Minecraft: Video Game Violence's Latest Victim

[soandnb]

I don't see any news reports blaming Minecraft. The only articles that are out right now are those saying "Minecraft is being blamed." but they don't cite any articles making the assumption. Only the dad seems to be blaming the game for his child's actions.

They're clever like that, they don't outright blame the video game because they know that would expose them to justified ridicule. They just say that "others" are blaming the game and don't comment on how absurd that is, thereby improving popularity with that most important mainstream news consuming demographic (angry old men) without consequence.

It's not like anyone is going to care when the fact-checker comes along and says [citation needed].

I don't see what you're saying. Of the two articles linked to, one is commenting on the absurdity of the media for blaming Minecraft as the culprit behind the kid's violence (Kotaku), and one is telling of the story and the events surrounding it (WFTV). The author of WFTV does not directly accuse Minecraft being the cause of the boy's behavior at all. It's only mentioned as a side note that the father thought the kid was playing his favorite character from a video game.

In all honesty, I think Kotaku is blowing this WAY out of proportion. WFTV did not give their article a sensational title like "Kid plays Minecraft, brings guns to school" to get hits. They did not correlate the actions of the kid to his video gaming habits, they simply repeated what the father said. That's not WFTV's fault.

If I'm wrong, correct me. I was only able to look at the articles presented - not any videos.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

And here I thought this would be a joke thread

What the fuck, America?

 

[Angelowl]

So it is the same thing as always? Loads of guns and ease of obtaining them in the US, as a result irresponsible people will get hold of them. And when the person in question is a parent or otherwise legal guardian of minors they leave weapons and ammo lying around instead of locking them up properly. Neither do they keep any eyes on what their kids are doing. Then the kids start playing with, borrows or intentionally use them. With disastrous results.

And there seems to be a big taboo against stating that the legal guardians and owners of the guns are responsible for both and failed in their supervision. Thus media goes after the most absurd and outlandish scapegoats, everything so people can stare and whisper at the horrible scapegoat and not feel disturbed that they too should probably keep a better watch on what their kids are doing and where they store there lethal arms.

Sometime reality is just too predictable...

 

[JamesStone]

Oh. This again. Delitful. I hadn't enough of my idiot quota for the day, I was about to go watch Fox News to get my fix. Thanks shitty American parents!

Seriously, had the kid tried to dig a giant hole in the courtyard and ripped through the neigbourhood's plumbing, maybe he'd get a point. But blaming freaking Minecraft for a gun? A freaking gun?

God freaking dammit, people are dumb.

 

[Nosirrah]

This reminds me of the Sandy Hook shooting when the media tried to blame Dynasty Warriors for the shooting. FUCKING DYNASTY WARRIORS! School children died, teachers got killed, and you try to blame it on something that doesn't even make sense? Instead of reporting actual news, and telling actual stories about the event, they try to blame it on everything and anything, especially video games.

They tried to blame dynasty warriors for that? DYNASTY F*CKING WARRIORS?

For those that don't know, dynasty warriors is set in china in the early years of the millenium. yeah.

OT:

I think someone should gather up america's reporters and fire them into the sun. Also the kid's parents.

 

[DiamanteGeeza]

A judge ordered the boy to home confinement and said his parents need to keep any and all weapons away from him.

If any parent doesn't realize this applies to all 9 year old kids, and they shouldn't need to be told by a judge in order to know it, then they shouldn't be allowed to be a parent.

 

[Ken Sapp]

In Australia you can buy guns if to want, however you need to have them locked up securely. Am I an idiot or does America not have similar laws? For the love of eggs on toast America, get your shit together.

We do, we have laws that outright state where you can place your guns when they are not either on the way to a firing range, having maintenance performed, being used as a means of self defense in the event of home invasion. The laws state that they need to be locked in a fire proof safe. The problem is that some people do not believe in those things, they are morons.

Depends on where you live. Laws concerning ownership, use and storage of firearms vary by state and municipality. However the laws do tend to be stricter for homes with children in them.

As a "gun-lover", I would like to say something about guns, children and parents. I have long held the opinion that the majority of shooting deaths involving children are due to poor parenting. The problem used to be little Johnny finding his Mom's/Dad's pistol in their closet and accidentally shooting their friend or sibling showing off. This is a failure on multiple levels. I was raised in a house with firearms and they were securely stored but my father also saw to it that me and my sister were taught from a young age to respect them, how to safely handle them, and never to touch them except when supervised. We never thought of them as toys. Be a responsible parent and teach your children to respect firearms if you are going to have them in the house as well locking them up securely away from the children. Whether or not you are going to teach them how to handle a firearm is up to you but make sure they know what the possible consequences could be.

 

[Rebel_Raven]

... Wow. Holy ... I'm speechless. My mind boggles. We need a law or something to prevent this scapegoating crap. Personal responsibility needs to be accounted for. The parents need to be held accountable.

I thought this topic was a joke. Minecraft couldn't have been implicated, could it? Sadly the joke is that I was wrong.

 

[Eldritch Warlord]

If I'm wrong, correct me. I was only able to look at the articles presented - not any videos.

Well not everyone is interested in subtly bashing video games, Kotaku least of all.

 

[lapan]

I know there are many out there who enjoy Minecraft and it's # of mods out there, but now it has become the latest victim in the fight against Video Game Violence.

Kotaku [http://kotaku.com/now-weve-heard-it-all-minecraft-blamed-in-school-viol-1418633346] Reports:

A nine-year-old Orlando, Fla. boy?"so tiny ... he could barely see the judge over the podium"?was sentenced to home confinement by a state judge after he brought "multiple weapons to school." The video game being blamed? Minecraft.

WFTV in Orlando, FL [http://www.wftv.com/news/news/local/student-found-weapons-orange-co-elementary-school/nZ8DK/] adds:

School officials said the boy brought multiple weapons to his elementary school in Hunter's Creek Wednesday.
An officer searched the student's bag and found an unloaded handgun, a magazine with six bullets inside, a steak knife and small-handled sledge hammer.
The guns came from his father's home, officials said.
A judge ordered the boy to home confinement and said his parents need to keep any and all weapons away from him.

The boy's father said he was playing a character he learned from the video game Minecraft.

"They use hammers to dig and knives and guns to protect themselves from zombies," the boy's father said.

The school the 9-yr-old attends is Endeavor Elementary School in Orlando, FL.

Now, I am no Minecraft fan...but this makes me wanna flip a table. How about you?

Sources: WFTV [http://www.wftv.com/news/news/local/student-found-weapons-orange-co-elementary-school/nZ8DK/], Kotaku [http://kotaku.com/now-weve-heard-it-all-minecraft-blamed-in-school-viol-1418633346]

Next they will blame Legos for murder at this rate

 

[Darmani]

... Wow. Holy ... I'm speechless. My mind boggles. We need a law or something to prevent this scapegoating crap. Personal responsibility needs to be accounted for. The parents need to be held accountable.

I thought this topic was a joke. Minecraft couldn't have been implicated, could it? Sadly the joke is that I was wrong.

I am always surprised how pro-gun you are.

 

[WenisPagon]

This never would have happened if the kid had a diamond gun.

 

[DataSnake]

yeah the minecraft blaming is pure retardation,
but the nra guy was refuring to the fact that soldiers are not allowed to be armed on bases, effectively turning them into gun free zones...until a lunatic brings some and starts shooting all the unarmed people

There's a simple problem with this line of reasoning: the guy wasn't exactly wearing a t-shirt reading "I AM THE AGGRESSOR." If someone else had returned fire, how would the next person to pull a piece know which one to shoot?

 

[KarmaTheAlligator]

Many wise words here

Ok, now hurry up and multiply, we need more of you. In fact, if you could repopulate the whole US continent, it'd be great.

 

[Atmos Duality]

Another day, another game made into a pariah to make shitty parents feel better about themselves.
If your kid is packing weapons to go to school with for any reason you can conceive you are failing as a parent.

 

[Zenn3k]

How do you craft a pistol in Minecraft? I can't find it on the WIKI anywhere!

 

[Ken Sapp]

Many wise words here

Ok, now hurry up and multiply, we need more of you. In fact, if you could repopulate the whole US continent, it'd be great.

I'm a little busy right now but I'll get on that once I have some free time.

 

[DementedSheep]

1. How the fuck did that kid get his hands on a gun? The father should have had that secured far away from where a kid can get at it.

2. I?m pretty sure minecraft doesn't actually have guns and it not exactly a violent game.

3. Hammers to dig? what?

4. If your kid is so out of touch with reality that they think they need to bring weapons to school to protect themselves from the creepers and zombies that?s a parent fail.

5. Kids thinking weapons are cool is not a video game problem. The media in general glorifies violence.

Well... on the brightside, this introduced me to this awesome gif I found on the Kotaku article.

Hah, that gif is perfect for so many things.

 

[Rebel_Raven]

... Wow. Holy ... I'm speechless. My mind boggles. We need a law or something to prevent this scapegoating crap. Personal responsibility needs to be accounted for. The parents need to be held accountable.

I thought this topic was a joke. Minecraft couldn't have been implicated, could it? Sadly the joke is that I was wrong.

I am always surprised how pro-gun you are.

I'm not sure why.

Honestly, I grew up around guns. BB, pellet, paintball, .22, 12 ga, .45 S&P, .410. Yeah, it wasn't a huge selection, but I learned to appreciate the smell of freshly fired rounds, how to shoot straight, firearm safety, and so forth without formal classes. Granted I learned from my father who was in the military.

And from childhood I played all sorts of violent videogames, read comic books, watched violent TV. Pretty much everything but drugs, and alcohol that old white dudes said was bad for society. Heck, I'll admit I'm not necessarily the most sane person either considering depression, and what not. According to the media, I'm probably overqualified in the scapegoat department to go on a shooting spree, but I don't. I'm perfectly happy to keep my gunplay aimed squarely at paper targets in a safe location far from pointing it at living beings, and to videogames.

Honestly, we're all a little screwed up. We're all human. A great many humans have guns, yet the vast majority don't shoot other people outside of line of work/war.

When it comes to weapons, I recognize that how they're used depends squarely on the person using it. Guns have no free will, and no control over the wielder. That said, I generally look to the wielder of the weapon as the one to blame.
And in this case, I look more at the person that is responsible for the person with the gun, I.E. the parent of a child.

These scapegoats really do bother me.

 

[SAMAS]

Completely ignore the fact that his perception of reality is so screwed up that he actually wanted to reenact a character from a game in real life.

He's NINE YEARS OLD. That's what they do.

I have a nephew around the same age, and I can easily see him pulling something like this. It's why we don't allow him anywhere near weapons or even heavy tools around he house.

Lemme reiterate that. Young boys (possibly girls, too) often like to imitate the actions they see on TV, video games, etc. It's not that they don't know the difference between TV/games and real life, they're just playing. He doesn't think he needs to defend himself from zombies, he's just pretending to be Steve, packing up the tools and gear he needs to survive digging for diamonds and redstone in the center of the Earth.