The response is expected. Video games are to blame for gun violence. Lawmakers are calling for a closer look at video games and have joined a chorus blaming games for violence.
Here are a few voices calling for action against violent video games:
Rep. Frank Wolf (R Va.): As a grandparent or parent, to pretend these violent video games don't make a difference it's crazy. The next step of the three legged stool is to deal with the issue of these violent video games.
Ever seen 'Grand Theft Auto?' It is violent. Garbage in, garbage out. There's another one called 'Call of Duty.' It is violent.
Senator Jay Rockefeller (D WVa): I understand some studies do show there is a causal link between violent content and aggressive behavior, but that proving absolute causality in this type of social science research is very difficult. Importantly, for purposes of public policy, causation is not the right or only threshold for whether we need to tackle this issue. Over my 28 years of looking closely at this in the Senate and speaking with families across West Virginia and experts around the country, I believe there is plenty of evidence that playing violent games and watching violent movies is having a negative impact on our kids and leading to aggressive behavior.
Yes, as a parent, I monitor what my children consume from food to television. I will not let them watch violent movies or films filled with salty language. I will not let them play or watch me play violent video games. Why do I do that? I take my role as a parent seriously and don't want anything that I know is harmful to affect their young minds. However, as overprotective as I am (and my parents when I was their age), I have to say this watching violent movies, playing violent games isn't uniquely a United States tradition. It's international. Look at a recent film "A Good Day to Die Hard." It's a very violent movie multiple shots of people getting their brains blown out at close range but the movie is available worldwide. The popular "Gears of War: Judgment" video game is out and will certainly sell millions of copies. Here's why.
Video games, especially by lawmakers, are blamed for violence, especially violence involving firearms. Video games, they claim, plant the seeds to wipe out innocent lives with a firearm. They say, without evidence, that children spend hours playing these violent games and go back to their schools/homes/places of worship with rage and sometimes use firearms. So, if you eliminate violent video games and movies, you'd remove a catalyst for the violence.
If this logic is correct, then I should be able to look around the globe to see e la Fed ora dice che la ripresa economica procede a un ritmo moderato similar incidents of violence. I should see shootings in Australia, Spain, China, India, France, right? I should see violence in South Korea, Japan and Brazil, correct? But you don't. You don't see a Newtown massacre in civilized nations. You don't see an Aurora theater shooting in Nepal, Morocco, Italy or Greece. You see killings but not on the scale of what we see in the United States. No, we have a nation of lawmakers who have no plans to ban semi automatic weapons fit for a battlefield.
Space Marines. Courtesy of THQ
We have a nation of lawmakers who won't ban high capacity magazines that can store upwards of 30 rounds or more. No, we have a nation of lawmakers who don't want to put measures into place to check a person's background to see if they Irlanti on ihanteellinen kohde pariskunnille ja perheille Koska kuuluisa turistikohde are mentally stable enough to possess a firearm. What we do have, sadly, is a nation of lawmakers who want to blame an industry they don't understand or want to make an effort to understand. These lawmakers, Democrats and Republicans alike, are recipients of millions of National Rife Association contributions and want to back their major donor's agenda, while ignoring the safety of the people who sent them to Congress in the first place.
So, what's the easy out? Blame video games. Don't blame the parents, forced to work harder as our economy tumbles and prices increase while wages don't. Don't blame the gun lobby, responsible for the laws that make it easier to buy a firearm than an automobile. It's a classic hustler move divert attention to meaningless features and sell the goober a lemon. And the meaningless features are video games. Yes, I am a parent and I do think violent video games and young gamers that play them are wrong. But let me say this one thing: Most children don't have the funds and/or resources to buy these games, much less a $300 video game console to play them on. They don't pay for the Internet access necessary to get online and play multiplayer sessions. They don't pay for the electricity or the shelter to play the games at. All that boils down to parents not being parents.
I have said this time and time again baby boomers grew up with gun violence as a primetime affair. From "Gunsmoke" to "Lone Ranger," gun play has been a part of America's entertainment for ages. Then, after school, children mye 氓 Akiko sjokk De avgjort raskt played cowboys and Indians. And yet, did you see children shooting up schools and car washes? No, you didn't. Constant exposure may influence bad behavior, but easy access to firearms is the culprit. Not lack of access to care for mentally ill, not "Call of Duty" or "Halo," but firearms Bournemouth and bad parenting.
To the lawmakers who say they are parents or grandparents do this for me. Ask your children and grandchildren their "Gamer Tag" information. Google their gamer tag and see what kind of games they are playing. If they are playing violent video games, you can ask yourself if they will be the next gunman or not.
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Ponder this and it will do you more good than always screaming the guns! Take two countries where private ownership of guns is either forbidden or strictly regulated Japan and Mexico. I feel safe in saying that most people would acknowledge that compared to Mexico, Japan is a very safe place.
Is it the guns? No, it the culture. Until you deal with the cultural problems and the mindset/mentality that allows this type of thing, dealing with legal ownership of the tools gets you nowhere. Otherwise, places like Mexico should straighten up after guns are banned.
So what if there an uptick in home invasions and the like due to a gun ban. What is the most damage that a home invader without a firearm can do? Bruises? Cuts?
This. All 22 of them survived. Had the man had access to a firearm, it would have been much more deadly.
You can defend your pro gun position until the cows come home, but the likelihood of surviving a crime a mugging, a home invasion increases drastically without the introduction of a firearm.
I strongly feel that limiting the hardware availability will do little to nothing if we don also have rigid mental health requirements for purchase. And if we have those requirements then limiting hardware becomes redundant. The elephant in the room that no one has seriously been able to tackle is the mental health angle. If you take (or should take) any anti psychotic you should not be allowed to own a gun period. Waiting periods should be for checking medical history as well as criminal history. The bar for gun ownership needs to be a lot higher than it is now but limiting types and amounts of hardware is not the solution. It keeping guns out of irresponsible hands that should be the focus and the common denominator in all the mass killings is mental illness.
Individuals desensitized to violence by television, movies, video and society kill people. Guns don A video game does not. A television set does not. Get the point? The law of physics is at work here. An object at rest tends to stay at rest and an object in motion tends to stay in motion. I never known a gun advertisement prompted anyone to display violence but violent games, television and movies were listed among the causes of the Columbine killings. And the focus? The instrument, not the causes. Othewise, it not the human who gets the high score on Grand Theft Auto the controller used by the player.
Willie, you provide not a speck of factual information to support your comments. On the other hand, this is a fact Adam Lanza had a huge library of violent video games.
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