Call Goes Out For Shooter Cease Fire

[FoolKiller]

This seems a bit out of left field. My only issue with this is that it is adding a connection between the shootings and the games where there isn't one already. I'm not going to do anything differently that day either way. Hell, that's supposed to be doomsday. If the world is ending, then I'd be more inclined to not care about anything anymore.

 

[AldUK]

I am one of the most active posters in the recent gun debate here on the escapist in favour of strict gun control in America. Yet despite that, I believe this is nonsense. A computer game has nothing to do with reality and if you indulge something like this then you are validating the Fox News stance that they do.

I have been playing Planetside 2 lately, I will continue playing Planetside 2. That decision has absolutely nothing to do with the gun debate, with the shooting, or real life at all. It is an escape from reality, as all games are designed to be.

 

[Panicky]

People are free to express their condolences however they wish, but I can't say I'm impressed by this. The decision to "cease" shooter games is completely arbitrary and unwittingly lends credibility to the shoddy, distasteful, and hypocritical reporting on this tragedy.

The problem is that those are more linked to social issues more than anything. Poor people, drug and sex trade, things like that. If people start murdering people with hammers more, no one is going to argue for stronger hammer control. No one is going to deny a carpenter a hammer based on an arbitrary "cool down" period. Guns are the easy go to for this situation, but if you are going to sit there and deny that "astronomical annual gun fatalities" is not a social or mental health issue, you are incorrect. To sound cliche, guns don't kill people, people kill people. I'm not saying that gun control laws are perfect, they clearly need a lot of work. But this didn't happen because he had access to firearms, this happened because he was mentally disturbed. It's easy to sit there and blame guns, but if/when you remove them, people are still gonna die as the result of these plaguing social/mental health issues. Any other reasoning simply denies the existence of the source of the problem in favor of the tool often used.

Guns, unlike the hammers in your god-awful analogy, are instruments specifically designed for killing and they are disturbingly efficient at it. Nobody is arguing that homicides would disappear if guns were more strictly controlled. But would you not agree that the Sandy Hook incident would have been far less deadly had the assailant been armed with a hammer rather than a semi-automatic rifle? How did having firearms just lying around not exacerbate things?

 

[Telekinesis]

Dumbest shit I've ever seen, how about instead of just denying yourself entertainment for 24 hours you go do something worthwhile?

 

[SomebodyNowhere]

With the winter sale expected to start soon I wonder if Steam will have any daily deals on shooters that day.

 

[roushutsu]

Judging from people's reactions both here and on the original site, it seems to me like it doesn't matter what we as gamers do, we are fucked regardless.

If we choose to follow with the cease fire, we get blamed for "supporting the view that games cause violence," but if we choose to ignore it then we get blamed for "supporting the view that gamers are ungrateful, hateful, spiteful, etc." So either way, we're fucked.

 

[Formica Archonis]

This is like those people who tell me not to buy gas on a certain day, right?

 

[Dansrage]

Yeah, no.

A mentally ill man shoots up a school, that has no relation to me or my hobby in any way, I don't even live in the same country that it happened in.

I will happily play my murder simulators, because I don't own guns nor do I have any significant mental problems.

 

[Brad Shepard]

You know, Ill play all shooters on that day just to spite this shit, because they are blaming video games for that crazy bastard shooting up the school.

 

[mattaui]

I suggest if you want to do anything, you actually -do- something. These 'Day of not doing x' non-events are ridiculous.

We all know, as gamers, that no amount of digital bodycount turns you into a killer.

Of course, there's a reason we all find simulated killing so enticing, and that's because we're human beings.

 

[Denamic]

Does this include characters that uses guns in other types of games? Like Rozalin from Disgaea? Because she's one of the characters I use the most.

 

[Goliath100]

Since you mentioned Fox News, you must surely be familiar with the false equivalence fallacy.

It is the "fair and balanced" notion that knives and the like are equally as deadly as guns.

As long as people hold that artificial equity true, it's virtually impossible to argue safety.

I wanted to say this for some time:
"Fair & Balanced" is an oxymoron. "To be Fair" is to give all sides equal room to maneuver. "To balance something" is to make something that arn't equal to become equal. For Fox News to be "Fair & Balanced" they have to only cover storys that is mostly equal from the outset.

"We are simply making a statement that we as Gamers are not going to sit back and ignore the lives that were lost,"

Then fight for Gun Control maybe. People that guilt trip others to feel better is less moral than the person that just don't give a shit.

 

[thenumberthirteen]

I can see how this could be a good idea. Though I fear that the media will strengthen the link between gaming and shootings because of this. Which is a pain.

I probably won't sign up, but then again I haven't played a shooter in a while anyway.

 

[kajinking]

I see no issue with this and will support it.

 

[Baresark]

LoL, it was only a matter of time before someone started yelling gun control. A person wanted to take the lives of these people, and no amount of gun control would have prevented that. He would have used homemade pipebombs, or taken a knife and started killing people. It's a mental health issue more than anything.

No, Why should we not make this about Gun Control? The People over at Fox News aren't talking about "Games & Violence" because They believe one cause the other. They do it becuase they don't want us to talk about Gun Control. I say we hurt them, let it backfire. Make it about Gun Control, make it about the fact that the world would be a better place if that guy had a knife insted. If the US had some bloody Gun Control the nut would not kill as many as he did. This idea that if we can't stop something completely we should not decrease the damage is the idea of someone that will do nothing that matter.

That is ridiculous. The world would only be a better place if he wasn't mentally deranged. I don't know why people insist that if someone gets away with one murder it is so much better than someone getting away with 26 murders. At the risk of sounding too conservative, the difference isn't big enough to ignore the root cause of it. Also, I grew up around guns, I have shot lots of guns and most of my friends are all gun owners. I don't own a gun because I don't like them, but I also don't know a single gun owner that is a murderer. It's just bad policy to let a psychopath determine rules for an entire society. I'm free not to own a gun and I do not feel threatened by people who own guns. It's not about gun control, it's about social and mental health.

 

[Baresark]

The problem is that those are more linked to social issues more than anything. Poor people, drug and sex trade, things like that.

That's been debunked time and again.

To sound cliche, guns don't kill people, people kill people.

But they are made a whole lot easier by guns, which is where that specious statement starts to break down.

Seriously, when is the last time someone used a hammer to directly kill dozens of people? Or, since cars almost inevitably come up, when's the last time someone drove a car into a school or movie theater and used it to kill people? Hell, contrast it to the 22 stabbings at a school in China. Most were not seriously injured, none died.

Besides, why facilitate murderers? The logic of "they're just going to do it anyway" is ridiculous. shouldn't murder be harder? Should we make it easy for someone to kill 27 people?

Do we oppose seatbelts because people are going to die anyway? We even say "seatbelts save lives," even though steabelts don't save people, people save people.

Are we against food safety because some people will invariably get sick?

When a natural disaster happens, do we just shrug and say "what are you going to do?"

It's pretty damn hard to massacre with a hammer. Or a bowling ball. Or even a knife.

I have never seen social issues causing crime and murder debunked. People seem under the impression that if someone has a gun they are going to kill someone. That is simply untrue.

You can't dictate the rules for an entire society because psychopaths exist. Seat belts do save people, just not everyone. And occasionally cause someone to die. My issue is that all the gun control nuts out there say that the world would be better off if guns didn't exist. That is completely true, but they do exist. I'm not saying no gun rules. But he could have had the same "success" in his endeavor if he had a small snub nose pistol. So the type of gun is irrelevant. The ease of killing is not particularly relevant because if someone has the will to do it, then they will do it. No one is against gun safety, but you and I have very different idea of what that actually means. For me it's about education and experience. For the vast majority of people, this is enough. For some people it's about no one being allowed to have them, but criminals will have them, which is the impetus for people who aren't criminals to have them.

 

[Lord Doomhammer]

Fuck these people, not only will they not shut up about how games are the cause of these stupid shootings. But now they have to make it their business to tell us how and when we should enjoy our hobby? FUCK THAT! I was just going to be lazy and drunk on my birthday (12-21), but now I'm going to have to organize a huge lan party just to erect the largest middle finger possible to these people.