Today marks a terrible day in the history of violence in schools in the United States. There has been another school shooting, this one taking place on a college campus.
So the question on my mind is how the authorities and media will spin this one. When the investigators are breaking down the motives, will they find out that the shooters liked to play Counter-Strike? If so, we could see a bigger push to ban violent video games. With Grand Theft Auto IV coming soon, will games with similar themes face extinction?
Click here for the blog entry on GlueMeat that goes with this image.
We (gamers) hate being stereotyped into the category of school shooters. The fact that these people may have played video games (violent or not) is irrelevant. If people think that video games put these ideas into the shooters’ heads then they are naive and stupid. There is a lot more than just video games at work here. We, as a society, need to find a way to stop lying to ourselves. People will do what they do because they can, plain and simple. Violence is inescapable and can be found around every corner.
You are responsible for your own actions. To blame them on someone or something else just proves that you are a coward. Let’s just see how this Virginia Tech shooting unfolds. If the gunmen end up being FPS addicts then I’m going to start hiding my games because you never know when they’re going to start a video-game burning crusade. I’m sure Hillary Clinton and Jack Thompson will be driving the small bus together.
Filed under: First-Person Shooters, School Shootings, Video Games and Violence, Violent Games, Virginia Tech Shooting
I would agree with you in part. I have supported freedom of speech in the past when it comes to violence in the media and video games. I don’t believe that this is an issue of causation. There is, however, a strong corelation between the rise of this media and our willingness to kill. Check out this article I wrote and get a hold of Grossman’s book. It is very insightful and is not coming from a pacifists perspective.
ethanmorris.wordpress.com
Article: Disciple of Violence at Virginia Tech
Dr. Phil has already placed blame:
http://scienceblogs.com/omnibrain/2007/04/reaping_the_benefits_tragedy.php
I Don’t Think Video Games Should Be Blamed At All! I’m Not A Gamer Myself And I Have Ideas Of Going Into a School And Shootin Some Bitches Off, Sure I Haven’t Gone And Put My Plans Into Action Yet But My Ideas Were Definitely NOT Inspired By ANY Video Game Cause I Don’t Play Any.
Stop blaming the games, Games come merely from what ppl have experienced/thought of/ acted in thier own minds/or seen/or heard of…
I find video games are actually the reason we havent seen more high school shootings. – Remember, ppl have to vent, very few percent of us like to take virtual reality and turn it into reality.
Video games are a way for some of these ppl to vent. As everything else in the world, its not always enough for some ppl.
Video games are not the leading cause to shooting because they are violent.People who can’t control their own lives kill people and know why they did the shootings.Reality is way different then virtual reality so why who people want to hate on non-reality video games.
Troubled people dont develop the killer instincts through movies or video games because it is inborn, something they had since they were kids, they always take long to unleash the evil doings because they spend most of their time planning, but as soon as they are ready they know that their lives will be either lost too in the incident or they will face a long jail term. Myspace.com/emanamedevol.
its the research the only reason there is more school shooters is becuase your all putting them up for it the more you give them to research the more there ganna look and become obsessed with it, look at all the sites you can learn how to do a school shooting right becuase learn what others done wrong
[...] – Alex Taldren comenta em seu blog. Tomara que, mais uma vez, não culpem os vídeos-games. Em outra tragédia parecida [1999], no [...]
i think that video games are the main cause of all of the violence because just think about it if not video games tv if not tv parents, dont try to make excuses because you SHOULD JUST FACE THE TRUTH! so dont play violent video games….hey its your future do what you want but killing is NOT COOL!! its just horrable and sad..what would you do if some one came up and shot you in your leg would you think it was cool? you would probably hate it and get mad at the person. THE CAUSE IS VIOLENT VIDEO GAMES !FACE THE TRUTH!..
Video games do NOT tell anyone to shoot real people. There are no studies proving this. Besides it would require a bit of insanity to kill people just because this person saw it in a few video games. Don’t be ridiculous, tell me that playing a lot of violent video games can make someone aggressive… well MAYBE. But video games do not create killers. Trust me, I listen to hardcore music and I play quite a bunch of violent video games and I can make the differrence between this and reality. I’m a very passive person and I don’t ever want to hurt anybody. I guess people like you are trying to find something to blame. Well, he did not look for help, his parents probably did have a lot of serious talk with him and more importantly: he had a powerfull firearm! Maybe it’s too easy to get a weapon or law is not carefull or restrictive enough. Colombine, USA, parents gathered to discuss why there are so much murder in the U.S. …hummmm… maybe, let’s just say maybe a 2nd amendment right being the right to bear arms is a clue. Maybe the easy access to firearms is another one.