In the NIU shooting, guess what's first to blame?

[Glitches are cool]

From Gamepolitics and other gaming sites, its clear that the first shit throwing went all at videogames. New York Post, Fox (of course), Child Advocacy groups, and Illinois legislator Robert Pritchard (R), who supports anti-gun control policies, are spouting "Blame the Game" before any police investigation has begun. Somehow the New York Post has found out that the rampager, Stephen Kazmierczak, played Counterstrike. Somehow they went behind police lines and dug up this information.

Of course, both Fox and the NYP are owned by the same man, and we all know how well Fox investigates as proven by the Mass Effect issue.

They used to say this kind of thing about Comic Books, back in the day. Interesting, really, that news groups want to latch on to something that a group of people enjoy and blame it for many things. The groups always target a niche that doesn't get a whole lot of media attention, and won't be politically attacked. IE, they can't attack something about the Muslim community because that would be viewed as attacking a group in most people, while videogames seem childish and inconsequential to the world turning, and thus become a free for all.

I guess the point I'm trying to get at is the thought of "blame the game, not the gun" becoming popular in news.

 

[REDPill357]

Yep. "Blame the game" has been around since Columbine, where Eric Harris and Dylan Kleboid decided to shoot up their school. One of them used Doom to model the school, and bam. The rest is history.

 

[Saskwach]

It's amazing that if an objective person were to compare the number of school massacres in the US to the number in, just as an example, Australia, they'd find that there are none here. And it's not because we play videogames if you know what I mean. It's because the last time there was a gun massacre our PM and the general public were sensible enough to PUT TWO AND TWO TOGETHER AND REALISE GUNS MAKE MASSACRES EASY, NOT VIDJAGAEMS. And then banned them.
Jesus hell this gets my goat. It's not even the videogames as scapegoat part. It's just that some people with a hobby are unwilling to give it up to save thousands of people a year. Hey wait, that last sentence sounded familiar.

 

[GenHellspawn]

It's funny because most, if not all, syndicated media is owned by Rupert Murdoch, Alliance Atlantis, General Electric, or Disney.

 

[Count_de_Monet]

I could be persuaded that video games are to blame if Mickey did the broadcasts on Fox news...

 

[Kompi]

Why not grab on to even older, similar buffoonery? Let's all yell in a loud voice "It wasn't the games, it was the Rock 'n Roll, man!"

Or perhaps not.

According to Wiki (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NIU_Shooting ) and associated links, the general idea is that the shooter had started acting erratic after stopping his medication for some condition or another. You'd think that would be the obvious target to blame, but I guess some people prefer the more sensationalist "The games did it!" approach.

Considering the above, it would be morbidly ironic if they'd blamed Kane & Lynch.

There always seems to be some sorts of publicity vultures that jump events like this and use them to further their own agenda. It reminds me of the history fluff text for the Temple of Artemis in Civilization 4, how it was burned down by someone for the simple reason that he wanted his name to be remembered.

 

[sammyfreak]

Sure the media is being stupid about this again. But the one to blame was the guy that did it and whats bad about the hole thing is that 6 people died.

 

[tiredinnuendo]

Sure the media is being stupid about this again. But the one to blame was the guy that did it and whats bad about the hole thing is that 6 people died.

You clearly don't understand the great values that this country (America) was built on. Unlike other, lesser societies, here we instinctively understand that the correct response to a problem is to find out whose fault it is, and then to link that person to a group or corporation, and then blame them. By never really understanding who is at fault, we can completely avoid the nasty issue of fixing the problem in question, which allows for repetition. This is good for whom?

Newspapers.

It's the American dream.

- J

 

[sammyfreak]

Sure the media is being stupid about this again. But the one to blame was the guy that did it and whats bad about the hole thing is that 6 people died.

You clearly don't understand the great values that this country (America) was built on. Unlike other, lesser societies, here we instinctively understand that the correct response to a problem is to find out whose fault it is, and then to link that person to a group or corporation, and then blame them. By never really understanding who is at fault, we can completely avoid the nasty issue of fixing the problem in question, which allows for repetition. This is good for whom?

Newspapers.

It's the American dream.

- J

I for one envy your simple way of reasoning.

 

[Jindrak]

There is usually one constant in all of these school shootings: Medication. Namely the loser stopped taking his. That is what is to blame, that and that alone. Now had he strapped a bomb to the stage and guarded it with an AK-47, or ran around shooting all the Middle-Easterners with an M4, you may have a point with the Counter-Strike issue, but, well, no.

 

[Surggical_Scar]

Oh Lord, there goes another one.

I bet this is going to be another 'Let's overlook the obvious and rape the closest available scapegoat into 200lbs of cheap Doner Kebab meat' situation. I'll be checking the news to see how often they bring up his stopping of medication and hw much they bring up computer games.

I'm taking odds of 7/5 that Games get at least a 2 to 1 mention over medication.

 

[tiredinnuendo]

Sure the media is being stupid about this again. But the one to blame was the guy that did it and whats bad about the hole thing is that 6 people died.

You clearly don't understand the great values that this country (America) was built on. Unlike other, lesser societies, here we instinctively understand that the correct response to a problem is to find out whose fault it is, and then to link that person to a group or corporation, and then blame them. By never really understanding who is at fault, we can completely avoid the nasty issue of fixing the problem in question, which allows for repetition. This is good for whom?

Newspapers.

It's the American dream.

- J

I for one envy your simple way of reasoning.

Thanks! Always glad to help.

- J

 

[MagnetoHydroDynamics]

School masacres are over hyped.
The chance of getting killed in a school massacre is some thing like 1:189400
However the chance of getting killed by a meteor from space is 1:12000, and the chance of getting killed in a car accident is 1:200.
In 2005 42.636 peps got killed in car accidents in US alone.

And usually crazy people dont play Doom 3 and decide to go kill every one in their school with two automatic smg's. Usually they hatch those ideas just by being crazy motherf*****s.

 

[tiredinnuendo]

School masacres are over hyped.
The chance of getting killed in a school massacre is some thing like 1:189400
However the chance of getting killed by a meteor from space is 1:12000, and the chance of getting killed in a car accident is 1:200.
In 2005 42.636 peps got killed in car accidents in US alone.

And usually crazy people dont play Doom 3 and decide to go kill every one in their school with two automatic smg's. Usually they hatch those ideas just by being crazy motherf*****s.

But what you're failing to notice is: Is it worth more money if Doom made them do it?

- J

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

Perhaps we should check if any of the journalists or policeman investigating have ever played a violent video game?

If they have then THEY R ALL INIT TOGEEHTER!!!!1!

Or something.

 

[Kompi]

The chance of getting killed in a school massacre is some thing like 1:189400

I believe it was Seanbaby who put it something along the lines of that the chance of him being randomly shot when meeting a gamer on the street was less than the chance of him driving around a Batmobile made out of winning lottery tickets.

And to Mr. J (a.k.a. tiredinnuendo): xD

 

[Raan_Amano]

I'm tired of everyone blaming the games for sh*t. You'd think that they would actually research things and realize that it was the fact that the guy quit taking his medication. What is it with people and their need to ignore facts like that? Basically, the guy was a nutjob to begin with, and shouldn't have been let around a game. Apparently, people don't want to blame mental illness for it, though. Why? Because you can't sue a mental illness. You can't retaliate against a mental illness. So what next? Blame a person, or a company, or a hobby that had nothing to do with the person having the mental illness in the first place.

And, as an aside, I'm getting tired of people outside the US telling us to outlaw guns. Remember that. When your country gets invaded by a foreign power, we'll have this discussion again.

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

And, as an aside, I'm getting tired of people outside the US telling us to outlaw guns. Remember that. When your country gets invaded by a foreign power, we'll have this discussion again.

Seriously man. We were kicking out foreign powers a thousand years before your country was ever populated, and we're still not using guns.

We're not telling you to outlaw guns. We're just saying the amount of murders will drop if you do.

 

[Raan_Amano]

There are other weapons, you know. Gun crime might drop, but not necessarily murder. Fixing the root cause is the problem.

 

[sammyfreak]

There are other weapons, you know. Gun crime might drop, but not necessarily murder. Fixing the root cause is the problem.

Killing someone with a knife is quite a bit harden then with a gun and its generaly not as fatal. Also there are some psychological triggers that make it alot easier to kill by gun then by knife.