Senate Orders Study of Violence in Entertainment

Firing a broadside at Hollywood in reaction to the Colorado high school massacre, the Senate on Wednesday voted unanimously to require a federal investigation of the impact on children of violence in video games, movies and music--and of whether the entertainment industry has marketed violence to children.

The measure, approved 98 to 0, would also call on the entertainment industry to take voluntary action to minimize excessive violence in its products.

“We live in a society that glorifies violence,” said Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.). “It is time for us to renew culture in America.”

After blasting Hollywood, the Senate then handed a big victory to the National Rifle Assn. It rejected, 51 to 47, an amendment to make it harder for children and criminals to obtain firearms at gun shows. Instead, the Senate passed a watered-down alternative--proposing a system of voluntary background checks at such shows--that gun control advocates said is a setback to their cause.

One of those advocates, Sen. Richard Durbin (D-Ill.), reacted to the gun control votes by saying: “The U.S. Senate has learned very little” from the shootings in Littleton, Colo.

Both California Democrats, Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein, voted for the tougher gun-show amendment and against the GOP alternative.

The two-pronged debate Wednesday on the causes of and possible cures for youth violence came as the Senate continued work on legislation to give states and prosecutors more aid to crack down on juvenile crime. That measure has become the vehicle for discussing a panoply of ideas about what the federal government should do in response to the recent spate of school shootings.

The ultimate fate of the entertainment and gun amendments is uncertain. Neither is included in the House version of the juvenile crime bill. And in the Senate, Republican leaders may cut off debate on their chamber’s version of the bill if work on it is not finished by the end of this week.

In Wednesday’s debate, Republicans argued that the problem of youth violence is deeply rooted in U.S. popular culture. They gave top billing to amendments directed at taming violent images in movies, television shows, video games, music and other media to which children are exposed.

The GOP’s most significant amendment, sponsored by Brownback, would:

* Authorize a study by the Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice of whether the entertainment industry targets children in marketing violence-filled products. The study would be due one year after the law takes effect.

* Order a study by the National Institutes of Health into the effect of violence in video games, music and movies on children’s behavior. Previous studies have focused on violence on television.

* Grant a limited antitrust exemption to allow entertainment companies to develop a voluntary “code of conduct” to limit violence in their products.

The measure calls for the exemption because the threat of an antitrust lawsuit was part of the reason the National Assn. of Broadcasters in 1983 dropped a code calling for “decency and decorum” in broadcast standards.

Brownback’s proposal urges producers of television programs, video games, music and the like to work together to develop a voluntary set of programming guidelines to address public concerns about their “harmful influence” on children.

The inquiry by the FTC would look into charges by critics of the entertainment industry that, although makers of movies, video games and other products may be using a voluntary rating system to indicate when a product is not suitable for children, marketing efforts nonetheless are being directed at young people.

Hilary Rosen, president of the Recording Industry Assn. of America, said her group opposes the amendment as an unnecessary attack on an industry that regulates itself by labeling some products as inappropriate for children.

“I understand there are a lot of unhappy policymakers who want to send a message to the entire industry, and this is an easy way to send a message,” Rosen said. “The music industry does not market violence to children. We promote artists.”

The Motion Picture Assn. of America declined comment. However, at a recent hearing, Jack Valenti, the group’s president, cautioned against attempts to legislate quick solutions to youth violence.

Before approving the Brownback amendment, the Senate, by voice vote, adopted a provision by Boxer that would mandate a similar FTC study of marketing practices by gun manufacturers. She displayed examples of gun advertisements in catalogs and magazines that seemed geared to a young audience.

One ad showed a youngster holding a gun, with the words: “Start them young. There’s no time like the present.”

After initially resisting the proposal, Republican leaders quietly accepted the Boxer amendment without a roll-call vote.

While Republicans led the charge in attacking the cultural roots of violence, gun control advocates argued that a bigger problem is the easy availability of guns. They planned to offer a series of gun control amendments to the juvenile crime bill, but their prospects for enactment dimmed with the defeat of the gun show proposal, which many considered the most likely to pass.

At issue are the more than 5,000 gun shows attended each year by more than 5 million people to buy and sell firearms. Police have said some of the weapons used in the Colorado shootings had been obtained at a gun show.

Under current law, any federally licensed gun dealer has to conduct a background check on a national computerized data bank of anyone who buys a gun. However, about 40% of the guns sold at gun shows are by people who are not licensed dealers and therefore are not required to run background checks.

Gun control advocates say that is a loophole that makes it too easy for criminals and minors to buy guns.

“Regrettably, it’s become clear to our youth that gun shows provide easy access to weapons,” said Sen. Frank R. Lautenberg (D-N.J.).

He introduced the amendment to require that all guns be sold by federally licensed dealers at gun shows--a change vigorously opposed by the NRA.

Sen. Larry E. Craig (R-Idaho), an NRA board member, argued that the broader background check requirement would impose an unnecessary paperwork burden on individual gun owners who do not sell firearms for a business but have a right to conduct private sales.

Craig proposed the successful alternative amendment that would allow--but not require--private sales at gun shows to be subject to background checks.

Times staff writer Faye Fiore contributed to this story.