Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Consequence-Free Gun Violence Running Rampant In PG-13 Movies
The Washington Post: Gun Violence In PG-13 Movies Soars. Are ‘Superhero’ Movies To Blame?
In the climatic battle scene in "Rogue One: A Star Wars Story," basically everyone has a gun. ... The omnipresent guns in the latest Star Wars movie also reflect a trend in Hollywood over the past 30 years toward increasing gun violence in superhero/fantasy/comic book-type action flicks aimed at children and teens — a shift that has created confusion about what differentiates a PG-13 movie such as "Rogue One" from an R-rated film. (Cha, 1/11)
Los Angeles Times: PG-13 Movies Showcase The Most – And The Most Unrealistic – Gun Violence, Study Shows
Gun violence, albeit largely bloodless and free of such troubling effects as dismemberment, death or psychological trauma, remains a prominent staple of films bearing the PG-13 rating, media analysts from the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg Public Policy Center have concluded. (Healy, 1/10)
In other news —
Boston Globe: Mass. Had Lowest Gun Death Rate In The Country In 2015, Study Says
Massachusetts had the lowest gun death rate in the country in 2015, newly released federal data shows, and advocacy groups on Tuesday attributed the state’s ranking to its tough firearm laws. There were 213 gun deaths in the state in 2015, for a rate of 3.13 per 100,000 residents, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Injury Prevention and Control. (Andersen, 1/11)
