly listen) to them, to hear their insecurities, to give them our unconditional love? Less time at the Play Station with the fast food and more at the table in conversation. Could this lead to a more balanced youth and a decreased need to "bear arms"? Just a thought & my 2c. Leslie Nicholson Lecturer in Musculoskeletal Physiotherapy / Sports Physiotherapy School of Physiotherapy, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Sydney, PO Box 170, Lidcombe 2141 NSW, Australia, phone: 9351-19369 Fax: 9351-9278 E mail; [log in to unmask] WWW: http://www.cchs.su.edu.au/Academic/BIO/biomech/smrg/nicholson/leslie.html %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%