Shootings in Germany

[LewPaper]

I'm usually loathed to simplistically link outrages with any particular concept, but on this occasion I can't help but recognise the coincidence in behaviour between the teenage gunman in that German school and the shot-em-up characters present in various computer games. Those shootings in America aren't that far removed either.

The gunmen are generally middle-to-late teens, still quite impressionable and if they're not emotionally or mentally stable they may be acting out scenarios with which they're perfectly comfortable.

Perhaps we should step back a bit and evaluate exactly what we're putting into the heads of youngsters.

[eltelioni]

I concur.

[paddiez]

Or the lack of control the parents have over the kids. THANK YOU NEW LABOUR.

[baremission]

The trouble is, for 99.9% of young males growing up, playing violent computer games is not going to turn them into gunmen performing mass murders.
Therefore, the blame cannot lie solely with the widespread availability of computer games, more the fact that due to a person's makeup/dna/personality/past experiences etc they could be influenced in any way by this.

I do accept this would be hard to explain to the family of victims of these gunmen but it is partly the parents' job to ensure their children are exposed to what they deem suitable for their particular child.