Video Game Industry Starting To Feel Heat On Gun Massacres 1006
An anonymous reader writes "While much of the scrutiny following the lone gunman-perpetrated massacres at Aurora, CO and Newtown, CT has fallen on the National Rifle Association and its lobbying efforts against gun control, the shooters in both of the aforementioned incidents seemed to have been encouraged by violence in movies and video games. The New York Daily News' Mike Lupica reported last week that investigators of the Newtown case found a huge spreadsheet in the Lanza home where 20-year old Adam Lanza had methodically charted hundreds of past gun massacres, including the number of people killed and the make and model of weapons used. A Connecticut policeman told Lupica 'it sounded like a doctoral thesis, that was the quality of the research', and added, '[Mass killers such as Lanza] don't believe this was just a spreadsheet. They believe it was a score sheet. This was the work of a video gamer'. In response, the Entertainment Software Association and other lobbyists representing the video game industry have ramped up their Washington lobbying efforts. While still tiny in dollar terms next to the NRA's warchest, this effort seemed to help derail a proposal to fund a Justice Department study of the effects of video games on gun violence, offered as an amendment on the gun control bill by a Republican senator. A spokesman summarized the ESA's position: 'Extensive research has already been conducted and found no connection between media and real-life violence.'"
Re:The Stupidity, It Hurts! (Score:4, Informative)
First, since when is a cop qualified to make such and unsubstantiated psychological conclusion and it be seriously considered?
Second, video gamers, hard core or otherwise, don't make spreadsheets of kills with weapons. That's far more like something a dev does to fine tune popularity and effectiveness of their games arsenal. Sure, there's a few ocd types that'll do something as pointless and unfun as that, but then again, I bet you'll find more government employees making those exact same things right now.
Re:The Stupidity, It Hurts! (Score:3, Informative)
3000+ people were killed by people using box cutters
Censor what? (Score:4, Informative)
Re:More laws is not the answe (Score:5, Informative)
its not the NRAs job to enforce the laws on the books, that's the justice departments job... Chicago has the highest gun crime rates in the USA, they have some of the tightest restrictions and of 90 cities they rank 90th in gun law enforcement.
Re:The Stupidity, It Hurts! (Score:3, Informative)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Childers_Palace_Backpackers_Hostel_fire [wikipedia.org]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monash_University_shooting [wikipedia.org]
next...
Re:The Stupidity, It Hurts! (Score:5, Informative)
Re:The Stupidity, It Hurts! (Score:5, Informative)
The Second Amendment is a stupid anachronism. It needs gutting.
Fine, then lets do it properly and repeal the amendment.
The WORST thing we can do is to try to violate the constitution by legislating around parts we dont like; every time we do that we're basically saying "the only parts of the law that matter are the ones the legislators want to matter".
We have a strict amendment process for a REASON. The government is not supposed to be able to easily decide that it doesnt have enough power. Yes, school shootings suck, but not as bad as things can get when the government throws off all restraint, and thats why we started this country with very strict limits on government power.
Re:The Stupidity, It Hurts! (Score:5, Informative)
How long do you think the militia with the weapons it is legally allowed to own is going to last against the US military?
Oh I don't know, roughly a dozen years or so, give or take. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_in_Afghanistan_(2001–present)
Re:The Stupidity, It Hurts! (Score:5, Informative)
Re:The Stupidity, It Hurts! (Score:5, Informative)
And the reason they're lasting for that long is because they do not engage the military in battle. Every time the Taliban have openly engaged the troops in anything resembling large-scale combat, they lost. They haven't won a single strategic or tactical battle, and the only reason we're getting out of there is because we have no reason to be there.
If the US military turns against its own population, it will be much more like Syria or Libya.
Re:The Stupidity, It Hurts! (Score:5, Informative)
I live in Australia.
Guns are amazingly hard to obtain. Organized crime generally uses guns to shoot each other, but it's very rare. There have been precisely 0 bombing.
Isn't that fascinating? That despite the fact that guns are actually a progressively rarer illegal commodity, no one has bothered trying to blow people up?
I've seen this "oh they'll just use a bomb, look how well dairy creamer works" comes up all the damn time as though it's obviously that easy to make explosives. Hint: it's not. Bombs are heavy, and indirect. They require being placed in advance, being not-noticed, and then actually working not to mention acquiring the materials without getting a friendly visit from the Feds to ask what's up with the multiple credit cards and fertilizer. You might notice that the attempted terrorist attacks using bombs in the US have all been thwarted usually by someone calling in and saying "hey, I noticed a weird package".
Re:The Stupidity, It Hurts! (Score:2, Informative)
And if we took reasonable precautions like background checks and limited magazine size to no more than 10 rounds, it would greatly inconvenience people that want to do this.
No, not really. I suspect the worst gun massacre is yet to come, and it will involve the use of a shotgun (with magazine size less than 10 rounds) in a crowded area. 5.56/.223 is a weak round, comparatively speaking. Its goal is to incapacitate (i.e. wound - not necessarily kill) an enemy soldier potentially wearing light body armor at distances of 100-200 yards. It is a poor choice for someone whose goal is to cause as many deaths as possible in the minimal amount of time - a shotgun will be much more efficient for that.
Re:The Stupidity, It Hurts! (Score:4, Informative)
Nor do you need a PC nor cell phone to talk with other people.
I hate to break it to you... but it's called the "Bill of Rights"... not the "Bill of Needs"
Re:The Stupidity, It Hurts! (Score:5, Informative)
Countries with strict gun control laws have fewer gun deaths than those who don't.
... but not less violence, nor less deaths in general. Japan, for example, has some of the strictest gun laws in the world, as well as one of the highest suicide rates. According to recorded statistics, [wikipedia.org] if we assume accuracy, the US is well below the global average homicide rate of 7.6 per 100,000 people, at 4.8. One thing I noted from the aforementioned chart, there doesn't seem to be any correlation between presence/absence of strict gun laws and homicide rates.
Citing "less gun deaths" in countries with strict gun laws is like citing "low auto-accident rates" in Nambia - complete non sequitur.
I want fewer gun deaths.
That's a silly thing to want - what about bank robbers who shoot it out with the cops? Do you think the cops shouldn't be allowed to shoot back? Because, realize it or not, that's what you mean when you say, "I want fewer gun deaths."
Personally, I'd be happy with fewer intentional homicides, regardless of the method.
I don't give a shit about your right[s]
Aaand we come to the crux of the issue, and why nobody with a lick of sense gives a fuck what you gun grabbers have to say.
Re:The Stupidity, It Hurts! (Score:3, Informative)
You do realize that, statistically speaking, hardly any deaths in this country of 300-plus million people occur per year as a result of being on the wrong end of an "assault" rifle, and that most of the gun deaths occur from handguns, right?
Re:The Stupidity, It Hurts! (Score:3, Informative)
The point is that firearms are largely unregulated,
Bull-fucking-shit; the thousands upon thousands* federal, state, and local regulations contradict your claim.
* Doesn't seem like anyone can come up with an exact number (scary thought), but it's generally accepted that there are somewhere between 9,000 and 20,000 gun control laws in effect in the US.
it's easy to legally buy firearms without a background check.
Excluding private sellers... Where? From whom?
P.S. if you're implying that there's something wrong with my father handing his prized deer rifle down to me without giving me a background check, you can go fuck yourself, Chief.
Whereas with explosives, there are specific licensing requirements and the supply of the components is tracked and monitored much more closely.
Since when did the government start tracking bleach and ammonia purchases? FYI, the shit under your kitchen sink is far more dangerous to society than the gun sitting on my hip.
Yes, one can make ones own explosives, but a lot of those folks just blow themselves up as making them outside of industrial facilities with specific safety equipment is very risky.
Point? Where in the Constitution does it state the our rights are allowed to be curtailed if they become "too easy" to obtain?