Flordia AG Somehow Pivots To The Danger Of Video Games After The Latest Florida Shooting
from the facepalm dept
There is a long tradition in conservative politics for blaming video games whenever a mass shooting is carried out by a relatively young person. It's a monumentally stupid argument, given the complicated and twisted nature of mass shootings and the motivations behind them. But, since policy and politics are now offered merely in soundbite formats, the end result of a mass shooting is for every person to retreat to their familiar corners and make lots of noises that ultimately accomplish nothing but stagnation.
The mass shooting that happened in Florida recently could have been a different story. While it indeed happened at a video game tournament, the gamers involved were playing Madden, not some violent shoot 'em up. If playing a football video game makes people angry enough to shoot people, just wait until those decrying video game violence turn on their TVs on Sunday and realize that there are actual people playing the same game for real. There was no indication anywhere that this shooting was carried out by anything other than an individual that likely had some severe mental problems and access to weapons. And, yet, somehow Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi addressed this latest shooting by pivoting directly to the dangers of kids playing video games and the predators that will harm them.
With the strength of a long history of conservative handwringing over the impact of violent video games on children’s minds to her back, Bondi went down a different road, instead warning parents that “predators” might find children through location services on video games.
Here is video of the interview in question.
If all of that sounds completely insane to you, you're not alone. If you cannot view the video above, it consists of Bondi somehow, in the wake of a public mass shooting that occurred in her own state, warning parents that predators out there are using location tools in video games like Minecraft to hunt our children down and kill or otherwise hurt them. What any of this has to do with the shooting that just occurred is anyone's guess.
Bondi went on to warn that parents should check the settings on the games their children are playing, because “predators can find you based on location services.” According to Bondi, “The scary thing is they could find out where your 13-year-old is sitting at home playing that game”—not, presumably, that almost anyone could have a gun anywhere, including at a pizza restaurant or a video game tournament. Bondi conveniently failed to mention that the two men who died in this incident were 27 and 22 years old.
“I know Minecraft, we’ve talked about that in the past, I don’t know about Fortnite,” Bondi also said. I have no idea what she’s talking about, and have reached out to Microsoft to clarify whether Minecraft does indeed feature any location services options. From what I can tell looking at my version of Fortnite on Nintendo Switch, there is no option that would reveal my location to other gamers.
So what the hell is all of this? Is it just a staunch conservative politician abdicating her responsibilities to push back against the familiar attack on gun rights that occurs after mass shootings like this? Is this sort of pivot to, in some way, any way, blame video games in the wake of shootings simply some Pavlovian reflex at this point? Or, given that Bondi has made waves and perhaps history as the only sitting AG that also occasionally fills in as a host for a cable news network, is she instead simply auditioning for her next career move?
Pam Bondi is still the attorney general of Florida, at least for another four months. But last week Bondi had a different job: co-host of Fox News’ The Five. She subbed on the news talk show not once, not twice, but three times, appearing as a panelist Wednesday through Friday.
The situation was so unprecedented for a sitting elected official that Bondi first sought guidance from the Florida Commission on Ethics, the government body that oversees conduct of public officials. Tallahassee lawyer Richard Coates “spoke to the Commission on behalf of the Attorney General” prior to appearing on the show, her spokeswoman Kylie Mason said.
You know... it's the auditioning thing. And I'll be damned if that isn't yet another gross ingredient in this sickening bullshit pie that is somehow blaming Minecraft for a mass shooting at a Madden tournament.
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Filed Under: blame video games, florida, football, guns, pam bondi, school shootings, video games
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The First Word
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This is not the best possible example, given how many of those actual people turn out to actually be violent thugs who commit serious, violent crimes against their fellow man.
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This is not the best possible example, given how many of those actual people turn out to actually be violent thugs who commit serious, violent crimes against their fellow man.
I think he may be onto something - isn't Super Sunday (TM!) a busy day for paramedics and police? (Quick research shows that is likely a myth though.)
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Correct me if I'm wrong,
but I believe the point here is: when football players commit crimes, we don't blame the sport.
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We could point to it as a contributing factor, though. For example: Even though no one in their right mind would say professional wrestling made Chris Benoit a murderer, the brain damage he suffered as a result of his pro wrestling career was at least a likely contributing factor to his murdering his wife and son before eventually committing suicide.
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The point of the sentence you quoted from the article was to highlight the absurdity of attacking video games for causing violent behavior when - in this case specifically - the video game in question (or at least the one present at the original event, never mind the AG twisting the story toward *fucking Minecraft* for some reason) was nothing more than a digital version of a real sport played by real people and - as you point out - *really dangerous in real life.*
In short... I think you missed the point. The absurdity of the comparison is a feature, not a bug.
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Fair enough.
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Re: Correct me if I'm wrong,
Not entirely; the players have their free will of course. But to say that the sport is entirely blameless is willful blindness at its worst. There's a long history of football teams and/or leagues bailing out players, hiring lawyers and PR people on their behalf, paying off victims, etc, to keep their players out of jail and out of controversy so they won't end up taken off the field where they stop being able to make money for the team. And as any behavioral economist could tell you, when you reduce the personal cost of a certain behavior, you are directly encouraging more of it.
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Re: Re: Correct me if I'm wrong,
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Re: Re: Correct me if I'm wrong,
The examples you give are about the team/league, not the sport. But...
when the sport has given them brain damage, that's not so clear.
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Tune in the news at six to find out...
Guns do not kill people.
Video games. They kill people.
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Re: Tune in the news at six to find out...
Piles of cash deal drugs.
Why won't the government protect the children and finally ban inanimate objects?
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You do, but our current government calls that “fake news”.
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This may be a little off-topic
When the shooter turns his own gun on himself, does he transform from being a bad guy to a good guy?
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Re: This may be a little off-topic
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Re: Probably not the most appropriate opportunity for semantic g
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Re: Re: Probably not the most appropriate opportunity for semantic g
Everything in right-wing media is carefully executed to benefit and protect the commercial gun market, at the obvious cost of actual people's lives.
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Re: Re: Re: Probably not the most appropriate opportunity for semantic g
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Probably not the most appropriate opportunity for semantic g
Agreed. Get rid of the guns, get rid of the alcohol, get rid of sugary crap foods and drink,and for the love of god get rid of cigarettes, none of that shit does anyone any good.
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Re: This may be a little off-topic
Despair makes people take out others before themselves (ie. the whole world is pain, so death is a favour I do for others before killing myself) or anger (everyone takes from me and never gives, so I give them death before putting myself out of my misery too).
Another reason is cowardice: they'd rather die than have to face the responsibility, whether that means eventual lifetime jail (rape?), a prolonged trial, or looking at their families in the eye.
I put self-knowledge and guilt pretty low on the possible reasons, which could at least make the person a *bit* better in my eyes, but we'd never know even if that was the case. Someone who decides to shoot up people in the first place is already functioning on shitty information or just blinded by a life of misery.
Maybe a few people who do mass shootings realize in the middle of killing that they're a monster and decide they've done too much evil to live anymore. I'm pretty skeptical of that one, though.
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1. Because the body count would've been much higher.
2. The it's-all-the-video-games-fault crowd would have another soap box to stand on.
It's hard to convince people that playing madden makes a gunman. So... lets mention the popular, lets see:
Minecraft - Check
Fortnite - Check
Got your attention.
Fox = News Entertainment.
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…fucking what
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The person who trained to use an actual gun.
I have played shooters from Doom to Halo to Time Crisis; I can also tell you that I would have a horrible time in trying to aim/shoot an actual gun. Playing first- or third-person shooter videogames no more prepares you to shoot an actual gun than playing football videogames prepares you to take a head-on collision from the moving brick wall that is a linebacker.
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So... you've never tried? But state it as fact? Interesting.
You'd be surprised how easy it is to shoot with the accuracy needed to injure and kill. Not to mention being conditioned in tense fast paced high stress situations. It's not rocket science.
"The person who trained to use an actual gun"
So all killers are trained sharpshooters now?
"prepares you to shoot an actual gun than playing football videogames prepares you to take a head-on collision"
Apples and oranges here. Shooting for skill and being a blocking dummy are totally different.
Playing the football game will absolutely teach you the rules and strategies of the game.
Playing shooters will absolutely prepare you for the strategies needed in an urban assault situation.
Accuracy does not matter when you are shooting into a crowd.
I never said they could shoot a quarter at 100 yards, i think the volume of injured would have been a lot higher.
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It depends doesn't it?
I doubt your local LEOs train with Doom or CounterStrike. More likely they train with specialty software written to accurately simulate real world conditions.
But yeah - go ahead and dream about how much of a gun slinger you are cause the chics really dig a gun slinger.
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I have shot paintball guns and the like before, but never a real firearm. Given that lack of experience and my degraded eyesight, yes, I feel confident in saying I would be a poor shot.
I do not respond to instances of otherwording.
And yet, no one can adequately prepare for either activity by playing videogames. To wit:
It will not give you the physical conditioning and real-world experience necessary to be a good football player. Playing NFL 2K5 for a year or so did nothing to make me a physically fit person who could lob deep bombs into the end zone while a defensive line rushed toward me.
They will not give you the mental conditioning to shoot at another person with the intent of taking them down/out nor the physical/mental conditioning needed to carry out those “strategies”. Playing everything from Duck Hunt to GoldenEye 007 did nothing to improve my eyesight, steady my hands, and give me the mental conditioning needed to actually shoot at another living being.
Videogames, no matter how realistic, cannot and will not prepare you for a real-life active shooter situation—no matter if you are the shooter or the victim. To claim otherwise is to claim foolishness.
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Not to mention it wouldn't give you the knowledge on how to actually use a real weapon (the actions required with an actual gun would be rather different than those of a mouse & keyboard), how to load and effectively reload it in a combat situation, how to physically account for recoil, etc.
There's a hell of a lot involved in using a real weapon that you never get experience with during a videogame session, and that's just off the top of my head from someone who has also never used a real gun. It doesn't matter how "realistic" they are, they will only cover a part of the knowledge you would need in real life. The person with real world experience will be better than the person who has never touched a real world weapon no matter how many hours they put into CoD.
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Video game point and click shooty shooty does not equate in any way to real world firearm skills.
Of course, better indicators than "does he play CoD or Madden" would be things like "Does he have access to guns, a troubled home life, has he been diagnosed with any mental illnesses, is he a bully or troublemaker at shool or a jerk at his job," et cetera - but those are coooomplicated, so let's focus on the video games thing 'cause that's easy. /s
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The one who had more experience and practice with actual weapons outside of the videogames they were playing.
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As a rule, everything a person chooses to do can be attributed to the people who raised him/her
You clearly have never raised a child.
A book I'd suggest you read. https://www.amazon.com/Far-Tree-Parents-Children-Identity-ebook/dp/B007EDOLJ2
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They are influenced by their upbringing, but they have strong, unique personalities from early in life. You can screw them up, but you generally can't fix them.
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Meanwhile, in the real world...
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It TOTALLY Makes sense...
Makes perfect sense!
Let's say it's 100 incidents per year. That's 1 in 100000 or 1 in 200000.
If a medication (or say cigarettes) has a VERY serious side effect (even death) in a 1 in 100000 chance, let alone 1 in 200000, it would be approved by the FDA.
So slap a little notice in it that the Surgeon General has determined that video games may be harmful to your health... and be done with it.
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Re: It TOTALLY Makes sense...
Except, that they haven't determined that. In Fact, the most reputable studies, with large sample sizes and long term study, show no effect. The best we have is a short term (<30min) increase in aggressive tendencies.
Flagging that as 'possibly harmful to your health' will have an unwarrented deterrent effect.
Also your math is wrong. 100-200 Million players @ 100 incidents a year is 1 in 1,000,000 2,000,000, not 1 in 100,000 or 200,000.
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Flordia, eh? And no one has pointed it out for 90 minutes!
Jewish Video Gamer Kills 2 Before Turning Gun On Himself At Jacksonville Tournament
https://forward.com/fast-forward/408997/jewish-video-gamer-kills-2-before-turning-gun-on- himself-at-jacksonville/
Playing game called "Madden", rather predictive name, eh?
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We get it, you’re anti-Semitic. (Seriously, why are the religious beliefs of the shooter even remotely relevant when the shooting had nothing to do with religion in any way?)
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Re: I am Not Pro-Semitic
I mean~I adore Stanley Cohen, who writes for Counterpunch.comandthe Palestinian friends I once had before the FBI/DHS/Disruption campaign.
Why does your version of racism and race supremacy over-ride those who you label so willy-nilly?
Truly a scummy move on your part.
Love the comment moderation here, BTW-sure: free press, free speech, lol.
And Techdirt turning it all over to some Fusion Center/ ADLrat/anonymous "tipster,lol: I screen cap all of it for po sterity.
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Aaaand flagged.
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Aaaand... wait a minute...
https://forward.com/about-us/
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Aaaaand flagged again
For beig anti-semitic and trying to deflect it.
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Re: Flordia, eh? And no one has pointed it out for 90 minutes!
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So what social pastime is going to replace video games as the gateway to drugs and violence?
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Smoking cannabis.
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Those Same Movies And Video Games ...
What’s different about the US? The guns.
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Re: Those Same Movies And Video Games ...
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Re: If guns weren't available the unstable would use other weapo
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Re: Re: If guns weren't available the unstable would use other weapo
It appears to be the case
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Re: Re: Those Same Movies And Video Games ...
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Follow the Money
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Bad look for gun control
But their response to mass shootings? Looking for a scapegoat isn't the behavior of an innocent person at all. It is the behavior of someone who is guilty and they know it. Constantly trying to pin the blame on video games or the mentally disabled shows to me that even the NRA thinks that access to guns is a problem with mass shootings.
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Nobody tell her about schools
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I wonder where Flordia is...
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How can you write an article about Pam Bondi, and even mention the Ethics Commission, and not mention how she called off her investigation into Trump University just as she received $25,000 from Trump? Set the stage with that, so people know the kind of person you are talking about. Bring the context! Then we'll understand better how much credence to lend her ideas.
(You're usually pretty good about the context actually, so good in fact that's what made this article stand out.)
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https://fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R44126.pdf
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Parent prefer phone more than children
This blog is valuable and interesting because in today time parents are involve technology that's why children also adopt environment.
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So the type of shit that comes out of her mouth isn't for consumption. It's so parents can say "see.... turn off that game", and feel good about parenting.
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Some do.
I don't think it's accurate or helpful to suggest that all politicians are exactly like Pam Bondi.
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Video Games can scar people for life
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Bondtard
I have no idea what she’s talking about, and have reached out to Microsoft to clarify whether Minecraft does indeed feature any location services options.
I totally see where she's going with this. We need to stop advertising where video game tournaments are going to be held.
Simple. Just like Bondi.
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Video games are the problem, not guns
As many posters above have said, study after study has shown that violence in video games does not cause real-life violence. And I'm betting that some of these studies wee done 15 or 20 years ago.
Yet *an attorney general* doesn't know about these studies?
To also put things into context, this is the same attorney general who continued to fight *against* gay marriage, even after the US Supreme Court ruled it legal.
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About your anti-gun article
You are not doing your "publication" any favors in trying to cover technical topics (technology is based on physics and mathematics, not on your closely held politics) and also being an outlet for certain political viewpoints and slamming anyone who disagrees with those viewpoints. You somewhat detract from anyone believing you have well thought out perspectives about technology.
In all of these discussions on your website about guns in Florida, I see a decided lack of balanced thinking and awareness of the facts about the issue. Grow up a little, okay?
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US mass shooting
Mass shooting is a huge problem US is facing, but it should not be linked with the video games. People from other countries also plays video game. Major loop hole is in the gun laws. In the case of Japan, India, Canada, it is very strict to follow the system to get licence of guns. -Mayur Owner (www.cuttingchai.info)
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US mass shooting
Mass shooting is a huge problem US is facing, but it should not be linked with the video games. People from other countries also plays video game. Major loop hole is in the gun laws. In the case of Japan, India, Canada, it is very strict to follow the system to get licence of guns. -Mayur Owner
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British intelligence and Gamergate
William Atchison, a 21 year old man from New Mexico, was “flagged” by British intelligence~JTRIG,and then, followed online and off by the word police.
THEN he was plagued by the not-too-actually-busy FBI visits,who were informedby AIPAC types that Atchison was not ro-semitic,and THEN "community policing,"aka.organized gang stalking.
A British MP even wrote about it as relates to the (likely)deep stateinternet operation called "Kiwi Farm
http://matthewhopkinsnews.com/?p=5538
The internet~and games~are literally crawling withmilutary/police/intelligence community “deep state”operatives, who indeed wage psycholigical operations,as we saw #Gamergate flush with White Knightery, and regressive paternalism towards female gamers.
The whole #Gamergate was/is littered with FVEYs and Aussie intel operations.
Sure~ move along folks, nothing to seehere.....
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