rofltehcat said:
I don't really know if and what they could "do about" the product placement of real weapons in video games. If they'd be forbidden, video games would just be using weapons that look nearly exactly like real weapons and have names that can easily be identified as the original weapon the game's gun is modeled after.
This also applies to other items like cars in GTA, for example. It may not be called a Lamborgini but it still looks and sounds like one.
However, weapons clearly aren't for children (despite what some manufacturers might try to tell you) [http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=4Vi2df0ozSM]. The letter doesn't mention what kind of knives those were but regardless of it, they shouldn't have knives while in school. I can only assume they were something combat-knife-ish (something they simply shouldn't be able to buy), not some swiss utility knife.
That advert. I feel a little bit sick now. Seriously.
A while back my dad and I sat down and talked about buying me an Air-Rifle. I say a while back, it was about 6/7 years ago. We came to the conclusion that it was a pointless buy (He was more interested in me getting one then I was, it was a birthday thing) and that it would only lead to either mischief or injury so we went against it. We used to sometimes talk about going to a shooting range (Once one of them opened up in our town) and my dad was talking to some of his students about taking me hunting (It would have just been a day out in a desert watching eagles fly around before eventually shooting water bottles with a hunting rifle). The point I am trying to make with that is responsible parents can responsibly teach their kids about weapons. My dad used to hunt, way back when.
I guess the point I am trying to say is that when I was 14/15, my dad was tempted to get me an air-rifle. Because, at the time (And I still am) I was interested in hunting and rifles. We then talked about planned trips to shooting ranges, or hunting with his students. We never got round to it (I left the country) so thats that. That advert was a mixture of insane and sexist, pitching guns to kids that young is utterly, utterly foul. I find it strange, gaming and gamers get in trouble because little kids play games with a clear 18 plus rating on them, yet gun companies can try and sell weapons to kids that young?
Over in Blighty you would get in trouble for trying to sell an air-rifle to a kid that young. I know it is a ridiculously low calibre rifle that they are pitching, it would be hard to do any real damage with it. Yet an air-rifle can take an eye out (Had a friend of a friend go to Juvi for doing just that), that toy could kill. I...
I have little to say, really. 14/15 year olds learning about guns does not bother me, adverts pitching guns to 8 year olds piss me off to no end. I know lots of people on this site are gun advocates and thats fine. But lets try and keep the NRA out of games and keep guns away from 8 year olds.
EDIT:
I read up. When I was young we used to fuck around with BB guns. BB pistols and AK-47's, including a few full auto ones when my friends found a shop that would sell them. However ridiculously dangerous those things were, none of us ever got badly hurt and at least it aint a rifle. Although you can get powerful enough air-rifles to kill things, I have a friend who used to go hunting rabbits with an air-rifle. Bleh. I am just sickened by that advert, honestly. The article is interesting and I think people should stop assuming gaming goes on in a vacuum. I am massively behind the rating system and I think it should be listened to.
