Stop undermining the fight against gun control by blaming video games
4) Also, how about all the law-abiding gamers and movie-goers? We wonder if anyone linking violent movies and Video Games with violent acts ever stopped to wonder just how many gamers are out there. In 2012, there were an estimated 211.5 million gamers in the United States — as much as three times the estimated 70-80 million lawful American gun owners. That’s a lot of people. We dare say that if either gun ownership or gaming leads to killing children, America is in a heap of trouble. And if seeing violent movies leads to violence, we’ll probably be dead before this goes to print.
Besides, in the age of the Internet, guess who would keep on playing violent video games and watching violent movies regardless of any ban? Our guess: The hardcore gamers the pundits are so afraid of.
5) Finally, creating new laws because old ones were broken or ignored is insane. We guess the thinking goes like this: We could have stopped Adam Lanza from committing the Newtown massacre if we could have added “possession of violent video games” to murder, assault with a deadly weapon, committing a felony with a firearm, possession of a stolen gun, bringing a gun into a gun-free zone, criminal trespass, car theft and the host of other crimes he committed. What people should really be asking themselves is, “what law is constitutional and would have prevented this attack?”
Blowback
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Ultimately this IS about taking responsibility for one’s own actions. Isn’t that what most of us believe?
CW on February 20, 2013 at 9:03 PM
Hey sport, how about you obey the G.D. Constitution and we’ll call it even?
chimney sweep on February 20, 2013 at 9:06 PM
See how easy this is?
O.K. so there’s more gamers than gun owners. So somehow they’re more entitled to their rights simply because there’s more of them? By that logic, blacks should not have the same level of Constitutional protection because there are fewer of them than whites. But something tells me liberals would be fine with that.
CurtZHP on February 20, 2013 at 9:10 PM
Guns aren’t important.
Gays are for some reason…
Oh, I know why…
Because guns are important.
catmman on February 20, 2013 at 9:12 PM
America has been awash in guns for its entire history. We’ve only had hear mass shooting problems for the last 30 or so. As someone who grew up on Nintendo and Playstation and still indulges from time to time, the argument could be made that violent imagery desensitizes the user. After all video game like simulators are used in combat training. When learning to shoot they CCW instructors suggest using human silhouettes instead of circle targets to get used to shooting at the image of human. Not saying games and movies are the cause but for those who are already detached from reality as many of these psychos are, it can and does, I believe, can give these nutters the push they might require. If what we see and hear in media doesn’t influence the way we think and feel, why then do business’ spend million every year on advertising?
jawkneemusic on February 20, 2013 at 9:13 PM
Hot Air readers as illiterate as ever.
Darth Executor on February 20, 2013 at 9:13 PM
I’m not nearly as eloquent. I only say how about stop blaming video games because doing so is effin’ stupid.
Gingotts on February 20, 2013 at 9:14 PM
Had these*
jawkneemusic on February 20, 2013 at 9:15 PM
Read the d@mn article he makes sense….unless of course you truly believe that Call of Duty makes people into killers, then there’s not much I can do for you.
Stop blaming something else…especially a “something” covered by the First Amendment. It’s not hard….
JFKY on February 20, 2013 at 9:15 PM
My guns won’t be illegal. They’ll be “undocumented.”
Resist We Much on February 20, 2013 at 9:26 PM
I have an ulterior motive: I hate FPS games, and firmly believe that their popularity has destroyed the market for good RPGs.
Count to 10 on February 20, 2013 at 9:29 PM
I don’t blame inanimate objects.
wolly4321 on February 20, 2013 at 9:30 PM
+10,000!
If you like Japanese RPG’s at all, check out Ni No Kuni.
jawkneemusic on February 20, 2013 at 9:32 PM
RWM@ 9:26- excellent! ;>)
wolly4321 on February 20, 2013 at 9:33 PM
I agree. The mere fact that the vast majority of people can play a game and not be affected doesn’t mean they don’t affect others. Doesn’t mean they should be banned or anything, just that it’s silly to think entertainment in general isn’t having some impact, not desensitizing certain people to violence.
changer1701 on February 20, 2013 at 9:33 PM
Indeed. Living in a free society comes with risks co don’t think games or movie need censoring nor do guns need to be banned.
jawkneemusic on February 20, 2013 at 9:37 PM
Ugh, can’t type today. Meant to say living in a free society comes with risks so I don’t think games need censoring…
jawkneemusic on February 20, 2013 at 9:38 PM
That article is so inaccurate and so full of bad reasoning and straw men that I don’t know where to begin. The first sentence of #5 actually made me laugh out loud.
Let’s just say that while video games are a part of the problem – as has been documented with Lanza – they aren’t the largest issue. Movies, television, and a culture that ignores accountability are much more to blame, along with numerous social factors. (family, religion, school)
Bedford has penned nothing more than a sophomoric and rambling attack on Republicans, without even a kernel of truth at its core. Hell even the National Enquirer has higher standards for writing than that. Because he made me laugh, D+.
Xavier on February 20, 2013 at 9:43 PM
Blaming video games actually helps us
Flapjackmaka on February 20, 2013 at 9:47 PM
Oh good grief…
Yes, some people think that video games turn people into killers… that’s not why this argument is gaining in popularity right now and being shoved into the leftists’ face.
It’s a counter argument to the leftists arguments that our violent gun loving society is the cause and removing the gun is the answer… We’re just playing along and saying that maybe it’s not the guns, maybe it’s the violence perpetuated by the very same leftists demanding gun bans. (IE Sylvester Stallone) The very same leftists telling us that advertising turns our children into mindless tools of corporate obedience but violent TV has no affect on them whatsoever…
it’s a hypocritical argument to be sure… but the hypocrisy is all on the leftist’ side. As a conservative I WANT my guns, and I WANT my violent video games… Because as a conservative… well, let’s let Edgar Friendly from Sylvester Stallone’s movie Damnation Alley have the last word… because we seem to have forgotten this simple axiom-
Skywise on February 20, 2013 at 9:54 PM
Oh, but not you, right? Tell us, oh wise one, how should we react to this article?
Please. With bullet points and everything so we may be fully informed supplicants to your wisdom.
chimney sweep on February 20, 2013 at 10:10 PM
^ I’m willing to lend Darth verbage if he knows how to use it.
Xavier on February 20, 2013 at 10:38 PM
During my childhood years I killed more injuns and black-hearted pirates than I care to remember. Still haven’t killed any one for real.
OldEnglish on February 20, 2013 at 10:47 PM
FPS make the big bucks cause parents buy them for the kids. If you are searching for a good game, try Supermeat Boy (insanely hard platformer)
nobar on February 20, 2013 at 10:54 PM
In the spirit of L.i.B., I say let’s go after Hollywood. Yes, it’s BS, but these fuqing morons got these people elected. Let’s see how Stallone does making romantic comedies. There are enough shoot ‘em up movies I have yet to see to get me by for the remaining 40-50 years of my life such that it would be worth it to watch these idiots suffer.
crrr6 on February 21, 2013 at 12:36 AM
let’s see…lots of people have a thing. a miniscule percentage of those people murder people. a large share of that miniscule percentage are crazy people or gang members, who would be murdering people if they had this thing, or not.
the thing is….
a)guns
b)violent movies and video games.
c)are you kidding me?
we need to stop blaming objects. both sides. millions and millions of people own guns. if owning guns were the catalyst, the swath of dead people would be too many to bury. but it’s not. if the catalyst were violent video games and movies, which millions and million of people watch and play EVERY DAY, it’d be the same thing. but obviously, it’s not.
“but, we never used to have these violent video games and movies back in the good ol days!” yes, and we used to march our cattle and other livestock to the slaughter house and watch them getting killed, or kill the chickens/poultry ourselves. many of our jobs back then were industrial or agricultural, and those have high mortality rates. war veterans have seen massive amounts of death close up and personal. at the same time, access to firearms was universal. you could go down to the local hardware store and pick one up for very little money. many war vets had “bring backs” of some pretty impressive weapons, that they got for the price of killing the previous owners.
so, viewing and being mentally immune to death or the availability of firearms are not the catalysts, or after every war we’d have a bloodbath back home. we need to stop falling back on our predetermined biases, and assuming those are the root causes.
warhorse_03826 on February 21, 2013 at 1:36 AM
Ah … the age of prohibition!
Ban on words, bullets, foods, censorship of classic books, banning tobacco while legalizing pot smoke, and on, and on, and on … welcome home Komrad’s.
kregg on February 21, 2013 at 5:38 AM
Its an excellent game
snoopicus on February 21, 2013 at 8:09 AM