Mass Effect being blamed for Connecticut shooting.

Quazimofo

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Therumancer said:
Quazimofo said:
Therumancer said:
snip
I just wrote a bit about that, though I fear it fell prey to my tendency to ramble.

I actually think guns reduce the death toll for these kinds of things, simply because of their ease of use and availibility. The thing is that killing a lot of people with a gun is pretty hard to do, this is why most of these mass shootings have some pretty low body counts. Unless you can pen people in (like happened with the classrooms) people are going to run away from you, and they are going to take cover, and try and put barriers between you and them. This is why for offensive operations (security sweeps included) it's all about setting up patterns to pen people in to specific areas so you can take them down or control their movement, which takes a team.

Remove guns from the equasion and your going to see these people who are already putting a lot of thought into this coming up with far more dangerous solutions. Making an equivilent to napalm is simply some Ivory Snow Flakes and fuel oil away. You can make a pretty deadly gas with bleach and ammonia. Heck Gasoline itself is easily turned into some very deadly incindiary weapons with minimal skill. Someone intent on doing harm simply goes to the gun as the most readily availible tool, and they try and plan around that, because it takes the least effort, and they typically wind up with
an inefficient method of creating a mass casualty situation. The guys who do this kind of thing aren't going to simply give up the entire plan for the lack of a firearm, they are just going to do more research and become more deadly.

If I decided to do the same thing this guy did, for some unfathomable reason, that is to say sacrifice myself to kill a bunch of innocent kids in a school, I sure as heck wouldn't decide the most efficient way of doing it would be to simply walk in the front door with a rifle and a handgun. Simply closing and locking the doors was a massive deterrant to this guy given help being on the way. As I said in another thread if the guy had simply put a bit of creativity to mixing up some bleach and ammonia he probably could have gassed all the classrooms on the hallway regardless of closed doors instead of just getting the rooms that were too slow in locking down.

Of course then again with my training I think of this in terms of a professional. I realize there is no such thing as "safe" and can thus put it into a better perspective. Most people look at this and go "OMG, 18 dead kids.. a gun was the tool, we must hate on guns" they don't bother to look at other incidents and how else this could have gone down and realize how much worse it could have been, and how utterly pathetic an effort this was overall. To be honest the guy was lucky to even get what was it... 22 people all together? Having access to guns gave him a false sense of security, he didn't bother to do any real research into terrorists, gueriella warfare, and just general mayhem to see how the most successful mass casualty situations were pulled off. Without a gun he might have done more of that kind of research (what you learn in classes is condensed information, not really secret) and this would have been even more screwed up.
That is a completely fair argument, though I still disagree. When was the last time you heard of a school attack that involved something other than a knife or a gun? the 2 most readily available weapons one can have depending on their place in the world? While it is true that there are more efficient means, I believe that because the majority of these shootings/stabbings involve people who just take the best weapon they can get with little effort and go nuts, rather than actively planning out the most efficient means to do harm, because they just want to hurt/kill, not hurt/kill in an incredibly efficient manner.

Basically, they aren't the type of person who would do the research to become very very efficient at committing these atrocities. Therefore, limiting the readily available weapons to much less deadlier ones (improvised/purchased blades for the most part), really would limit the death toll on these atrocities.

Unless i'm completely wrong. But in order to support or deny my claim there needs to be mental evaluations of these people either soon before or after the crime, but after cant happen since they always wind up dead. So it all comes back to the US needing a better mental health evaluation and care system. Perhaps also monthly mental checkups for car owners and gun owners, mandatory training in gun safety which has to be renewed every 6-8 months or so, as well as closing those loopholes like you dont need to background check for sales between individuals and at gun shows, and making it universal which crimes keep you from getting a gun, and for how long (permanent everything i say is fair, but some crimes perhaps not so much). That oughta help, since there is no fucking way we are getting rid of guns in this country short of extra-terrestrial intervention or a war between the US and EVERY OTHER COUNTRY, assuming we could somehow stop the nukes from flying.
 

AlexLoxate

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Fair chance of indoctrination. Seriously though as if the series isn't filled with enough problems as it is.

And this claim is almost as stupid as ME 3's ending.
 

Shilefin

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I used to think these sprees of dumb facebook comments were a one time thing; a lone hiccup of a brainfart that was later ridiculed by everyone else around there. By now, I am still wondering why there isn't any terrorist organization dedicated to hunting down and crucyfing such specimen(If you happen to be in one, where's your kickstarter page? I'll donate). God damn it all. To hell.
 

The Artificially Prolonged

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Jul 15, 2008
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Ah the idiotic scapegoating has begun. Let's blame something the killer enjoyed for his actions instead of looking at the real issues. The killer is the one who is to blame for what happened, no one or no thing put the gun in his hand and told him to do it. Now there are question that should be asked, like what the compelled him to do this and how could this have been prevented but these questions are a lot more complex than simply pointing at a videogame and blaming it.

get off your butts and add disclaimers to these games are NOT REAL LIFE
Yes I can see how a game in which a man and a team of aliens travel through space could be confused with real life...
 

Terminate421

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boots said:
That is ridiculous. Now if the news story was about a kid who decided to go up and down in an elevator for 10 hours, the accusation might have some credibility. Or if he was going around asking everyone to tell him their life stories and what kind of culture they come from. Maybe even if he suddenly took a really keen interest in digging up rare rocks.

But there isn't actually all that much shooting in Mass Effect, not in the first game anyway.
You forgot about the part where he got filed for harrassment for going up to groups of people and then saying "I should go"

Still, this is bullshit. And Jack Thompson is all over it.
 

Saladfork

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I understand that it's scary to think that there are people who will just randomly decide to kill as many people as they can one day. That's a large part of the reason why, when it happens, people look for a cause. It makes people feel safer if it was Doom or Mass Effect or the rap music or D&D or what-have-you because then you have something to represent the random mass-murders, which gives you something to act against, and in so doing, feel like that sort of thing will be prevented in the future.

I suspect that the reason blame doesn't seem to fall on psycological disorders, even when it seems blatently obvious that the killer was extremely disturbed, is that nobody really has much of an idea on how to stop utter madness. You can't ban it, and you often can't pick up on it unless you know what you're looking for, you know the subject in question very well or until the subject has already committed an act of insanity.

What bothers me is that so many people feel this insecurity and go out looking for a scapegoat, but never seem to think to themselves about why exactly they feel the way they do, and whether or not what they're doing makes any sense from an intellectual standpoint.
 

Imp_Emissary

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Andy Shandy said:
Zhukov said:
I hear the killer's sister-in-law once mentioned that she liked to eat cornflakes for breakfast.

...

BAN THIS SICK FILTH, POISONING THE MINDS OF OUR CHILDREN WITH THEIR WHEATY EVIL!!!
All murderers have been known to drink water at one point in their life!

[HEADING=1]BAN ALL THE WATER!!![/HEADING]
Well, that would eventually put an end to all murder.

>_> In about 2 days or so if it didn't rain.......
 

Terminate421

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CommanderL said:
I have done something I have never done before I went an a facebook rampage I messeged everyone on that list and called them all fucking morons
I will give you a backrub for that



No homo.

Did any of them message you back?
 

Imp_Emissary

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Saladfork said:
I understand that it's scary to think that there are people who will just randomly decide to kill as many people as they can one day. That's a large part of the reason why, when it happens, people look for a cause. It makes people feel safer if it was Doom or Mass Effect or the rap music or D&D or what-have-you because then you have something to represent the random mass-murders, which gives you something to act against, and in so doing, feel like that sort of thing will be prevented in the future.

I suspect that the reason blame doesn't seem to fall on psycological disorders, even when it seems blatently obvious that the killer was extremely disturbed, is that nobody really has much of an idea on how to stop utter madness. You can't ban it, and you often can't pick up on it unless you know what you're looking for, you know the subject in question very well or until the subject has already committed an act of insanity.

What bothers me is that so many people feel this insecurity and go out looking for a scapegoat, but never seem to think to themselves about why exactly they feel the way they do, and whether or not what they're doing makes any sense from an intellectual standpoint.
That was beautiful.

Thank you, Saladfork.

I can only hope that maybe someday we can find a way to "fix" the problem of madness.
Not that doing so would stop these kinds of things from happening. After all, we would still have to find the mad people before they do anything.

In the meantime, I hope people can stop looking for scapegoats as often as they do now.

Captcha: get over it

>_<.....Wow Captcha. That's just very rude.
 

Musette

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Apr 19, 2010
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I saw one of my aunts share a petition on Facebook to convince game developers to stop making violent video games because of the shooting, I was curious about why video games were being blamed this time, but they're blaming MASS EFFECT 3?! I don't know whether to laugh or puke now. I don't feel like any of these people even know the genre of the game, let alone the setting or actual content. It's even more sickening that people blamed the game partially because of the misinformation about who actually committed the crime in the first place. Do people honestly feel so empowered and self-righteous by bashing a game that they don't even care to check the facts?

Terrible things can happen with no significant trigger, is that really that hard a concept to grasp?
 

EHKOS

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I'm sorry, but the comments left look like trolls to me. Either that, or, with all my experience of it, I am STILL underestimating human stupidity.
 

RN7

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I don't know. It seems like a few of those people are just blaming Mass Effect 3 in order to be trolling pricks. I'd be severely concerned with the state of society if a large group of people were stupid enough (and they are) to believe that a game like Mass Effect 3 could incite a mass murder, and believe their opinion is so strong that they will choose to broadcast it to major popular media.

As you can see, I am, in fact, severely concerned.
 

Lonan

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Jezzascmezza said:
Lonan said:
Jezzascmezza said:
God dammit- this again?
Seriously though, couldn't they at least pick another more realistic game to scapegoat if they had to blame a game? Mass Effect is set in a science fiction universe for God's sake- a universe where there's barely any children for that matter.
Except that one kid, THAT EVERYONE SHOT AT THE END OF MASS EFFECT 3!!!!

*sorry*
Really?
I'm playing Mass Effect 3 at the moment, and if you're being serious, that's kinda shocking.
Kind of destroys what I was trying to say before too I guess- maybe I should finish the game before I talk about it next time.
Fuck, sorry, I should have put up a spoiler warning. I made the same arrogant assumption people who put up the sovereign conversation in a thread on people's favourite video game speechs (http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/9.152733-Your-favorite-video-game-speech?page=2) which many people did, because its such an awesome exchange. I then saw someone say that the Sovereign conversation was one the greatest plot twists they had ever experienced, but I will never know what that's like because I had already seen it *sniff*

As for the kid, its not a flesh and blood kid, don't worry. I don't want to spoil anything more, so I won't say anything more.
 

PoolCleaningRobot

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NinjaDeathSlap said:
Well... man, I knew some people were still really pissed about ME3's ending, but there's no need to take it out on the kids. :p

[sub][sub]I'm a terrible, terrible person and I'm sorry.[/sub][/sub]

On a more serious note, 'games causing violence' hysteria isn't usually grounded in careful, rational thought at the best of times, but this reaches new lows of window-licking stupidity. Not only are people blaming a tangential connection to a game that involves shooting (but isn't really a full on shooter and certainly not a 'realistic' shooter) rather than the very un-tangential factors in these deaths (i.e. the shooter, and the gun he was carrying), but they haven't even got the right guy anyway.
Don't apologize, that was hilarious
 

Hawkeye 131

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And the cycle repeats itself...

To soon to make jokes about the school shooting? I thought I got trolled hard by the Mass Effect 3 ending but WOAH! This guy took it to a whole new level!!! Anyway in all seriousness this shooting is very tragic. That being said I think it's absolutely crucial to try to understand what compels, motivates and drives someone to commit such an appalling crime? What happened in his life to get him to a point where he was willing and able to take the lives of 27 individuals and then his own? Sure re-structuring gun control laws may help but I believe understanding the core reasons of why this man did this is much more important. Want to overcome a disease? Treat the source not the symptoms. Sure you can simply chalk it up to the the fact that he may or may not have played video games, watched violent movies or listened to death metal but I doubt any of those excuses will provide any really tangible answers.

I heard a great quote not to long ago that I think really applies here. "I'm to old to be governed by fear of dumb people".

Edit;

Just had an interesting thought. What if he'd used a knife to kill those kids and teachers? Should there be "Knife Control Laws"? Or how about a baseball bat? Should there be "Baseball Bat Control Laws"? Again, understanding the motivations behind the attacks, I believe are far more important in understanding and preventing the social and personal issues that could contribute to an incident like this from happening in the first place.

-Hawk