New Jersey Governor: I Don't Allow Call of Duty in My Home

[Doclector]

"We've got to start talking about that, as parents"

BINGO! We have a winner. Except, stop whining to the government that something should be done to "protect the children". They're your fucking children. Raise them like they are. You don't want COD in your home? Fine, fucking fine, if I were you, I certainly wouldn't continue that policy if your kids are still in said home when they're old enough to play it, but sure.

Hell, you wanna ignore age ratings? Go on ahead. Not that I disagree with age ratings, but they're decided by people who are frankly out of touch with what passes for offensive these days. I've seen some games that should've been lower given an 18. I've even seen some where it's blatant they judged only by a low amount of blood, missing out games that contained some pretty mature content beneath the first impressions. Just for gods sake, talk to your fucking kids, establish morals, establish that line between reality and fiction.

I ain't a great parent, hell, I ain't even a parent yet, probably never will be because I had the responsibility to take a good look in the mirror and say "I'm not fit to raise a kid, not now, possibly not ever", but even I know this basic thing that if you want your kids to have free reign to whatever content they wish to see (which is understandable, I wouldn't want the goddamn government deciding what viewpoints would be considered "damaging" to kids), you best make sure they understand important things like this.

 

[dthree]

But I bet he still let's his kids watch the Jersey Shore.

Actually, he hates that show. [http://www.politico.com/blogs/politicolive/0710/Christie_hates_Jersey_Shore__just_a_bunch_of_NYers.html]

As do most NJ residents. "Go back to NY" has a pretty common sentiment along the NJ shore for a long time.

 

[Ickabod]

A parent being a parent. Can this guy please run for president in 2016. He's got my vote for just having sense.

 

[Rinshan Kaihou]

I have to say, I am a very liberal democrat, and from what I've seen of him, if Christie ran for president, I might be persuaded to vote republican for the first time in my life. Depending on who he's up against anyway. But Christie is far and away one of the most grounded, no bullshit politicians out there, and I have to give him major kudos for that.

 

[JarinArenos]

I'd still rather have a corrupt governor than corrupt AND a paranoid imbecile.

I guess. And if they manage to field him for 2016, I won't feel too terrible about things either way, I guess. Still, I don't see him making it through a repub primary fight. Romney, ROMNEY, was bashed for being too liberal. Christie is a right-leaning Dem by comparison.

 

[Kroxile]

Well, now me and a politician have something in common. Egads.

 

[getoffmycloud]

Translation : Another politician jumping on the bandwagon to garner more positive press instead of tackling the issue at hand.

Politicians wouldnt attack the reporting media streams, they want publicity (positive at least) and they dont want to be ignored so standing up and saying, hey stop glamorizing the killers and focus on the real issue.

CoD didnt kill anyone, some nutter with a gun went on a shooting spree... the gun itself didnt do the killing either, it was the nutter.
How did the nutter get hold of the weapons ? Ask that question instead.

... I have been playing games since pong and I can tell you I dont own a single weapon, I rated terribly on the shooting range during my military service (1yr in South Africa - compulsory service) and despite my size and looks... I dislike fighting.
If violent media and games in particular caused violent tendencies I should be by definition a gun loving psycho that cant go a night without a fight.

Maybe you should read the article again. He states that he doesn't let violent video games into his home so his young children can't play them, you know like a good parent. He never states they should be banned he saying parents should talk to their kids about violent video games and make sure they know what they are playing, we need more politicians like this guy.

 

[Lunar Templar]

Translation : Another politician jumping on the bandwagon to garner more positive press instead of tackling the issue at hand.

Politicians wouldnt attack the reporting media streams, they want publicity (positive at least) and they dont want to be ignored so standing up and saying, hey stop glamorizing the killers and focus on the real issue.

CoD didnt kill anyone, some nutter with a gun went on a shooting spree... the gun itself didnt do the killing either, it was the nutter.
How did the nutter get hold of the weapons ? Ask that question instead.

... I have been playing games since pong and I can tell you I dont own a single weapon, I rated terribly on the shooting range during my military service (1yr in South Africa - compulsory service) and despite my size and looks... I dislike fighting.
If violent media and games in particular caused violent tendencies I should be by definition a gun loving psycho that cant go a night without a fight.

did you read the whole thing? or just the title?

cause he goes on to say its only one factor, and he brought it up last, behind gun control, mental illness, and substance abuse.

he also goes so far as to say the parent is the one responsible for keeping these games out of the hands of kids who shouldn't be playing them.

 

[White-Death]

Why do I always Imagine this guys talking in John DiMaggio's voice?
This guy is a republican?
I'm Genuinely shocked.

 

[chikusho]

Yeah, there is no "one" issue that is to blame for all the shootings. But here's the thing: Prevention is hard, and pretty much impossible. If someone wants to get a gun bad enough and wants to shoot up some area bad enough, he WILL do it. And no one will know about it until he pulls the damn trigger, and by that point, someone's already dead. Response definitely needs the attention. But if I had to blame SOMETHING, you know what I would blame? I wouldn't blame gun control, I wouldn't blame the media, I wouldn't blame video games... I'd blame the guy with the gun who decided to shoot whatever up, but hey, that's just me.

If it's harder to get guns, it takes more preparation, planning, connections, finesse and ultimately time which means more opportunities and safeguards where a person can be found out and stopped before stocking up enough dangerous weapons to do serious damage.

 

[Something Amyss]

Scars Unseen to New Jersey Governor: "Great. Now have the courtesy to allow parents to make that decision for their own children rather than try to cram your ideals(read political agenda) down their throats."

I like it!

Unfortunately, I find myself disappointed in Christie. I never liked him, but I gained some respect when he was all "this isn't the time for politics" over Sandy.

 

[Something Amyss]

If someone wants to get a gun bad enough and wants to shoot up some area bad enough, he WILL do it.

Be realistic. If you limit access, then they won't have access.

And no one will know about it until he pulls the damn trigger, and by that point, someone's already dead.

I hope the police don't think this way. There are often ways to tell and checks in place. If the police started to use this excuse, I imagine crime would rise.

The thing is, people do often have warning signs and leave trails. We do often catch violent people before they act. Complete prevention is admittedly impossible, but that doesn't stop us from wearing safety equipment or taking other precautions in daily life.

At this point, the only real truth to your first statement exists as such: If someone wants to get a gun bad enough and wants to shoot up some area bad enough, he WILL do it because the laws make it so easy to get access to a damn gun.

 

[Woodsey]

Pretty sure the US had a school-shooting problem prior to Call of Duty's existence. Shockingly, people also used to go to war before video games were a twinkle in anyone's eye.

 

[The Unworthy Gentleman]

America: where game control comes before gun control.

Enough with this bullshit. It doesn't make anyone violent or prone to mass shootings, stop trying to create a stigma about gaming. How many of these fucking idiots even plays the games they proclaim are the devil? I don;t care if he claims it isn't the only reason, dragging bullshit claims into crap like this is a mockery of the issue.

 

[Twilight_guy]

This just in, parent and politician being a parent. In other news, birds do indeed tweet and ice is cold. The only reason this is a story is because it features the words "video games" and "politician" in the same sentence and can be spun as the kind of censorship issue that get readers uppity.

 

[antipunt]

This guy...

he..makes sense .__.

 

[UltraXan]

I hope the police don't think this way. There are often ways to tell and checks in place. If the police started to use this excuse, I imagine crime would rise.

The thing is, people do often have warning signs and leave trails. We do often catch violent people before they act. Complete prevention is admittedly impossible, but that doesn't stop us from wearing safety equipment or taking other precautions in daily life.

At this point, the only real truth to your first statement exists as such: If someone wants to get a gun bad enough and wants to shoot up some area bad enough, he WILL do it because the laws make it so easy to get access to a damn gun.

Ok, I got two responses related to "tighter gun control," so I'm just gonna say this to this response. Black Market. There will always be an underground market, and where there are buyers, there are sellers. And short of completely restricting guns, even in the regular market it still doesn't help. I don't own a gun, but my care-bear of a mother owns several (I was rather surprised, too). There's even ammo lying around somewhere (though I might be wrong on that). I live in Canada, so gun laws here are much tighter than in the US. But even then, there's still a gun, and there's still ammo.

Now as sweet as my mother is, as it stands, there is nothing that would prevent her from taking those things to some school and shooting up students. Oh, there's a law that says you can't stop in front of a school with a gun, whether you have ammo or not? PFFFFFTT, fuck that! Pew pew mother fucking pew.

Laws are a barrier, but they're a theoretical barrier that only normal citizens don't try to bypass. But in reality, *nothing* is stopping someone from doing it. There will ALWAYS be a way for someone to get access to a gun and ammo, no matter how much you restrict it. And if you restrict it too much, then you get those "IT'S UNCONSTITUTIONAL!" types yelling about. So even then, there's a limit. I don't doubt that restricting weapons will deter some of the lazier shooters who don't want to go through the hassle. But like I said, if someone wants to do it *bad enough*, then they *will* do it. At that point, response is important.

Be realistic. If you limit access, then they won't have access.

Be realistic. If you limit access, you just limit access. You don't make it impossible, just harder.

 

[Dangit2019]

Well, he's putting the responsibility on parents instead of just calling the developers neo-nazis, so I would consider this an improvement socially.