I have had it with this.

[Wolf In A Bear Suit]

It reminds me of McCarthyism for some reason (not that I was around for that obviously), I was so surprised that people even managed to whip something as obscure as a like on a facebook page into what can only be defined as a royal shitstorm, the kind that picks up cows and girls from Kansas, and drops them in poop. Easy access to a gun makes it so much easier for this kind of thing to happen, although I know many people use guns for leisure, hunting or whatever, so I'm not suggesting they be banned. It really doesn't affect me as I'm not American, but I can certainly see the need to restrict who can get their hands on a gun.
As I said a massacre of this scale would be impossible without guns, regardless of how violent the games were

 

[Ruedyn]

Snip

They ignore these because there's nothing they can do about it. If somebody wanted a gun, they would find a way to get it with enough effort. It'd be like how Prohibition went along, only with more dangerous people and less awesome gangsters. There's nothing they can do about video games either, unless they can ban internet as well, but it's new and it's following isn't as crazy, despite how they want us to look.

 

[MrHide-Patten]

All opinions form by the (mainly) right Americans are undone by the fact that when Australia got tight on gun control, we haven't had a gun massacre since. They have a limited range of household uses, but still better than getting martial arts lessons.

 

[FalloutJack]

Bottom line, people are stupid.

*Pours and hands you a glass of champagne*

Welcome, brother. We've been expecting you.

OT: Look, that's the trouble with this world. People many times ignore certain facts because it doesn't fit their answers or frame of reference. Let's take that Oh-So-Over-Talked-About attack on the World Trade Center. Where did we go after that? Iraq. Did ANYTHING that happened on that day have to do with Iraq or was anyone connected with anyone responssible in Iraq? NO. Did they have Weapons of Mass Destruction? NO. Did they ever have even aspirations of doing something similar to the US? NO. We skuttled a country for our own purposes.

And the reason for that line of thinking is that this...is a post-modernistic world. Post-modernism is where you have a fictional thing, a fake or farce, and you start making it real, like how we have technology that is based upon and sometimes EXCEEDS technology from Star Trek. So naturally, people in this case don't want to think logically. They want to create the facts to fit their view. It's very dangerous.

 

[Easton Dark]

It's in the news media's best interest to attack other forms of media.

So this will always be a thing until news channels and papers are wiped out, move to online formats completely, or make themselves the only non-destructive form of media in existence that everyone listens to.

They will not focus on the real problems. They will focus on the stuff that will get people to consume more of what they produce.

 

[Zantos]

It is human nature to seek culpability in a time of tragedy...

Presumably because it sells well with certain demographics and it's easy to get away with. Though I would like to see the soulless demonic hoardes that make up the EA and Activision legal teams stir from their oblivion pits to slap something on them. Though I'm not even sure that they're combined power is any match for the chitinous hellhoarde Fox probably has stashed in it's legal office.

 

[Haagrum]

People always want to be able to explain the things they are afraid of. It's human nature to want to know why something occurred, and many people will transpose their existing prejudices and views into the matrix of events, seize on something which supports their understanding, and go with that. In some cases, I daresay people pick the easy targets - after all, if you say it's about gun access, you run into a Second Amendment-toting wall; if you blame mental illness, you risk blaming a section of the community which needs help and understanding more than anything (and potentially draw attention to the lack of support provided for mental health services).

All in all - picking a target for blame is easy, self-affirming, possibly helps you to advance a political agenda, can be discarded for tomorrow's report, and sells copy. It's typically the ignorant who are the most certain about such things.


Getting into it in more depth...

Re: mental health - Mental health is frequently poorly-understood and poorly-supported, and I'm no expert on why that is or remains the case other than suggesting a general unease about the concept of something going wrong in a person's brain. It's sometimes hard to treat, it's often hard to deal with, and it's not like a physical injury where it can be viewed, assessed and checked, and there is little risk of any consequence to the people around the person in need of help. For many people, I suspect it's just too hard - and there's also the issue of demonising mental health issues, mental illness or psychiatric conditions if it's done without care.

Re: firearms - It'd be easy to blame particularly militant approach to the Second Amendment (without consideration of what the "right to bear arms" actually means in practice, particularly in suburban living and outside of a well-regulated militia) and the NRA. There may be some aspect of the American psyche, in some places, which equates firearms possession with independence and freedom. For whatever reason, there are lots of them, they are reasonably easy to obtain, they are probably the most effective force multiplier a single person can have, and it's political suicide even to suggest reducing access to weapons which no civilian could ever actually need. However, I don't see how the Second Amendment taken as a whole should protect an unfettered right to any and all firearms, and such an interpretation has (in my opinion) substantially contributed to the frequency and severity of mass killings with guns in the US.

 

[RedDeadFred]

Because people actually believe shit like this (apart from the very quick message at the end):
Guns are such an integral part of America that people choose to ignore the obvious problems they cause.

 

[Lunatic High]

Its only because he shot so many children otherwise people would forget about by next month.

 

[Ryotknife]

Bottom line, people are stupid.

*Pours and hands you a glass of champagne*

Welcome, brother. We've been expecting you.

OT: Look, that's the trouble with this world. People many times ignore certain facts because it doesn't fit their answers or frame of reference. Let's take that Oh-So-Over-Talked-About attack on the World Trade Center. Where did we go after that? Iraq. Did ANYTHING that happened on that day have to do with Iraq or was anyone connected with anyone responssible in Iraq? NO. Did they have Weapons of Mass Destruction? NO. Did they ever have even aspirations of doing something similar to the US? NO. We skuttled a country for our own purposes.

And the reason for that line of thinking is that this...is a post-modernistic world. Post-modernism is where you have a fictional thing, a fake or farce, and you start making it real, like how we have technology that is based upon and sometimes EXCEEDS technology from Star Trek. So naturally, people in this case don't want to think logically. They want to create the facts to fit their view. It's very dangerous.

technically we went into Afghanistan first, then Iraq. While the reasons we went into Iraq were bogus, Saddam was a very large threat to....pretty much the entire world. The man was a loose cannon. That said, he was more useful alive to the US than dead as he kept Iran worried. But yea, plenty of reasons not to invade Iraq. This one felt like a personal vendetta. That said, i wont shed a single tear for Saddam.

granted, I usually keep these opinions to myself as quite a few family members went to Iraq. The LAST thing you want to do is to bring up crap about the war in Iraq to vets.

As for the original topic at hand, Media blames damn near EVERYTHING on video games if there is one to be found within 20 miles of an incident. Just like they blamed rock and roll and violent movies decades ago.

 

[TorqueConverter]

Why are we shifting the blame onto inanimate objects again?

I'm a bit confused. A firearm is as much an accomplice to a murder as a car is to a speeding ticket.

Solution to speeding problem = ban all cars?

 

[spartan231490]

Okay, so, connecticut shootings again, we got people blaming everything from videogames to dark clothing.

Am I the only one who thinks this isn't even negotiable? I know, "You are never the only one" but please, reassure me.

Let's think about this. It was already known that the killer was not mentally stable, and nothing was done about this. Not only that, but the killer was allowed access to a gun.

So, let's see two things that leap out there. Mentally unsound and untreated. Given a gun.

Mental problems. Guns.

There is not much need, at least, not yet, to start looking for other reasons this happened. The reasons are right goddamn there.

AND YET. The press, the politicians, even members of the public who should know better, skipped right over the two obvious elements right there, to any other scapegoat they could find.

I just...can't. I just can't. It feels like nobody's even considered it. It feels like everyone in the public eye has glazed right the fuck over those two elements like they weren't even there.

Now we have the possibility of more laws put on videogames while gun laws take a back seat.

Rant over. Topic: Why has everyone ignored these two factors?

You need to pare your list down one more: Untreated mental problems. Guns had nothing to do with it.

 

[barbzilla]

The faulty wiring is to blame. Not the video games, not the guns, not the clothes, and not random variable 213. This person was batshit crazy and he wanted to get some killing done. Video games are played by millions of others without issues, so probably not the problem. Guns, while one was used in the killing, he could have used a bomb or poison just as easily with the same results, so once again probably not the problem. Clothes, come on do I even have to validate this one? Random Variable 213, the fact of the matter is the guy was crazy. This is why he decided to kill someone, this is why he was able to bypass fear of repercussion and moral override. Stop fixing shit that isn't broken and fix the problem.

Start having mandatory psych evaluations for people known to be mentally unstable (and criminals). Increase gun control (not gun bans). Ensure that every gun owner has a psych evaluation and has proper storage facilities that lock. Ensure that every gun sold comes with a trigger lock.

 

[Twilight_guy]

I'm sorry did you miss the part when politicians started talking about improving gun control laws? I remember that on the news. Don't remember any video game related laws being mentioned though. As for mental health. My god that's just a big cess pool, I can see why people aren't to willing to put there foot in it, but it'd be nice if it could be addressed.

 

[Johnny Impact]

Y'know, I got a particular problem with that classic literature thing.

Let's see, what are we all forced to study...Romeo And Juliet.

In which Romeo murders and indirectly causes the deaths of tons of people because he's got a boner.

Check. Goddamn. Mate.

We have a winner!

I used to watch Tom & Jerry cartoons when I was little. They don't show those any more, because somebody decided they were too violent. I can't argue they weren't violent, because they most definitely were -- Tom took WAY more hideous beatings than anything Wile E Coyote ever suffered, and more often. I watched him get murdered over and over, in a thousand ingeniously fiendish ways, and I laughed about it. Yet I don't have to argue that despite my whole generation watching those cartoons every Saturday morning we grew up as stable as our parents, because that's simple fact.

Blaming the media is easier than acknowledging that people aren't perfect, or taking responsibility for ourselves and those in our care.

There's also sensationalism. Ever watch your buddy go for the high score on a video game? Same idea. "He killed HOW many people? Oh, wow!" We just want a story, even if it's one we've heard a thousand times before. Consume, decry, and move on to the next one.

 

[TorqueConverter]

Why are we shifting the blame onto inanimate objects again?

I'm a bit confused. A firearm is as much an accomplice to a murder as a car is to a speeding ticket.

Solution to speeding problem = ban all cars?

Not this shit again.

The difference there is that a gun is specially designed for killing, a car is not.

Yet cars are so much more effective at it on a day to day basis!

as for the OP:

Of course a car is not designed to kill. Who says that? Certainly not I.

A firearm is no more designed for mass shootings than a car is designed to obtain speeding tickets.

They're inanimate objects. Inanimate objects can be misused. The misuse of a inanimate object is not the inanimate object's fault.

 

[Reyold]

Yeah, I share your feelings OP. This is but another example showing the incompetence of our government and its system.

As a political aside: Almost everyone in the US is willing to criticize the govt, but nearly NO ONE is willing to criticize the system that continuously puts them in year after year after year. F**k the constitution.

I"m not sure it's the Constitution's fault... we keep voting the morons in. Granted, it's seemed to have come to a point where there ARE not good candidates... The Constitution's not perfect, by any means, but I like to think it's better than most systems of gov't.

OT: Yeah, I'm pretty sick of this too. Can't SOMEONE actually be sane/competent these days?

Oh right, that would mean compromising your precious agenda. God forbid THAT happen.

 

[zehydra]

Yeah, I share your feelings OP. This is but another example showing the incompetence of our government and its system.

As a political aside: Almost everyone in the US is willing to criticize the govt, but nearly NO ONE is willing to criticize the system that continuously puts them in year after year after year. F**k the constitution.

I"m not sure it's the Constitution's fault... we keep voting the morons in. Granted, it's seemed to have come to a point where there ARE not good candidates... The Constitution's not perfect, by any means, but I like to think it's better than most systems of gov't.

OT: Yeah, I'm pretty sick of this too. Can't SOMEONE actually be sane/competent these days?

Oh right, that would mean compromising your precious agenda.

Our system is far from best. We americans need to get it through our thick skulls that nothing is going to change until the constitution is either scrapped or amended. Voting doesn't do shit anymore.

 

[Nimzabaat]

Snip

They ignore these because there's nothing they can do about it. If somebody wanted a gun, they would find a way to get it with enough effort. It'd be like how Prohibition went along, only with more dangerous people and less awesome gangsters. There's nothing they can do about video games either, unless they can ban internet as well, but it's new and it's following isn't as crazy, despite how they want us to look.

Actually, every country that has restricted firearms has found that that... works. Somehow the United States is that one magical country where a tried and true method will somehow automatically fail.

More on topic: What games did Charles Manson play? Jeffrey Dahmer? Son of Sam? Were text-based adventures the root of all evil? Seriously they just blame whatever media is relevant at the time as a stalling tactic until people forget all about it.

 

[Mr Binary]

I've been getting tired of blaming video games or comics or whatever for quite some time.

I live in Canada and it seems we don't have an issue with playing Video Games and then not shooting each other. Not saying it's because he was in the US or anything, but I'm merely using that to show that Video Games obviously have nothing to do with it. Crazy is crazy.