Cop Blames Videogames For Sandy Hook Massacre

[Agow95]

1)He learned the use of firearms from his mother, not games.
2)As the cop pointed out several times, the guy was crazy, that was the reason he did what he did, not gaming.
3)If you're going to blame on video games can you at least know what the hell video games are like.

 

[cjspyres]

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm off to get my body tattood with a red dragon, so that tonight I can ninja a bunch of people and string up their corpses from lightposts to scare others guys so I can then pounce on them from my perch on the ceiling and then come home and kill myself when I'm done because that's what a game I'm playing is telling me to do.

...Right after I'm done smacking the snowbank in order to break it into conveniently storable blocks that I'll drop into a chest in the basement for use later.

Oh god...this made me laugh so hard. And then I cried, because I realized that this is what stupid people believe about people who play games. Why is this even an issue in this day and age? I know it's a redundant question, but still....It physically pains me to see this kind of crap being said by an authority figure.

 

[soren7550]

This just in, the cop in question!

Looks just like how I though he would, with that assinine verbal diarrhea that was spewing from his dark hole.

Seriously though, this nonsense isn't news, and never has been. Can we all just stop reporting this, please?

 

[Crazy_Man_42]

Has everyone forget the fact that the only AR-15 he had was in his car and not in his hands at all when he was shooting.

I do remember the police saying he only used two pistols during the whole shootout.

Mass Media at it's finest blaming it all on a weapon that wasn't used in the shootout and it's getting all the flak and fallout from this.

 

[DTWolfwood]

Good thing he stayed anonymous. The outrage that he'll get will surely prove his point more than not.

 

[DiamanteGeeza]

The officer said Lanza learned some of the techniques he used in his attack from videogames, including the "tactical reload" - reloading before your current clip empties - and switching to a handgun when the strap broke on his AR-15 rifle. "Classic police training," he said. "Or something you learn playing kill games."

Or something you learn by reading pretty much ANY Special Forces book ever written. And it's hardly Einstein-level stuff.

Anyway, the point people are missing from this article is that shit-for-brains used a SPREADSHEET too... I'd say this is less the work of a video gamer and more that of an accountant. Who votes we ban Excel?

 

[DiamanteGeeza]

Has everyone forget the fact that the only AR-15 he had was in his car and not in his hands at all when he was shooting.

I do remember the police saying he only used two pistols during the whole shootout.

Mass Media at it's finest blaming it all on a weapon that wasn't used in the shootout and it's getting all the flak and fallout from this.

No, that was misinformation. There was a shotgun in his trunk (an official apparently used the army slang term "long", meaning rifle of some sort, and that made various news outlets jump to the conclusion it was the AR-15, which is wasn't).

There's more detail here if you're interested: http://www.cnn.com/2012/12/18/us/connecticut-lanza-guns

 

[LG Jargon]

Cop Blames Videogames For Sandy Hook Massacre

An anonymous, second-hand account printed in tabloid may have a certain dubiousness to it, but the Daily News is the fourth-most-read newspaper in the U.S., and what people read, they tend to believe, especially when it comes from authority figures - even if it's just anonymous cops. And videogames are an easy target, which is what makes even wildly nonsensical claims about things like a "gamer code" so troublesome.

Just like Fox News is the most trusted news source to Americans. (They're also the least, but let's just ignore that, shall we? That's because of those darn dirty liberals and the "lame-stream media") Because of all of their credible news sources or liberal use of the facts. /sarcasm

The Daily News is a shitrag, and any journalist worth their salt wouldn't dare work for them...at least not for long, I hope. Though I don't wish for more reports about people who say such stupid things, we'll have to weather shitstorms like this. We can't live in an echo chamber or we'll end up just as bad as them (which I hope hasn't already happened).

Thanks for the reporting, Mr. Chalk. /salute I just wish it was some good news rather than stupid news...like someone catching some damn brain cells and realizing when they're about to spew bull out of their mouths.

 

[Hellfireboy]

The worst mass killing in a school in American history was the Bath, MI killings. In that event 45 people were killed including the killer himself. Of those 45, 38 were children. And that was done with a bomb... in 1927. No guns, no video games. Trying to get a better score than someone else is a common drive among gamers. It's also a common drive among track and field runners. If games are really as influential on the human mind as every one of these people thinks it is then why hasn't Sim City led to a rash of civil engineering or The Sims lead to a bunch of obsessively micromanaging dictators. The best selling game of December 2012 when this happened was Just Dance and yet I don't see people dancing in the streets on their way to work. People need to find a way to explain the unexplainable and this is really no different than when ancient man looked up and wondered how the sun moved across the sky and decided that it was floating on a giant barge driven by the gods.

 

[ChroniclerC]

This is not news, this is an idiot. TheEscapist? Please stop feeding the idiots.

 

[Doom972]

What!? a coward/liar not willing to identify himself is saying videogames make people into killers? It must be true!

Why do all of these anonymous trolls get a chance to spew nonsense?

 

[JEBWrench]

Judging by all the outrage, I'd say the tabloid won.

Do people these days even know what a tabloid is?

Our only hope now is Batboy!

 

[DiamanteGeeza]

Wait, I thought the AR-15 was NOT used in the shooting? Wasn't that the most recent conclusion they came to, that each victim was killed by a hand gun?

No, that was misinformation. There was a shotgun in his trunk (an official apparently used the army slang term "long", meaning rifle of some sort, and that made various news outlets jump to the conclusion it was the AR-15, which is wasn't).

There's more detail here if you're interested: http://www.cnn.com/2012/12/18/us/connecticut-lanza-guns

 

[Baresark]

1. It's a tabloid. I think the mark of a tabloid is that people don't believe what they read in them.
2. He compared it to rape and porn, which do not have statistically significant link.

It's terrible that they would put thin in their rag, it makes cops everywhere look just plain stupid.

 

[Garland]

Didn't we just yesterday have a different "I don't want to live on this planet anymore"? I'm so very...very tired.

 

[RicoADF]

"They believe he learned the principles of this - the tactical reload - from his game...When the strap broke on his first weapon (the AR-15), he went to his handgun at the end. Classic police training. Or something you learn playing kill games."

Which game exactly? Mass Effect? I haven't run across a single game where you're taught about the forward assist, magazine release, or misfeed/double-feeds. All of that was more than likely covered in the damn OWNER'S MANUAL.

Actually his mother who loved guns that taught him how to use them for self defence. I can see I'm not the only one that suspects NRA membership.

 

[weirdee]

"okay, whatever dude, what was that like, a few months ago?"

*continues to play games*

In what game do you have all of your points leeched from you from your killer? Sounds terrible!

By that logic if a cop had killed him the cop would've gotten "credit" for killing all those children. This analogy doesn't make any sense at all :/

maybe he plays dark souls?

i know i'd be mad too if i played it more often

 

[CriticalMiss]

Is there any evidence that he was actually a gamer? Like, games. In his house. The article only mentions having a spreadsheet of 'highscores', so all we can assume is that Microsoft Excel makes you a murderer. Which is probably true.

 

[Darth_Payn]

Haha. Nice try, Lanza, but everyone knows you can't beat a viking's high-score when it comes to mass-murder.

Spoiler

No, but seriously, this policeman's a dumbass.

That is a seriously tiny arm. that thing doesn't look fit enough to hold up a fork, let alone a firearm.
Also, why is the Escapist reporting a story from a tabloid? Isn't one of the red flags there that the "veteran officer" was not named?

 

[Darks63]

I'd say the kairos of his argument is a little off.

Is there any evidence that he was actually a gamer? Like, games. In his house. The article only mentions having a spreadsheet of 'highscores', so all we can assume is that Microsoft Excel makes you a murderer. Which is probably true.

I think the whole videogame thing is leftover from the the fact that they thought the brother did it at first and the brother of the shooter was a big mass effect fan on his facebook.