Grand Theft Auto IV Blamed In Murder Case

[Taurus Vis]

"awards points to players for killing people."

That is completely, blatantly untrue. Also, perhaps we should take a look at a few factors mentioned in the story.

1. Eight year old living with 87 year old (clearly he has lost his parents for some reason or another, a particularly stressful life event)

2. Was playing with a loaded handgun

3. (And this is interesting to me) They slept in the same room? Was this a low income situation or a temporary living arrangement. I'm not saying in any way that it was sexual but this pairing was less than ordinary.

The fact that once again, video games are being blamed for violent crime does not surprise me. Politicians constantly look for stories like this so they can champion whatever witch hunt crusade that will garner them ignorant supporters. The media itself is to blame. If you feed an idea to the masses enough, they accept it. I'm patiently waiting for the politician who wants to use this as an anti-gun law scape goat, but it seems like this is to good of a story for them to not blame it on video games.


Captcha: "I saw that"

Ya we all saw it coming to.

 

[Yuuki]

America has a bit of a special case with guns, I believe all schools over there should educate children about guns when they're 5-6 years old. Kids watch a lot of TV, so run child-friendly advertising campaigns telling kids what to do if they find a gun (or something resembling one), i.e. NOT to touch it and inform an adult right away. We had a ton of adverts here telling kids what to do if they found a goddamn matchbox/lighter lying around as part of the "Get Firewise" fire safety campaign lol.

If guns are truly a major (and often celebrated) part of American culture and part of so many household as commonly as freaking toasters, something has gone horribly wrong if EVERY child isn't taught the implications of a real gun from the moment they can understand spoken english.

 

[proctorninja2]

clearly the kid was playing a different game, I mean a shot to the back of the head clearly, he was playing splinter cell or hitman *sarcasm

 

[Strazdas]

Really escpists? half the posts are actually blaming the game sicne its "18+" game hence it causes murder ech? didnt expect this type of ignorance here.

why is the being classified as a murder? the child is 8 and doesn't understand the concepts of death, this is most likely an accident, that with more parental oversight could have been prevented.

I dont know what kind of kids you had, but the ones i took care of understood the concept of death from around 4.

P.S. Sleeping in the same room is not strange. Especially if the family is not rich. My parents slept in the same room till i was 13 simply because we only had 1 room.

 

[The_Echo]

>GTA
>realistic
>awarding points

Grumble grumble 8-year old with an M-rated game hrmm hrmm poor parenting rabble rabble loaded gun where he can get reach grumble grumble.

Just another drop in the bucket. Fox News will never stop blaming video games for everything. They don't even bother to recognize the existence of the ESRB (a direct product of violent game outrage). This isn't 1986 anymore; games have content ratings just like film and music.

There's no point in getting upset about Fox doing what Fox does.

 

[Henkie36]

Oh sure, the only possible thing to blame here is GTA IV. Not the fact that an 87-year old still can buy guns without any trouble or that a fucking 8 year old can reach it and is allowed to play with it by her. Sure. Blame it on the game, it is the only possible cause in this case.

 

[Gameguy20100]

Why the fuck is an 8 year old playing GTA IV in the first place?

I thought we were done with this scapegoating bullshit.

I mean of course that was the reason he did it because ALL murderer's are gamer's right??

Honestly people.

 

[asap]

somebody has died and video games played a part in it. it is a very sad moment for a lot of people. the power of suggestion is very strong, particularly in a young mind. I guess she was just too old to realize how media can be so influential, otherwise she would never let a child play such a game, or thought it was just a driving game or something. we need to educate people about the effects of media on their minds and on those around them.

 

[Metalrocks]

ah, here we go again.
its always the games. not asking them self why a kid was allowed to play with a real gun in the first place.

 

[Riobux]

No, it's not topical. It means roughly as much as hearing of a rape case while the rapist blasts out a Jay-Z song, with a Jay-Z album just around the corner.

...That's kinda because it's the same thing in a sense: A horrible event happens that people claim is related to the latest in a series of Media.
I'm certain that if that actually happened in real life, there would be a similar story from Fox News, albeit with more racist undertones.

And if that occurred, you'd have the entire press dancing about the death in a weird cult-like circus act. It'd make the Aristocrats look respectful. Like now?

All I can really say is The Escapist seems to be taking advice from Fox News. This is in terms of how to maximise attention (and therefore ad-revenue) by pushing news stories that mean a lot less than they suggest and provoking their fan-base.

Now that's going a little extreme.
I've actually tipped off the Escapist regarding a news story involving a congressman wanting to pass a bill that would place stickers on X-Bone's on Retail stating that the Kinect had a camera on it as part the fallout over the NSA spying.

My guess is a bunch of people tipped them off to this and they ran with it.

Actually, extreme is suggesting The Escapist staff look through exclusively Fox News stories for something to provoke their fan-base with. I don't think they're that sadistic. However, I do think on slow days they provoke so they can still reap in money.

I'd also argue the news story you are tipping them off as being a little sensationalist, but at least it's something political. It has the saving grace of "well, this might have an effect". This on the other hand has no value. It's using someone's death to reap in money.

Seriously, look through this topic and try to straight-face tell me everyone isn't rustled in one way or another in a meaningless manner. This death has been made more trivial than video games.

Welcome to the Internet, This happens with everything.
That story about the COD Dev getting death threats over Balance updates less then a few weeks ago is an example.

At least the COD dev getting death threats tells us something that occurs in our own community and actually affects us in a very real way. It shows us what kind of people us as a community are and warns us of our bad side so we may improve ourselves. Hearing yet another news story of yet another death that is being linked to yet another game by press/politican/police/etc doesn't tell us anything. It means nothing. Unless a politican seeks to do something, there's nothing to be done with the suggestions of a link between a death and a video game except ***** and moan. I can't help but even wonder if it's appropiate to talk about studies that show or don't show a link between video games and violence. They do have the potential to be worthwhile but considering the tendency of these studies to be deeply flawed and everyone to walk into the debate with a view point in mind, it tends to decend into people screaming like kids over-used arguments heard a thousand times as they preach to the choir.

 

[DerangedHobo]

The worst thing about this is not only video games getting flak but everyone will jump to "AHHH GUNS ARE EVIL THINK OF DA CHILDREN WAAAA". I mean it's retarded that the gun wasn't locked up or at the very least unloaded and in a safe place and it's also retarded to let an 8 year old play GTA IV. I mean the case for video games causing violence isn't very strong but you're letting an 8 year old, a time where up bringing can very well dictate how this kid will turn out, and you give him GTA IV in which you can go into a hospital, kill everybody and then proceed to create a pile of police in it's corridors.

Fucking Louisiana.

 

[freedash22]

I think most people, especially the media, will blame everything else BEFORE bad and irresponsible parenting.

 

[Talvrae]

Police in Louisiana believe an eight-year-old boy who murdered his elderly caregiver was likely driven to do it by Grand Theft Auto IV.

eight-year-old boy

eight-year-old

Let us dwell on this for a moment shall we?

Oh, you're done? why the fuck did an eight-year-old have GTA4?

Or even worse, have easy access to guns and live ammunition?

Both excellent question who is pretty much the extend of my reflection on the matter

 

[CowardlyKnight]

Why does everyone jump on the victim here? The lady was 87 years old taking care of an eight year old. She probably got possession of the child because his real parents were awful and was doing the best she could. I'm guessing since they shared one room they weren't well off and probably lived in a bad neighborhood, and so she owned a gun. For all we know, it could have been under lock and key, but the child probably knew where the was since it was such a small home.

I see this as a grandmother doing the best she can at the age of 87 with a possibly disturbed or damaged child.

I'm just tired of blaming the victim ALL THE TIME on here. In murder and rape cases.

 

[Diablo1099_v1legacy]

Stuff and Things

Look, I'm not really in a position to argue what the Staff do or don't do, but at the end of the day, it's a story about Video Games on a Video Gaming Website.

Thats good enough for me.

 

[Britishfan]

Edit: Sorry my bad. Somehow misread Louisiana for London; most of my comment is now irrelevant. I'm a moron.

 

[Thyunda]

Aaaaaalright - 8 years old - playing GTA 4. What's wrong with that picture?

How about we put the parents in jail because they're freaking idiots and should not be allowed to "guide" a child......

Eight years old. With a loaded handgun. That's the picture we should be looking at.

Well, that's another stupid thing, I definitely agree.....

No, it's the stupid thing that caused this entire tragedy. But that just tells you how news out of America is worded. Every single article has so far implied that the youngster playing a violent videogame was the part out of the ordinary, showing you that a culture that gets so wet over guns finds a piece of entertainment more dangerous.

That's really rather fucked up. At least the murders in this country blamed on games were committed with common garage tools.

 

[Ace O'Hagen]

I think its about time we realise the games industry has blood on its hands.

I'm sure all the people springing to this games defence will deny it, but you have the blood of the victims on your hands for supporting these games.

Either wash the blood off by supporting a ban on these sick murder simulators or admit that you sanction the murder of innocent people just so you can get your rocks off on these twisted games.

The choice is simple

I sure hope that's sarcasm, cause the GTA IV disc didn't jump out of the PS3, grab a firearm off the shelf and shoot an old lady in the back, a child did that ... and that's what we should be talking about, how that kid had easy access to a fire arm

 

[Living Contradiction]

Just a coda to this thread: The district attorney had a chance to interview the boy and release a statement about the killing. The kid shot his grandmother because he thought the gun was a toy.

Not because GTA told him it would be a good idea. Not because he was mad at her. Not because he was abused. Just because he thought a gun was something to be played with. He didn't know that death is permanent and that bullets to the head cause death.

The kid's with his parents now, dealing with the fact that he killed someone he loved.

Here's the article I got that info from: [a href]http://www.theobserver.ca/2013/08/27/boy-who-shot-grandmother-thought-gun-was-a-toy-official[/a]

 

[Wolf Hagen]

Theres so much tragical irony in this story, that I gotto watch my mouth.... like the town name where this happened beeing called Slaughter (Lousiana), deep south ya know....

But lets just say: Folks who play SOME games and are clearly under the required age are one kind of annoying (everyone who ever played any kind of shooter probably agrees with me).

But Children mistaking a gun for a toy, that boy sure got his beef everyday, or he plays with cinderblocks like other Kinds play with Legos.

I still can just say: those parents are to blame. Still tragic, but The heck? Yeah, keep your guns on in the open, nothing bad can happen, because you need to shoot burglars at any time of the day!

There I go again... I'm sorry, but this is fail on so many levels, that the Parents just can be glad, their Kid didn't shoot them.
And no, this would be even possible anywhere else, as long as you have dumpknuckles, who leave their guns on the living room table next to blah. This time, one cannot just shout 'MURRICA!.

But still can shout FOX News, but Hell, we know what to expect from them by now right? ;P