How much can we blame video games?

[Alan]

When I was in high school we went to the bowling alley were they just got this new attraction in, for a quarter a game you could play "pong" electric tennis amazing. Then my kids started of on "duck hunt" and when Mario Brothers came out it was amazing the technology they had develope. Fast forward to today's young men. Growing up on games of war and destruction, we're you buy body amour and kill as much as you can, you die in the game you hit "reset" and start again, no harm done.

In the two recent shooting both boys in their early twenties put on some sort of body amour to go in and shoot up unarmed men, women and little children. Fire many rounds at their targets with semi auto weapons (no this is not about gun control, please don't go there, most of my guns are semi and I like them a lot). My point is many of the past mass shootings have been a mirror of the recent two and they seem to be straight out of a video game. I do believe that these shooters are mentally ill, but they draw these actions from somewhere, how much are some of these video games to blame? I doubt anyone went on a shooting spree after playing super Mario, how about call of duty?

 

[greybeard]

I just made a similar post in the other thread in Everything Else.
I have never played any of these shooter type games, and I doubt they will ever be able to prove it one way or another, but my gut feeling is that you are spot on in asking this question, and I think these first person shooter games are a major influence, especially in people who are teetering on "the edge" already.
Gamers are going to say it's no worse than playing cowboys and indians or cops and robbers, but we didn't do that for hrs and hrs every single day when we were kids and there were no almost realife graphics of blood, brains, and guts like some of these video games evidently now have. I think those games also tend to de-sensitize young people (and even old players) to the reality of what combat is like.

 

[Bigfoot]

They contribute to further decay of family life, by seperating children from their families. That is probably more harmful than the violence. My brother and I played cowboys and native Americans nonstop.

I wasn't going to allow my children to have them. One way or another one showed up. They never played with it, and the wife gave it to Salvation Army.

 

[hopalong]

Not only the games but todays movies!!!!!

 

[larryshoat]

I saw a commercial the other night on TV for a video game. It was way over the line as far as I'm concerned, mass slaughter is what it looked like. If you think about it these killings are a copy of the video games they've played. The same people that would eliminate 2nd amendment rights will defend 1st amendment rights to the end.

Larry

 

[HDRider]

I agree movies and killing video games desensitize the mind. Take God out of the picture and put in the need for fame, we see what we get.

With what we get, we "must" have government control to keep us safe.

Like it or not and quoting the current administration, "A tragedy is a terrible thing to waste.", it will be ALL about gun control.

Very good article on that, please read it..
http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/33 ... -c-w-cooke

One comment out of very many...
"There is no clause in our charters of liberty that allows for the people to be deprived of their freedom if and when a few individuals abuse theirs"

...you're describing the dynamic of these reflexive calls for gun-control that bothers me the most. It's disturbing that people will so easily endorse a reaction that will separate you from your inalienable civil rights just because - as you say - someone else abused theirs.

 

[Running Arrow Bill]

Back in the 1960s I was a psychologist at a State Mental Hospital. One day a visitor asked me wasn't I scared to be in a Psychiatric Hospital with all those "Patients"? I told them that "NO, I knew where they were and that they were under our control...what scares me are all those nuts out there that we HAVEN'T found and caught yet!"

There have always been and will always be nuts out there that we don't know about until it is too late. Criminal Profilers are just beginning to "understand" and such those people. Others always seem to be in denial of "weird" or antisocial behavior...aka "He is such a sweet boy and makes good grades...etc."

 

[M5farm]

Video games = babysitter
Parents give the games to the children to keep the occupied and out of their hair. They have no roll models except the video screen. That mentality of the parents is due to the falling away from Godly principles. My kids played games and some were graphic but they were limited to the time they spent on it. Also mine have had real world experience with firearms since they were small. These semi automatic weapons that are in question are no different than most of your Browning semi automatic rifles. They just look scarier to the masses. I know the other thread is dedicated to this but if they get one semi auto they will get them all.

 

[Ouachita]

I could not imagine parking my kids in front of those games. We just finished watching Rooster Cogburn

 

[Runaway Deere]

I am convinced its three things marijuana, slim Jim's and video games not necessarily in that order

 

[Caustic Burno]

When I was in high school we went to the bowling alley were they just got this new attraction in, for a quarter a game you could play "pong" electric tennis amazing. Then my kids started of on "duck hunt" and when Mario Brothers came out it was amazing the technology they had develope. Fast forward to today's young men. Growing up on games of war and destruction, we're you buy body amour and kill as much as you can, you die in the game you hit "reset" and start again, no harm done.

In the two recent shooting both boys in their early twenties put on some sort of body amour to go in and shoot up unarmed men, women and little children. Fire many rounds at their targets with semi auto weapons (no this is not about gun control, please don't go there, most of my guns are semi and I like them a lot). My point is many of the past mass shootings have been a mirror of the recent two and they seem to be straight out of a video game. I do believe that these shooters are mentally ill, but they draw these actions from somewhere, how much are some of these video games to blame? I doubt anyone went on a shooting spree after playing super Mario, how about call of duty?

Alan
It is the lack of God and family.
TV, games and cell phones have filled in for family and church time.
We get a blank sheet of paper when a baby is born what we write on it is what we get.

 

[Isomade]

When I was in high school we went to the bowling alley were they just got this new attraction in, for a quarter a game you could play "pong" electric tennis amazing. Then my kids started of on "duck hunt" and when Mario Brothers came out it was amazing the technology they had develope. Fast forward to today's young men. Growing up on games of war and destruction, we're you buy body amour and kill as much as you can, you die in the game you hit "reset" and start again, no harm done.

In the two recent shooting both boys in their early twenties put on some sort of body amour to go in and shoot up unarmed men, women and little children. Fire many rounds at their targets with semi auto weapons (no this is not about gun control, please don't go there, most of my guns are semi and I like them a lot). My point is many of the past mass shootings have been a mirror of the recent two and they seem to be straight out of a video game. I do believe that these shooters are mentally ill, but they draw these actions from somewhere, how much are some of these video games to blame? I doubt anyone went on a shooting spree after playing super Mario, how about call of duty?

Alan
It is the lack of God and family.
TV, games and cell phones have filled in for family and church time.
We get a blank sheet of paper when a baby is born what we write on it is what we get.

:clap: :clap: Fathers MUST be fathers!