The Role of Washington in Curbing Youth Violence in Wake of the Colorado Shootings, Can Tougher Gun Control or Other

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Spurred by America's worst school shootings ever, Congress is lashing out against a culture of guns and violence that many blame for encouraging mayhem by youths.

"We are absolutely in a culture war for the hearts and minds of our children," said Sen. Max Cleland (D) of Georgia in one of several crowded Capitol Hill hearings probing causes of youth violence this week.

Waving ultraviolent video games such as "Doom," reading death- laced lyrics from Marilyn Manson, and screening scenes of school- room killings from the movie "Basketball Diaries," lawmakers and experts denounced what Sen. Joseph Lieberman (D) of Connecticut called "the culture of carnage …