Posted on 04/06/2013 7:00:05 PM PDT by marktwain
When I originally pitched writing this piece to Kotaku, I was a bit worked up. I had read some of Kotaku’s coverage of the post-Sandy-Hook gun vs. games debate, and I sent some pointed Tweets to Kotaku staff. I felt that the games industry media had not provided balanced coverage.
I felt that every story of mass violence from the games media was slanted towards gun control as the answer--and the lack thereof as the cause.
The few interviews I saw with game developers focused on gun control as the response to any calls for a check on video game violence.
I was pissed.
I thought that, as a game developer who not only has worked on mass-market games that revolve around violence, but as a gun owner and libertarian, I could provide an argument that would reach out to both sides. My argument would explain why, at least in the America that I believe in, the right to express speech through video games and the right to bear arms shouldn’t be mutually exclusive.
(Excerpt) Read more at kotaku.com ...
I remember seeing a show a while back on the Manson murders, and something that stuck with me about that show was what the prosecutor in that case Vincent Bugliosi said about the killers: “What they have inside them is something that me and you do not.”
Probably the best explanation I ever heard for any mass killing. What these mass killers did is not due to guns or anything else but who they are. What they did and do is something I could never do in a million years.
They are killers and should be recognized and treated as such but they are not. Instead they are ignored as they are now in this gun debate. The mass killer in Colorado was recognized as a killer but nothing was done about him. Just yesterday I read an article yet again how the shrinks in his case recognized he was a killer, said he had homicidal thoughts, yet nothing was done.
Yet we focus on an inanimate object. The worst mass killings in this country were done not by guns but by other methods such as fire and explosives, for example in New york city where I live, before Sept. 11th, the worst mass murder in NYC history was the Happyland club fire which was done by an individual and a can of gasoline. Yet no calls for gas bans.
I didn’t really find it worth reading.
It was rather disjointed, and less persuasive than the pornographer attempting to justify his “product” as an art form.
Full disclosure, I don’t “play” violent video games.
They all have a rating system, and I do know people who know what the ratings are, and refuse to buy or rent the R and X rated violence versions for their children.
I also know people who have no clue that “games” even have ratings, or why.
IMHO, this game designer is little different than the XXX rated pornographer, claiming their harmless “product” is intended for use as a marital aid for consenting adults.
Right.....
” The Bath School disaster is the historical name of the violent attacks perpetrated by Andrew Kehoe on May 18, 1927 in Bath Township, Michigan that killed 38 elementary school children and 6 adults, and injured at least 58 other people. [Note 1] Kehoe first killed his wife, fire-bombed his farm and set off a major explosion in the Bath Consolidated School, before committing suicide by detonating a final explosion in his truck. It is the deadliest mass murder in a school in United States history. [1]
Andrew Kehoe, the 55-year-old school board treasurer, was angry after his defeat in the spring 1926 election for township clerk.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bath_School_disaster
Maybe we should ban politicians
Now there’s an idea we can all get come together on!
At the very least, we should require extensive background checks and mental health certifications for them...
Yoda —
Please look up an essay by Bill Whittle titled “Tribes.” You can try www.ejectejecteject.com/archives/000129.html or just Google it.
You and I don’t kill because we don’t belong to tribes that accept such behavior. Other tribes do accept it.
Whittle’s essay switches gears to describe a construct by Lt. Col. Dave Grossman about sheep, wolves and sheepdogs. By the end of the discussion you will find yourself proudly carrying a concealed weapon in the expectation of being a sheepdog if the time (God forbid) should ever come. Enjoy!
I trust, though, that you don’t favor banning video games.
In the proper context and with the proper frame of reference, all perfectly acceptable. Don't forget that we have used violent video games to train our soldiers since the 1980s.
But contrast the soldier that spends an hour a day being trained how to kill, and then seven hours a day being trained on when it is acceptable to kill, with some strange kid that spends 15 hours a day in his basement playing violent video games. The problem is one of application of a technology, not the technology itself.
There are many violent movies, that if watched from beginning to end, do make important statements and show a journey. But the advent of the VCR and DVD make it possible for an impressionable kid to ignore the parts they don't like and just keep watching the same violent parts over and over (as Harris and Klebold and were known to do.)
And I grew up in a home with many guns, and none were ever locked. But from a very young age I was taken to the field by a Dad and many hours were spent not only learning how to handle such weapons, but when and what those weapons were appropriate for.
And therein lies the real problem.
About twenty years ago the Hildabeast wrote a nonsensical book about it, “taking a village.” And it has pretty much come to be. Instead of Mom and Dad raising kids, we now have “the village” raising kids. It isn't worth a crap. And many of our new technologies have only made the lack of Mom and Dad involvement even worse.
Shunning them, yes.
The guy is right and does have a point about the news Media;s obsession with theses massacres.
One of the reasons depressed and mentally ill kids are doing this is to get their name immortalized on TV for the next few years before they go out in what they must think is a blaze of glory.
By focusing on these insolents the media giving them the very glory they and future mass murders want.
As a rule the name of the killer should perhaps be withheld & suppressed permently. Coverage of theses massacres should furthermore be limited to local news.
“Banning?
No.
Shunning them, yes.”
I don’t support banning video games, although as a gamer I certantiy to shunn some of the more violate and criminally explicit of them.
I was listening to the host of the History channel's conspiracy show where they go back and look at some of the old conspiracies. The guy was asked about these shootings and how different that is from our previous history.
The history guy said something like “Oh. To me they are just another reminder to the past. Except in the past the young man looking to be known would assassinate a president. But if you look at the shooter's compared to the likes of Wilkes, etc. - they are all very similar.”
‘Now there’s an idea we can all get come together on!’
Amen to that brother...
Here’s another good source (2005!) for the Whittle essay along with some brilliant commentary. ;-)
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/1477848/posts
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