Connecticut Considers Violent Videogame Tax

[Andy Chalk]

Connecticut Considers Violent Videogame Tax

Money raised by the proposed tax will help fund "education concerning the danger of violent videogames."

Connecticut State Representative Debralee Hovey has introduced a bill in the state legislature that would see an extra ten percent charged on all sales of videogames with an ESRB rating of M (Mature) or higher. Money raised by the tax would go to the state's Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services "to educate families on the warning signs of videogame addiction and antisocial behavior."

Hovey's district includes Newtown, the site of the horrific Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre that left 27 people, mostly young children, plus the shooter dead in December 2012. Reports that the shooter's favorite videogame was "Call of Duty" were widespread but hardly surprising, given that it's one of the most popular entertainment franchises on the planet, but the proposed bill would go beyond just violent videogames like first-person shooters to cover everything M-rated or higher, including games like Family Guy: Back to the Multiverse, The Testament of Sherlock Holmes, Wing Commander and a whole bunch of mobile phone stuff including something called Fart Machine.

Connecticut isn't the first state to consider a violent videogame tax; Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, New Mexico and Wisconsin have all previously considered similar taxes, although none have been implemented.

Source: Connecticut General Assembly [http://www.wfsb.com/story/20970118/connecticut-lawmaker-proposes-video-game-tax#.URFtELkxxY1.twitter]


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[ThriKreen]

So Super Mario Bros is totally a violent game, teaching kids to jump on turtles and (sentient) mushrooms. And tossing fireballs at other people. And breaking bricks.

Also, where's the tax on guns and media, TV and movies, or is it just games?

 

[Tanis]

DAMMIT REPUBLICANS!
What happened to being for SMALL government.
:/

Also:
Blonde hair, blue eyes, and fascist.

I kid...I kid.

 

[fix-the-spade]

So while we're doing this, how about a thirty percent tax on ammunition sales to go to mental health charities, fallen/wounded officer support groups and victim support groups in equal measure?

Or is that too much of a tax on freedom?

 

[Chronologist]

I don't know about you, but this kind of behavior no longer surprises me. Hell, I don't even think Hovey believes for a second that violent video games contributed in any way to the massacre.

It's all just a distraction to take attention away from the real issue - gun control. The difference is, gun manufacturers spend millions every year on PR, funding political campaigns, and hiring lobbyists, and video game companies don't.

In the words of George Carlin, "It's all bullshit and it's bad for ya."

 

[Scars Unseen]

Warning signs of antisocial behavior? Yeah, that will turn out well...

 

[DioWallachia]

I will let this man lend his wisdom to the poorly and mentaly deficient politicians:


OT: Videogames dont make you kill people. Listening to dead voice actors giving the performance of their lives and then banishing from this sinful Earth, however, makes one go crazy with grief:

 

[DioWallachia]

This garbage is getting ridiculous.

We need to tax the people of Ohio to create programs to educate kids about the dangers of "news" stations causing violence in children.

You. Your campaing. My vote and the vote of all gamers everywhere.

When do you start your political campaing?

 

[mrm5561]

you know its hard to even get worked up by this anymore. this has been going on since what 1997 and yet mortal kombate and grand theft auto are still going strong. if it does pass the only thing i see coming out of it is an increase in used games

 

[Coach Morrison]

If this was passed most people would likely just go to digital distributors and online retailers, hurting not only the physical retailer in the state but a portion of their own sales tax revenue.

Or does Amazon have a state tax on items now?

 

[CriticalMiss]

If violent games are bad for you, shouldn't the recent CoD games have created literally a billion school shooters, psychopaths and murderers in the last few years?

 

[Johnson McGee]

I wouldn't worry too much, taxing a specific form of media based on its content is a form of censorship which is therefore unconstitutional. That's one of the main reasons all the previous pushes for this have failed.

What the American government really needs is a monetary penalty, equal to the number of house reps or senators debating the issue times their salary, for people that push private member's bills that are deemed unconstitutional in order to reimburse the taxpayers for all the time the debate wastes. Maybe then the people sworn to represent the highest offices of government would actually take the time to learn how it's supposed to work.

 

[Bazaalmon]

This garbage is getting ridiculous.

We need to tax the people of Ohio to create programs to educate kids about the dangers of "news" stations causing violence in children.

Hey, that's Connecticut the state, not Connecticut, Ohio. Don't try and pin this shit on us!
But I agree; This lady is crazy. Someone needs to talk some sense into her. Although I think sense and her have never even been in the same room. I'm sure she has, however, been in the room with many, MANY gun manufacturer lobbyists and piles of money shaped like a throne.

 

[The Artificially Prolonged]

Do these people realise that sales of these games already bring in tax money that could be used to benefit mental health initatives? Perhaps if some of that money was used on that instead of wasted stupid scapegoat policies then we might actually get somewhere.

 

[Treblaine]

"to educate families on the warning signs of videogame addiction and antisocial behavior."

That's propaganda.

This is so obviously in violation of the 1st Amendment. This has nothing to do with obscenity.

This should be the political dynamite, political suicide... political suicide bombing, to even privately suggest such a thing. I wonder how dumb they all have to be to so blatantly defy the Constitution's most cherished clauses to fund a government propaganda program.

No, education programmes should be for things like building fire evacuation procedures and agaisnt drunk driving, things that are actually ESTABLISHED RISKS!

And why after all this time are we acting as if the motivation for that massacre was anything other than his deranged psyche. Games didn't turn him insane. Maybe if there was a spare of extra drive by car horn honkings, there might be a case but that's the only link the most spurious UNREPEATED study has found: higher propensity to troll people with a horn. Not that they were the only group to do it, but barely statistically significant chance in how log they honked.

Honking.

 

[weirdee]

we should probably ban or tax pizza too, because chances are the guy liked it

 

[vid87]

I love that they mentioned the Family Guy game and right now I'm half-watching the Family Guy episode on censorship.

OT - This has GOT to be a 1st Amendment infringement somehow. Did they ever pull this crap with comics and movies?

 

[Eri]

This would be illegal. It cannot and will not pass.

 

[Vault Citizen]

So a medium will be unfairly taxed to pay for a program that is a ease of tax funds? I feel bad for her constituents

 

[shiajun]

It's just classic politian busy-work: appear to be doing something meaningful when the most sensible approach is to do nothing. They don't want to come off as lazy, now do they?

In any case, it doesn't matter how you tax it or put more warning stickers on the box. If dad caves in to kid and buys him the media that was not designed for that age range then all the legislation in the world won't mean a thing. This applies to anything that has an age rating. However, politicians will always shy away from exposing how their electorate is part of the problem. Never blame the individual, noooooo, it's always the business and industry, or the government.