Sorry SFJim, but I gotta reply,
a) teenagers have more ready access to firearms and other weapons than the previous generation
Not true. There are more gun laws, more restrictions on purchases, and less prevalent firearm training in this generation than any previous American generation. It used to be part of every boy's training to learn basic firearm safety, maintenance, and use through hunting, Boy's Scouts, and other activities.
(b) video game induced violence is a new, rapidly growing phenomenon
You have to prove that statement. Video games are a FANTASY version of violence, which bears little or no resemblance to reality. If you are saying that video games, since their advent, have changed young people's viewpoint on violence, you are wrong. Kids have always played violence - it's part of human nature, helps establish social structure, and provides basic training in cause and effect.
(c) both the entertainment and news media are publicizing and glorifying violence in ways never thought of by previous generations, all so they can sell more SUVs and junk food
How would you feel about a story that featured a general executing his own son for disobeying an order. Then the general's enemies rape his daughter, cut out her tongue and remove her hands. Then the general kills the sons of his enemy and feeds them in a pie to their mother, before killing their mother. Story? It's by Shakespeare, written 400 years ago. Read the epic of Gilgamesh, or the real lyrics to "Yo Ho Ho and a Bottle of Rum" if you think that violent entertainment hasn't been exciting kids since early days. Yes, violence sells, because it is a natural instinct of humanity - especially when in the service of other ideals, like justice.
(d) there is 30% more sugar in the diet of today's youth than that of previous generations
Other than an increased risk of diabetes... what does this have to do with anything? I don't think it's a good thing, and I intend to monitor my own kid's diets very carefully, but has there been an established link between sugar intake and use of violence? I've never heard of it. You might as well blame the increased use of anti-depressants for the surge in violent activity - if indeed there is one.
What I think is really motivating school violence is the lack of faith in the institutions of authority, like the family and the school administration, to resolve differences between students. A bully gets away with persecuting a victim, and the victim has less of a chance of having family to turn to for help, mostly because of the breakdown in marriage. An overworked, single mother can cope with a bully less easily than a two-parent family that can have "a hand free" to help the victim work with the school administration to resolve differences with the bully. So the victim turns to the eternal equalizer, the handgun, and kills the bully. But he's crossed a line, and therefore goes on a shooting spree that takes out anyone he feels persecutes or looks down on him.
It isn't just single parent families, either. There are plenty of two parent families that don't pay enough attention to what their kids are doing, caring about them, and giving their kids the impression that there is a way to solve problems without violence.
Gun control is not the issue - while the gun makes it very easy to kill, killing has been happening with knives, bats, and rocks for a long, long time. What kids need is a sense that there is a valid way to solve their problems without violence. When humans feel like violence is the only solution, that's when they pick up the gun.
I'm against gun control - because it takes away the option of violent resolution to situations where violence IS the only option - like a breakin, or a fascist dictatorship.
CZAR