Video games, TV shows or maybe its bowling that has our kids killing one another?

Bowling for Columbine was without a doubt one of Michael Moore's most intriguing tongue in cheek documentaries that slowly deconstructed and pointed out the stupidity of blaming teenage violence on the dark musical stylings of singers such as Marilyn Manson. While it is no secret that Moore has a tendency to be blatant with his own personal agenda it was hard to not see the logic behind his sarcastic message, that it was just as likely to be bowling that cause two boys to tragically kill 13 people and then themselves as it was to be their choice in music.

Now it seems that the new poster boy for the dangers of children being exposed to violence is Andrew Conley who at just 17 years of age killed his 10 year old brother and now at the age of 18 has been sentenced to life imprisonment. So what is the main message that the media has taken from this clearly disturbed young-man who has been diagnosed as being mentally ill by three doctors? That he admitted to the police he killed to be like the TV show Dexter, because clearly there is not a more important message that could be sent out to the public (sarcasm intended). The young man who admitted to hearing voices and has been experiencing urges to kill people since he was 8 years of age was put on the back burner when being discussed in the media, instead it has been blamed on the show that has been running since 06 (long after Andrew admitted to having urges to kill people). Instead he has been labeled the Dexter killer, with the clearly intelligent and well thought out comparisons being pointed out between Conley's hair color and the character Dexter's.

Its perplexing to me that this one element of a case will dredge up the old argument of video and TV show violence corruption our youth, when the real issue should be why no one seemed to notice this young man was clearly mentally unwell from at least the age of 8. Maybe instead of focusing on blaming other people this terrible incident could be used to focus on identifying issues within our homes and local areas, as undiagnosed mental illness and depression affect everyone involved but can be identified and aided if people know what to look for.