School Shooting In Germany Immediately Leads To Calls To Ban Violent Video Games
from the you-knew-it-would-happen dept
A few people submitted stories about a German school shooting this week, noting that the AP report on the shooting spoke to a friend of the killer, talking about how they used to play video games together, and that some of them were violent. I decided not to post it initially, because it was a small part of the story, and there was nothing saying anyone was actually responding to that aspect, yet. But... of course... it didn't take long at all. Politicians are leaping on the bandwagon and already some are calling for a total ban on violent video games, despite no actual evidence that violent video games had anything, whatsoever, to do with the killings.![Hide This Hide this](https://ii.techdirt.com/s/t/i/topclose.png)
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Filed Under: germany, shooting, video games
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Regardless of other comments
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Was it really the games?
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Re:
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Politicians are like everyone else
Besides, it is so much easier to blame video games than to address the real problems underlying violence.
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Ban GUNS not GAMES
Without the guns this would not have been any where near as horrific, no matter how violent (if at all) playing a game had made the shooter.
I suppose it is because the game critics are scared the gun nuts might get violent if you try to disarm them...
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Re: Ban Bibles
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Re: Re: Ban Bibles
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If violent video games made people kill, There would be no more humans left. MORONS!
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European Union's politicians would do better to educate parents for warning signs for this kind of behavior in their children rather then scapegoat video games.
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Hmmm...
Do we have a conscience now Germany? Remember, you guys went from Barbarians to mass murders, and now you think banning video games is a good idea?
The only things worth a crap in Germany are the babes, beer, porn, and some pretty countryside, oh and their invasion and subjugation of France.
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and in related news
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Re: Hmmm...
I know this is off the issue but id like a chance to redirect someone, Germany as a whole didnt kill over 6 million people, It was a mentally disturbed person from another country, that was able to get the extreamist that were in power to listen to him. Most of the German army did not agree with the powers that be, but considering what the SS was doing, it was better to follow orders than to question those orders. This is almost like trying to say all Muslims or everyone that lives in the middle east wants America gone, not true, its only the extreamist that do.
Now for the issue of video games, yes once agian its the old redirection of blame at issue here. Games no matter what the form is not the blame here, the persons mental status, his status with his friends, the peer pressure from others his age, his relationship with his parents these are the issues here. If he only attacked women and not the men, it shows reason that maybe a girl rejected him or scorned him and caused him to not think about why he shouldnt just come to school with a gun and harm them. Human emotions have a very strange play on how we think. Look at all the people that are usually calm and meek and let things slide, but when they get cut off by that jerk on the phone on the highway and suddenly they come off like Bruce Banner. Its easy to see how things like this happen.
You cant just go oh he played a game that involved killing other people, and say that is what caused it. Ask any gamer and they will tell theres a difference in killing pixels and killing a real person. No matter how life like the game is, its just a game. The real question here is, why are kids now a days so prone to want to vent their anger so viloentlly. We cant ban the ownership of guns, so why not just take the proper security percautions and keep schools safe, just as parents shouldnt think that their kids wont do drugs, then schools shouldnt think that they wont become the next news story for a school shootout.
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Re: Re: Hmmm...
Especially for nutpicks like you Israel have stock of "non-conventional" stuff, just in case.
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Re: Hmmm...
No, Germans didn't kill over 6 million people. Nazis did. A great many of the people who were killed were Germans and the man who ordered the killings was not. (yes, that's oversimplified for the historians out there, but far more accurate than what I'm replying to)
It's funny... nobody brings up *your* military history when discussing your country, even though from some points of view you're participated in massacres of similar scale.
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Same happened then (Rock n Roll causes our youth to worship the devil)
And with comic books (mysogyny is rampant among our youth, because of those comic books)
And with violent movies (Our youth are immitating those heroes, we should ban violent movies)
Sadly, it's just a symptom of time, and I, for one, am sick and tired of the 'get off my lawn'/'think of the children' mentality that we see in our society today.
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Re: Re: Re: Hmmm...
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Re: Hmmm...
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Re: Ban GUNS not GAMES
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Things will get worse, not better
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Re: Re: Hmmm...
1. Nobody brings up your military history...Uh, as a former member of the US Navy who was stationed overseas, yeah they do. Actually, I would say that American citizens have the subject of their military exploits brought up far more frequently than Germans, and in many cases rightly so.
2. The Germans didn't kill 6 million people, Nazis dead...Well, OK, but that's like saying that America didn't invade Iraq, the American government did. At some point, save some extremely rare cases, amongst which Nazi Germany does NOT count, the populous is responsible for their government. The German people, Nazis or not, by and large knew what was happening, and by and large they did NOTHING. Mein Kampf was one of the most despicable pieces of hate ever written, right up their with The Elder Protocols of Zion, and it was the best selling book in Germany throughout the 30's and most of the 40's. Hitler may have been a terrible fire, but he couldn't have burned without the German people feeding him fuel. Well, that and amphetamines. Lots and lots of amphetamines.
3. Hitler wasn't German...Again, OK, technically you're right, since he was originally from Austria. But is Arnold Schwartzeneggar Austrian or American? I hope to God that he's American, being as how he's atop the political ladder in the 3rd largest state in our country. Hitler was the LEADER of Germany. He was German.
Having said all this, I understand that Germany as a whole isn't evil. Hell, I'm of German ethnicity. But it is very important that we do NOT excuse the people complicit of those crimes, and that includes a great many Americans: The Dulles Bros., Rockefellers, Fords, etc.
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Re: Re: Re: Ban Bibles
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Just look in the past
Ed Gein, he liked to kill large women and wear their skin. Charles Manson, you should know what he did. And Charles Whitman, he shot and killed 14 poeple from a tower in Texas. With those examples maybe we should lock up all people named Charles.
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Re: Ban GUNS not GAMES
Besides which, I am a hunter. I view guns as a tool to get meat. Yes, I could go to the grocery store for farm-raised beef. But, I can get much healthier, better-tasting, more humanely-raised meat by hunting a wild deer. It is lean, tasty, and the animal has lived a free and natural life, not been confined to a feed lot. I am not willing to give that up because someone somewhere might commit a crime with a gun. I don't, therefore I should not be stopped from owning one.
Last, people should have the right to defend themselves in their homes. As long as guns exist in the hands of criminals, I should have the right (though I have chosen not to exercise it) to own a gun for the protection of myself and family. Again, like many dangerous items, guns are tragically fatal in the hands of the wrong individual. So are cars, and knives, and bombs, and freakin' screwdrivers. It is not the government's job to ban everything with the potential to be dangerous. It is there job to punish those who misuse such items. Unfortunately, if a person is going to commit murder, there is not much you can do to stop them by passing new laws. Murder is already illegal.
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Re: Re: Ban GUNS not GAMES
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BASILLLLLLLLLLL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Basil: Is something wrong?
German guest: Will you please stop talking about the war?
Basil: Me? You started it.
German guest: We did not.
Basil: Yes you did, you invaded Poland.
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Correlations... ?
I watched Silence of the Lambs and I never ate anybody.
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Re:
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THEY ALREADY DO
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Banning violent video games
More and more I am reminded of the Star Trek T-shirt; "Beam me up, Scotty, there's no intelligent life here".
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asdf
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found good article
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Re: Was it really the games?
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