[Scott McCollum]

Amazing that few in the American TV news media will dare to consider the Beltway Sniper as a possible Al Qaeda operative fighting an unholy war, but will immediately place the blame for nine murders on any American with a computer and a $30 copy of a video game.

[md2576]

How about those Airsoft players? The could have the experience.

[45Auto]

The Liberal Media, with their agenda for total Socialism, fail to note that it is their very political bent which is at the heart of more murder in the 20th century than from any other cause. So, naturally, they want to deflect attention away from that fact, and what better way to do it than to find someone or something else to blame. Socialism is a disease, and these events are but symptoms.

[stainlessbanner]

Atari made me do it!

[Alex Murphy]

Players can choose to be 'terrorists' and a 'realistic' sniper rifle is one of the weapons gamers use to achieve their team’s goals.

Or, players can choose to be the 'good guys' and use those same weapons and skills to take terrorists out, which is in fact what the whole plot of the game is about anyway.

[MainFrame65]

I am not a game player at all, and I am unfamiliar with any of the video games, either the arcade machines with their more realistic weapons or the home analogs that use a mouse or joystick to substitute.

But I think that arcade and other games (such as paintball) that train participants to find targets, aim, and fire quickly - all very desirable skills in combat - also help to remove the inhibitions we almost all feel about taking human life. This topic was explored pretty thoroughly by Colonel David Grossman in his book, "On Killing".

Not surprisingly, normal people don't like to kill other people. They delay, aim away, or simply fail to fire at targets of opportunity. This has always been a problem for modern armies to overcome, and much thought and effort has gone into overcoming this reluctance through training.

Much has been learned. Instead of bullseye targets on standard firing ranges, recruits now fire at pop-up targets in various situations. And they learn to see, aim, and fire very quickly, without thinking about the effect of their action, or even engaging their moral sense.

But now we are extending this kind of training to the general population, and particularly to young people that favor these games for amusement, but learn the lessons at the same time. Anyone has access, whatever your mental - or moral - state. For the vast majority of us, it is not a problem, and can even be considered beneficial, for the instance when you might be confronted by a home invader.

But what about the others? I am no advocate of banning the games, but I think that parents need to be aware of what their children are doing - for real, and "just pretending."