Arizona Shooter's Forum Posts Reveal Disturbed Individual

Greg Tito

PR for Dungeons & Dragons
Sep 29, 2005
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Arizona Shooter's Forum Posts Reveal Disturbed Individual



Jared Lee Loughner, accused of gunning down six people including Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords in Tucson, Arizona, made some pretty disturbing posts on a forum related to the game Earth Empires.

As we now try to sift through the tragedy in Arizona over this past weekend, more and more about the alleged killer's past will come to light. Today, the Earth Empires [http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703791904576075851892478080.html] in the last year. In Earth Empires (a continuation of Earth: 2025) you control a country and either wage war or engage in diplomacy with other players. According to high school friends, Loughner also played Diablo and the first StarCraft when he was younger. Loughner used the forums on Earth Empires to communicate with other players about some very personal issues. These posts portray a strange individual, who had felt rejected and downtrodden his whole life and that he was concerned with containing his rage.

"Does anyone have aggression 24/7?" Loughner posted on May 9th, 2010 at 2 am. When others in the thread suggested he smoke marijuana to calm himself, he replied, "No weed. No drugs. It's not like I can't see my brain."

Some of Loughner's ramblings are even more nonsensical. "Would you hit a Handy Cap Child/ Adult?" was the title of a thread he started on April 24th with the following text: "This is a very interesting question ... There are mental retarded children. They're possessing teachers that are typing for money. This will never stop ... The drug addicts need to be weeded out to be more intelligent. The Principle of this is that them c- educators need to stop being pigs."

I have no idea what that means.

None of his posts on the Earth Empires forums specifically mentioned Rep. Giffords or that he was planning an attack but some of them reveal that he was capable of violence.

Another thread he started was called "Why Rape" and it suggested that women implicitly agreed to rape by consuming alcohol. "There are Rape victims that are under the influence of a substance," Loughner wrote. "The drinking is leading them to rape. The loneliness will bring you to depression. Being alone for a very long time will inevitably lead you to rape."

In other posts, he complained about his inability to gain or keep a job because of his mental instability. "I had to walk out of red robin," he wrote. "Terrible situation. Mental breakdown." He also listed 21 stores and restaurants that he applied for work, none of which asked him in for an interview. When some of his fellow gamers pointed out that he should write a resume and form a list of references, Loughner went on a tirade, repeating the line "CANT HOLD TERMINATION AGAINST FUTURE EMPLOYEE !" 117 times.

Other members of the Earth Empires were disturbed that one of their small community would act in such a way. "This is an immeasurable tragedy, and it pains me that someone from our close-knit community could be involved in such a heinous act," one of the forum administrators wrote on Sunday.

Source: Wall Street Journal [http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703791904576075851892478080.html]

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Fox242

El Zorro Cauto
Nov 9, 2009
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Great, now we found out that this psycho played video games well before the shooting spree. Sigh, here we go again...
 

twistedmic

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Sep 8, 2009
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Surprisingly, I've yet to hear anyone make the claim, or insinuate that video games led to his attack.The closest thing I've heard to being a cause, aside from his alleged mental instability, was the politically charged hate speech spewed forth by people like Glenn Beck, Sarah Pallin and their supporters.
 
May 5, 2010
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Cue the whining about how this is effects games, of all things. I mean, really? A man kills six innocent people, and your first thought is "Yes, but are my videogames ok?" Jesus, people, get your priorities straight. Let's just drop the whole "prosecution complex" thing. It only works when someone is ACTUALLY attacking games, which they aren't doing here. Besides no one's listened to (just for example) Jack Thompson for YEARS now.

NOTE: This post is directed at no one in particular. Just thought I'd point that out.

EDIT: Oh, and that whole "CANNOT HOLD TERMINATION AGAINST FUTURE EMPLOYEE" 117 times thing....very creepy. I mean, hell, that's ripped right from "The Shining".
 

lostzombies.com

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Apr 26, 2010
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Crazy person is incited by violent/hate/fear inciting political themes to commit violent act.

Shocker.

Next week:

Crazy person is incited by Willy wonker and the chocolate factor to buy all the chocolate from the local shop.

Next Month:

Crazy person is incited by religion to commit act of craziness against enemy of said religion.


A theme develops and then people use intelligence/education to realise that words always have consequences.

The pen is mightier than the sword.
 

EHKOS

Madness to my Methods
Feb 28, 2010
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Frozen Donkey Wheel2 said:
Cue the whining about how this is effects games, of all things. I mean, really? A man kills six innocent people, and your first thought is "Yes, but are my videogames ok?" Jesus, people, get your priorities straight. Let's just drop the whole "prosecution complex" thing. It only works when someone is ACTUALLY attacking games, which they aren't doing here. Besides no one's listened to (just for example) Jack Thompson for YEARS now.

NOTE: This post is directed at no one in particular. Just thought I'd point that out.
True, considering there was a 9 yo girl there who was also killed. I know it's prolly bad to think about the NEVERTHELESSx9001 on that H&H tools terminal in New Vegas but I mean if someone wrote that stuff on a forum, I would alert SOMEONE at least. Have the admin do something about getting him some help. Gosh. Get his I.P. send someone over there like a cop just to check on him.
 

AndyRock

New member
Dec 22, 2009
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Wow this guy is a bit of a psycho, but there isn't enough evidence there to suggest that games caused it for even fox news, as all we know is he played earth empires, and went on some forums
 

mattttherman3

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Dec 16, 2008
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Is anyone else glad he wasn't a fan of call of duty or halo? Imagine if he was a fan of Gears of War.

It is still a tragedy, but since he didn't get to kill himself(the gunman in these situations almost always kill themselves), maybe someday we will get definitive answers as to why he did this.
 
Oct 14, 2010
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sravankb said:
I would have called the cops on him before it happened. Hell, just look at him!
It's not how he always looked. Here's another photo: http://newsone.com/files/2011/01/Jared-Lee-Loughner-in-Mar-007.jpg
 

mr_rubino

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Sep 19, 2010
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Tharticus said:
Cue Jack Thompson rantings. And video games made me do it.
Number of forum topics about unspeakable incidents where the first page is packed with "everybody gonna say vidja gaems didit" seen since I joined: 432 and counting.

NOTE: This post is directed at everyone in particular. Seriously folks, have some dignity.

EDIT: Ok, those posts don't tell me much. I see similar "I'm totally not trying to be controversial. I'm honestly wondering why [insert something depressing here]." type posts on this forum daily.