Study: More Gun Violence in PG-13 Movies than R-rated Films

Though Hollywood executives and celebrities like to push for more gun control, a new study has found that the the level of gun violence in popular PG-13 movies “has exceeded that in the most popular R-rated films.”

A study that will be published in the December issue of Pediatrics found that “encounters with guns occur, on average, more than twice an hour in the best sellers in both ratings categories.”

According to the New York Times, the study “found that episodes of gun violence in PG-13 rated films had been rising since the rating was introduced in the mid-1980s, and it now surpasses the violence in R-rated films, which are technically not open to young viewers unless they are accompanied by an adult.”

One of the authors of the study noted that Hollywood studios know that “violence sells” and felt that these studios are “taking films that have a lot of violence and putting them into the PG-13 category.”