CT Senator: Games a Factor in Sandy Hook Shootings

[Something Amyss]

Aside from that dickhead cop who thinks the only place you learn to "tactical reload" is from video games, do we have confirmation on this guy's gaming habits?

I suspect he also ate food, drank liquids, slept in a bed and wore clothes.

Pants, I bet. It happened at Columbine, it happened in Aurora, even the Unibomber wore pants.

*shakes fist*

PANTS! My archnemesis. When will you people learn?

But yes, there are far more ubiquitous commonalities. And more relevant ones; access to firearms, mental illness, pants....

"Now, nobody can sit here for certain and say that without any one of those things, without the powerful weapons..."
Is this guy fucking high?

Well, he WAS using a BFG 9000.

To be fair, this guy seems to be one of the few US politicians that is not a rabid gun nut member of the NRA. He actually tried to block the NRA from sponsoring Hillbilly racing... errr NASCAR.

But unfortunately he's still stupid enough to jump on the "games are bad oh my god" bandwagon.

To be fair, asking politicians not to be stupid is like asking your dog to use a condom when it has sex.

That's a heartless thing to say!

They don't want to ban ALL schools!

Just the ones for middle class and lower class students.

And any that teach liberal propaganda like math, science, and history....

There's a reason they are suicide bombers, not suicide shooters.

the problem is that in America the worst examples may involve terrorism, but they're a tiny fraction of deaths in the country. Guns are a sizable one. Hell, gun deaths due to kids outweigh deaths to terrorism in this country. The histrionics about explosives are kind of negated by the reality of bombs vs firearms.

 

[Something Amyss]

Seriously?
I mean, seriously?
The shooting....still would have happened...without guns?
People who aren't at least temporarily mentally ill, commit such pointless, destructive crimes?

well, guns don't shoot people...People shoot people. So obviously the gun is superfluous.

 

[VonKlaw]

Man, American politicians must be pretty determined to blame everything but easy access to high power weaponry for all the shooting sprees you keep getting. Can't help but wonder why...

 

[spoonybard.hahs]

My therapist wife does admit that some things can "trigger" a person with mental illness to act out violently. Books, films, television, video games, the news, the voices, paranoia, or even interacting with other people. The thing about mental illness is that the a particular illness will not affect people the same way. Some of these mass shooters weren't diagnosed. Some were diagnosed, but not receiving the care they needed. Or they potentially misdiagnosed. Never brought up by these politicians is the level of care or access these people had. It's instantly, "They were sick in the head of course video games caused them to do it!" Not, "These people needed help and never got it, or got it poorly. Let's fix that."

 

[RonHiler]

I just don't understand why we keep electing Morons into the house and senate. Surely there are intelligent people in the country who would be willing to help run the place, you know, for the good of the country. Instead we get a constant stream of dipshits who completely ignore science and spout whatever bullshit pops into their heads. What the hell? Good god, I am sick of it.

Maybe we ought to enact a "minimum IQ" requirement to be allowed to serve in the senate/house. Sort of the same deal as now with the age requirement. "You must be at least THIS smart to ride this ride" kind of deal. Who's with me?

 

[RJ 17]

Conversely there is absolutely no link between violent video games and violent crime, there is always going to be violent crime regardless of whether there is any media that reflects it or not. People have been killing each other for centuries, well before there were FPSes to scapegoat.

You mean kinda like how there will always be violent crimes whether or not there's guns around? Or the fact that people have been killing each other for centuries, well before guns were around to scapegoat?

Edit: I'm not saying that guns don't make acts of violence easier, I'm arguing against the point "guns cause violence". They don't "cause" violence any more than games do.

 

[rayen020]

okay firstly this guy clearly says he isn't going to try and legislate against video games, because there isn't enough evidence (and there never will be). So lay off the legislating against other stuff Lanza was around argument. I think it's kind of cheap to bring up sandy hook in this debate because there were obviously bigger problems in Lanza's life.

However if you want to bring up a tragedy and point to video games i'd accept the Boston Marathon Bombings. those guys set off bombs in crowded areas, stole cars, got chased by the police, had shoot-outs with the police, and ran around hiding. hell thats 90% of GTA and Saints Row. plus they were from a former soviet state with shady pasts. sound familiar? they just figured out too late that Boston doesn't have any pay and sprays and they don't have regenerative health.

 

[TheRightToArmBears]

The common thread is that they all have exposure to violent videogames? No fucking shit. I'd be surprised if there were many guys in America under 30 that hadn't had exposure to violent videogames.

 

[Scars Unseen]

Guns cause gun violence you know. But standing up to gun lobbies is a stupid idea isn't it senator?

Actually they don't, no more than a hammer causes a house to be built.

Maybe not but it follows a certain sense of logic. If guns didn't exist or weren't readily available these kids couldn't shoot up the school. Conversely there is absolutely no link between violent video games and violent crime, there is always going to be violent crime regardless of whether there is any media that reflects it or not. People have been killing each other for centuries, well before there were FPSes to scapegoat.

You are quite correct. It would be difficult to insert bullets into people without a gun. But it is highly unlikely that the killers went to school with the intention of inserting bullets into people. They wanted to kill people, and that is very possible without guns. In fact, they could have taken out an even larger number of people with the right combination of easily obtained chemicals.

So yes, it does follow a certain sense of logic; just not the kind that is relevant to the situation. A gun is a tool. It's not the only one in the toolbox. There are an estimated 270,000,000 to 320,000,000 civilian owned guns in the US. In 2011, there were 11,718 gun inflicted homicides(617 of them judged to be justified homicide) in the US. That means that only 0.004% of all privately owned guns were used successfully as tools of murder in 2011. It seems to me that guns do not, in fact, kill people. They just happen to be a useful tool if that's what you have in mind.

 

[Frostbyte666]

this statement 'perhaps the video game exposure can put you over the edge' might be better recieved if he didn't handwave the easy access to firearms and the mental instability of the pyschopath. This idiot also doesn't seem to be addressing the issue of his constituents mental health and ways to improve their health care system.

 

[4RM3D]

Games a Factor in Sandy Hook Shootings

Games a(re) Factor in everything.

/thread

 

[Eiv]

I understand that guns themselves don't cause violence. I also understand that these people had mental illnesses that went untreated 90% of the time. I also understand that we are unfortunately this decades 'rock & roll'. It will pass, these idiots will move on to something else. In the mean time, the only thing that is going to solve this is a deeper understanding of mental health and appropriate care.

 

[Farther than stars]

Sighs.

"But we do see a trend where some of these shooters do have exposure to these video games."

I suspect he also ate food, drank liquids, slept in a bed and wore clothes. It's this wonderful thing called "cause and effect" Mr Murphy. Something being common in all of these cases does not mean that they actually had any relevance. Until we invent time travel so we can see if removing gaming from these peoples lives would have changed anything, it is nothing more than pointless speculation.

Equating eating and sleeping to playing violent video games is a false comparison. I think the link is a lot bigger between violent games and acts of violence than between drinking coffee and committing violent crimes. That's not to say that regular people can't separate fiction from reality, but I don't think it's a bad theory to suggest that the psychotically deranged people who go on spree shootings might not see that distinction quite so clearly.
If that is the case, then it might be a very good idea to stop at least mentally unstable people from accessing violent video games, the same way that it's a good idea to stop them having access to firearms. But, as you say, it's hard to devise an experiment which conclusively proves any such link, although it's not impossible and time travel is not a prerequisite.

 

[Gothproxy]

While Murphy does continue to believe games can be a factor behind incidents like the Sandy Hook massacre, he admits that there isn't sufficient research to back any sort of restrictive legislation. "What researchers will tell you, is that if you already have a severe mental illness, and a predilection to violence, perhaps the video game exposure can put you over the edge. But in and of itself, there is no research showing that there's a link," said Murphy. "Before we pass any legislation, which would limit the exposure that people have to these types of video games, I think it's important that we have the research and the data and that's what we're <a href=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/121551-President-Obama-Asks-for-Research-Into-Game-Violence>trying to do right now."

Did just about everyone who has already posted here forget to read this final paragraph before posting the "facepalm / he's an idiot" response? Considering that many, MANY politicians would call for a ban on violent video games regardless of other facts (or even forgetting) this guy at least says "there is no research showing that there's a link,". Then he goes on to say probably the most brilliant thing to come out of a politician's mouth regarding video games that I may have ever heard: "Before we pass any legislation, which would limit the exposure that people have to these types of video games, I think it's important that we have the research and the data and that's what we're trying to do right now."

As an avid gamer and supporter of gaming as a whole, I'm all for research into the effects of our chosen hobby. The alternative is for these old people to just assume that video games are bad for people and should be done away with. So stop with the hate for this guy since he's actually making sense.

 

[Flatfrog]

Now that is scientific fact. There's no real evidence for it, but it is scientific fact.

 

[Lilani]

Just to play devil's avocado for a second here, but isn't dismissing anyone who merely mentions the possibility of video games having an adverse effect on people equally idiotic.

I'm not saying I think video games contribute to violent tendencies in any way, I'm just saying I think we should keep our minds open lest we fall to the same ignorance that we assume has claimed our critics.

Considering the fact that they are willing to legislate on video games before equipping themselves with facts, I think it's safe to say these sorts of things are idiotic. This man has simply stated the obvious. Having a mental illness enhances the negative effects of certain stimuli. Yeah, no shit. But the sheer number of things that can possibly qualify as trigger stimuli is so vast that specifically targeting video games is both ignorant and pointless. If we start banning things that might trigger the craziness in people, then we'll have no media of any sort left by the time we're done.

 

[Fangface74]

It's clear we should ban oxygen. It's a fact all serial killers, rapists, game designers use it on a regular basis.

"No O2, no people, no problem"

 

[Mr.Squishy]

This is the equivalent of the 90's 'Satan devil music makes kids insane' scare. Bunch of old people who're out of touch with anything that happened after the 60's.