Nra: Rubbing The Anti-Gun Lobby's Nose In It..

[ChillDoubt]

..or just displaying the usual lack of tact and diplomacy they're infamous for?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-21025626

[emmie]

the day after the shooting an American gun shop owner was interviewed, he said that they had had their busiest day ever. I am not sure who it was, but someone suggested they arm all teachers, how can you fight against kind of thinking.

[sandyRoe]

That shooting game. where are the school children and their teachers? Are they hiding in the shrubbery?

[emmie]

no they are lying dead. did you see the interview the parents gave last night on the news. An American woman and her British husband who had settled in USA not that long ago thinking it would be a safer environment for their children. It was heartbreaking, it seems that her son had autism and would have very afraid because of the noise, he was found held close by a teaching assistant, or teacher, both dead. What a tragedy and waste of lives.

[AB Editor]

I'd suggest they didn't develop the game as a direct response to the shootings...

It is distasteful however.

There are some who think videogames caused the shooting, like Joe Biden.

"In open letter to Mr Biden, the Entertainment Consumers Association's vice-president Jennifer Mercurio wrote: "With the recent tragedy on everyone's minds, some people are looking for a cause and culprit other than the shooter.

"Unfortunately some are blaming media, including video games, for violent behaviour in individuals. We know this isn't the case; banning or regulating media content even more won't solve the issue."

International Game Developers Association chairman Daniel Greenberg also said the government should not be "scapegoating" the video game industry for society's ills."

Does anyone here think games are to blame for the shootings?

[emmie]

i don't think they help, as we have seen with any number of things, being on line can give you a sense of detachment from the real world, if you get my drift.

[ummmm]

It's a shooting practice game. I would guess it's pretty tame compared to COD.

[naomi24]

//Does anyone here think games are to blame for the shootings? //

I don't know if they're directly responsible - but I'm sure some that I've seen can't be a positive influence on the minds of the young. I think they trivialise violence and perhaps result in kids becoming uncompassionate and immune to brutality and the realities of death.

[mccfluff]

a video game does not make someone pick up a gun and go and shoot people.

thousands of people play, cod etc and are normal sensible people with normal sensible lives (except triggs)

[emmie]

mcfluff, no one would knows that, as they are online, as i said rather detached, like the bloke who did this, whether he had mental illness or not, it could have been a contributory factor. If they didn't have so many guns, the figure that was banded around a while ago was 300 million, one would assume this wouldn't keep on happening.

[ummmm]

I believe that you'd have to have a disturbed mind to start with for these games to have an effect on you.

[naomi24]

Sorry, I didn’t answer the question. No, the NRA hasn’t been tactless or undiplomatic. This, as Ummmm said, is a target practice game, and I don’t think it’s reasonable to expect anyone who is not actually promoting anything like the actions displayed by a madman to call a halt to their business or their hobby in the light of what he has done.

[Duncer]

"I believe that you'd have to have a disturbed mind to start with for these games to have an effect on you."

I agree entirely, but what effect do they have on already disturbed minds?

[naomi24]

^^ Not a good one.

[ummmm]

I don't know, Duncer. If they are disturbed it's not just shooting games that make them snap, it could be anything. I think God is more dangerous than XBox. How many people have committed horrendous crimes and then claimed 'God told me to do it'?

[emmie]

if there are 300 million guns in US, then that is roughly one for every citizen, why do they need to arm themselves to the back teeth, do many of them think Armageddon is on it's way. To hell with the constitution, children are being killed, for no other reason than someone has a gun so powerful that it can blast you into pieces in a matter of seconds, something wrong with a mindset that thinks having any gun is right.

[Duncer]

I agree uuum, but how many of the American school shooting tragedies involve loners, video games and drugs?

That's not to say we should ban video games, loners or drugs, just to make a point. I love playing Championship Manager but I don't plan on going out and killing a football manager any time soon, just to take his job. However, the deranged may have difficulty seeing the difference between their war games and reality.

[ummmm]

Loners and drugs are more of a problem than shooting games.

Hungerford, Dunblane...I don't think either were playing xbox.

[B00]

Apparently a game featuring target practices causes a tizzy but it's perfectly acceptable for this to happen...

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2262839/Milan-fashion-week-German-designer-Philipp-Plein-causes-controversy-shockingly-violent-runway-using-guns.html

[LazyGun]

A recent analysis of spree killings in the US concluded that approx 90% of all the documented US spree killers committed their acts whilst the balance of their mind was disturbed.

Someones state of mind is far more relevant than availability of weapons or what TV show, film or video game they have been watching or have played.

The UK has a much stricter regulatory environment than the US, guns are much more difficult to acquire, especially assault rifles etc , but we have had our own tragedies - Hungerford, Dunblane, Cumbria.

Despite this observation, I do believe that civilians should be restricted as to what weapons they have access to. Assault rifles with a high rate of fire and large magazines have no place in a home, nor do pump action shotguns or automatic pistols. But in the US it will be a sisyphean task, given the sacrament that is the second amendment, and the fact that there are already an estimated 300 million guns in circulation.

I also think that we,as a public wanting to be entertained, and the entertainment industry, ought to re-examine what we class as entertainment. For decades we have enjoyed shows that depict violence as an acceptable solution. The immediate and long term consequences of killing are rarely shown. Heroes get a 30 second advertising break, then they are back in full swing, despite participation in brawls and sustaining injuries that would incapacitate for hours, days or even longer in the real world. Violent solutions are often justified, even the most desirable solution. Women are often portrayed as victims of violence. Video gamers get additional life, or can replay from their last save.

It is difficult not to conclude that all this exposure to such casual and consequence free behaviour does not have some effect on our sensibilities, dulling and coarsening our response to acts of mayhem and violence carried out in the real world.The entertainment industry often claim, with some justifcation, that all they do is hold a mirror up to society - but maybe we should hold up a mirror that offers us more enlightened behaviour?

[anotheoldgit]

Children have always had 'shooting games' perhaps not electronic ones, but ones that were in vogue at the time.

These mainly consisted of a pop-gun and cardboard cut-outs that one aimed and shot at, but they didn't make us go out and commit mass slaughter.

And don't anyone come up with "what about WW2".