Grand Theft Auto IV Blamed In Murder Case

[CriticalMiss]

Naturally a videogame that the child should have no way been playing is to blame, not the loaded gun he had access to. Maybe GTA is to blame for the gun part too, after all GTA rewards players point for leaving loaded firearms in the vicinity of children. It also gives you points for making shit up about videogames to protect gun ownership, because guns can do no evil. It's a widely known truefact that there wasn't a single murder in the world until videogames were invented. Which is GTAs fault somehow.

 

[Diablo1099_v1legacy]

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.

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.

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.

 

[Snotnarok]

Guys stop trying to blame anything else besides a game, it has nothing to do with the fact his parents weren't paying any attention to him, making sure he understood the game was not reality, or having some gun safety and making sure the fire arm was locked away.

It's JUST the fault of ONE thing, not any group of things just one.

 

[Subscriptism]

8 year old had access to a gun and an 18 rated video game.

How about we just don't let children have these things?

 

[Arkaijn]

I woulda shot her too if she'd gotten me a PS3 instead of a 360

 

[00slash00]

I know that. I would've said nothing about it if it was a parent/sibling, but I wouldn't consider a caregiver family. Again, I asked because I really don't know if that kind of thing is the norm over there. If it is, then don't mind me.

I don't know if it's that normal, but I don't think it's so unusual that it would cause anyone to raise an eyebrow. When I was really young I remember having nightmares on an almost nightly basis and would often wake up in the middle of the night from a bad dream, and go sleep on the floor in my parents room. If my parents weren't around and I instead lived with a caregiver I trusted, I imagine I would have slept in their room instead

 

[Hero in a half shell]

Yea, just keep dancing around the real issue, which is America's gun culture. As long as no one is willing to acknowledge and do anything about that problem you should be prepared to pay the price of ignorance in the blood of your own people.

Here in the Netherlands we are required by law to get a permit and background-check before you are even allowed to handle a gun. You are also forced to store your personal guns and ammunition in separate safes in your house. This to prevent accidents such as this from even occurring. It's not watertight, but it is still preferable to lawlessness concerning deadly firearms.

Great Scott you've cracked it!

In order for this to never happen again all Americans should be required by law to get a permit and background-check before you are even allowed to handle a videogame. They should also be forced to store their personal consoles and games in separate safes in their house.

 

[Lunar Templar]

*headdesk* there are SO MANY THING WRONG with this.

why was an 8 year old playing GTA4?
why did the 8 access tot he gun?
why did the share the same bed? >.> that's just creepy to me...

though, you can answer most those with 'it's the south', guns are never the problem down there.

 

[Nokturos]

Hundreds of thousands of kids that age play violent video games, and 99.99% of them don't go imitating the games in real life. Kid's a sociopath, simple as that. It wasn't mentioned why he lives with an 87-year-old woman, but I assume his parents are dead, which may have been the actual root cause of his violent outburst.

 

[Yokta]

I woulda shot her too if she'd gotten me a PS3 instead of a 360

You just used the tragic, controversial death of an innocent grandmother to preach your side of an increasingly pointless console war. Not cool, Arkaijn. Not cool.

 

[WWmelb]

Video games turn kids into murderers, porn turns kids into perverts...

I always wondered why whenever something like this happens, nobody gets the idea to blame the parents or legal guardian.

"Oh no, little Timmy cut himself with the steak knife his dad gave him to play with, let's ban all knives!"

Remember that case when some careless parents gave a Pokemon toy to their four month old baby, clearly ignoring the "not suited for kids under the age of three" warning on the very toy and BK got the blame? Why didn't anyone get the idea to charge the parents for violating their supervision and thereby causing the death of the kid? There were plenty of similiar cases, and it always led to the same conclusion: BK is to blame, not the parents who gave the unsuited toys to their toddlers.

So even if the game is somehow to blame for the kid going postal (which I doubt), the one who let him play it in the first place is the actual culprit. I doubt an eight year old has both the cash and the possibility to buy a PS3 and GTA IV, so someone must have bought it for him. Or he gets a huge allowance and the seller didn't care, in which case he's at least partially to blame.

But no, telling people that their stupidity and/or recklessness led to their kids demise/freakout is considered inappropiate. So lets just blame something the kid likes and the moral guardians don't. I mean nobody got the idea to ban the quaran yet, despite mothers beating their kis to death with it when they misbehave or neglect their religious studying.

If the boy was watching Friendship is Magic, right before he shot the old woman would they still try to blame the medium?

Yeah, about that...

Have never seen friendship is magic. That video i found rather..disturbing.. to be in a cartoon aimed at young children.. the neck snap at the end was a bit much if you ask me...

wow.

 

[Dark Knifer]

Only about 5 states apply criminal negligence to gun owners when children get ahold of guns. Which is fucking retarded.

What the fuck, seriously? God its like they want people to be shot or something. I'm starting to think for some people yes they do get money out of death by firearms the way they are going on.

More OT: I wanna hear the full story of this. If the kid was properly fucked up he might just have known where it was and loaded it himself. Even if the law is a bit lax I gun owners should be looking after their weaponry in the sense of who can access it. It could be negligence, psychological problems an accident or probably a bit of everything.

snip

Credits to you for demonstrating care with firearms is possible and does have a practical purpose.

 

[Vareoth]

Yea, just keep dancing around the real issue, which is America's gun culture. As long as no one is willing to acknowledge and do anything about that problem you should be prepared to pay the price of ignorance in the blood of your own people.

Here in the Netherlands we are required by law to get a permit and background-check before you are even allowed to handle a gun. You are also forced to store your personal guns and ammunition in separate safes in your house. This to prevent accidents such as this from even occurring. It's not watertight, but it is still preferable to lawlessness concerning deadly firearms.

Great Scott you've cracked it!

In order for this to never happen again all Americans should be required by law to get a permit and background-check before you are even allowed to handle a videogame. They should also be forced to store their personal consoles and games in separate safes in their house.

That would actually be funny in a horrific surreal sort of way. I really want to see someone propose something like that with a straight face. It would make for a great distraction from any real problems that need to be faced ^^

Also, thanks to medv4380 for properly demonstrating an understanding of how one should treat a firearm at all times. Even if you're "absolutely sure" it is not loaded and safe. To many accidents have happened already when this basic rule was ignored.

 

[kortin]

Yea, just keep dancing around the real issue, which is America's gun culture. As long as no one is willing to acknowledge and do anything about that problem you should be prepared to pay the price of ignorance in the blood of your own people.

Here in the Netherlands we are required by law to get a permit and background-check before you are even allowed to handle a gun. You are also forced to store your personal guns and ammunition in separate safes in your house. This to prevent accidents such as this from even occurring. It's not watertight, but it is still preferable to lawlessness concerning deadly firearms.

I love how you just showed how very little you know about gun control in the US.

 

[kasperbbs]

I don't remember being that retarded when i was 8..
Apparently video games took another life, it definitely had nothing to do with that loaded gun that was kept in a place accesible to children and the fact that gta 4 is M rated(probably), but they still bought it for him.

 

[Vareoth]

Yea, just keep dancing around the real issue, which is America's gun culture. As long as no one is willing to acknowledge and do anything about that problem you should be prepared to pay the price of ignorance in the blood of your own people.

Here in the Netherlands we are required by law to get a permit and background-check before you are even allowed to handle a gun. You are also forced to store your personal guns and ammunition in separate safes in your house. This to prevent accidents such as this from even occurring. It's not watertight, but it is still preferable to lawlessness concerning deadly firearms.

I love how you just showed how very little you know about gun control in the US.

Care to elaborate or are you just trying to sound superior in order to win a non-existing argument? If I'm wrong I would like to know why. As far as I understand gun control laws are implemented on a state-by-state basis and as such are grossly undeveloped in a number of states, such as Arizona.

America does have controls, a lot of them, the problem is that those laws are unenforceable or circumvented if you have some gang connections. You can't waltz into people's houses and check for adherence in America unless they commit a crime.

Hmm, yes. So in order to create proper laws that actually work the USA would have to limit the rights its citizens currently enjoy? I understand that wouldn't be acceptable to a lot of people, and I get why. But certainly at least some measure of safety could be implemented across every state. Something as simple as a in-dept background check for any firearm purchased should certainly be enforceable.

 

[Vareoth]

Hmm, yes. So in order to create proper laws that actually work the USA would have to limit the rights its citizens currently enjoy? I understand that wouldn't be acceptable to a lot of people, and I get why. But certainly at least some measure of safety could be implemented across every state. Something as simple as a in-dept background check for any firearm purchased should certainly be enforceable.

They already do that.

You can't have a violent crime or practically any crime attached to your name, or else no one will sell to you. They even wanted anyone with any mental illness to be banned, but doctors hated it because its discriminating against people who aren't that violent as if they were all murderous lunatics who should be institutionalized.

Those checks didn't work. No control America ever had worked because of how resourceful gangs and criminals were. As long as gangs and cartels make money, our gun control won't work.

Then a least create a mandatory course on gun safety for everyone who purchases a gun. It might not do all that much but damn it, at least its something.

Also, from my point of view some of those background checks aren't all that thorough. And my point isn't really the criminal underworld. Those people will get their hands on weapons no matter what a country does to prevent it. It happens here as well. Though I get what you're saying.

Perhaps it is simply not realistic to expect such radical changes to a country whose most important document allows the private possession of firearms. But it does not sit well with me that people have to die because of that.

 

[Buccura]

Another day, another crime blamed on video games.

 

[Shamanic Rhythm]

Ah yes. The game 'rewards' him for killing people with a gun. And as we all know, more socially responsible media teaches us about the other, non lethal functions of guns; like how to unblock your drain with it or how to use it to find magnetic north.

 

[Living Contradiction]

The blame! The blame! Who's got the blame?

Ah yes, right. Video games. Sorry about that, everyone. Didn't mean to worry you or cause you to be introspective. Please, go back to your televisions and do not worry your pretty little heads about this incident. It could not have possibly been caused by easy access to personal firearms, an inability to use an alphanumeric self-censorship system which can be figured out by children, and/or a child showing any sign of emotional expression beyond "Whee". Rest assured, video games are at fault in this instance and that there is no way that you or anyone like you could be held responsible for this horrible tragedy.

*exhales* Now that that's out of the way, I refer back to the first thirty-five posts in this thread to illustrate the outrage, indignation, and fucking annoyance that is racing through my veins at this very moment. A woman is dead and rather than taking the time to find out why, the press falls back on easy target, hot-button sensationalism.

You know who this woman was? A babysitter (we have to call them "caregivers" now because of accuracy). Someone who watched an eight-year old while Mom and Dad went to work. Guess what? She lived in a trailer park in a tiny town in Louisiana and, given that she was 87 and living in Louisiana, she had a firearm. The town where she lived has a thousand people in it and is twenty miles away from a major city. Anyone care to give odds on response times to a trailer park where the only law enforcement is the county Sheriff? That she lived in a trailer might also explain why the police reported she and her charge slept in the same room. The very young and very old tend to take naps during the day and trailers aren't that big.

Oh, and one more point of clarification, yes, FOX News did trumpet this story...two days after it happened. Guess who they got it from? CNN along with CBS and the dear old Associated Press. Let's hear it for equal opportunity sensationalism!