DoublePlusUndead had this link as part of his daily "Around The World In 80 IQ Points" lineup today, so it got me looking over at GamePolitics.com to see what they had on this as well as other aspects of the V-Tech anniversary.
Morality In Media: Blame The Violent Culture!
Pro-Gun Control Advocate: Blame the Guns, Not Games!
I got a novel idea -- how about blaming the guy who shot all those people?
The killer (whose name I will not utter here for fear of giving him legitimacy) was mentally ill. What did not stop him was a loophole in our gun control laws that would have forbid him from having a gun if the courts at the time had done their job (yes, the courts). If he had been declared a harm to himself and others, the laws would have stopped him from getting the guns.
I am not in favor of putting more laws on the books for guns -- I believe in enforcing the ones we have against the true criminals who have no regard for the law. Anytime a tragedy like this happens, people are either blaming it on the media (video games are always a favorite target) or calling out for more gun laws. I don't believe in neither, because correlation doesn't necessarily mean causation. There have been a few cases where younger kids have been influenced by something they saw -- I remember a case where a young teenager killed his friend just to see what it felt like to kill someone after watching movies like "Friday the 13th" - but those cases are rare, and parental supervision of such media would be more beneficial than keeping it from them altogether.
I'm not saying that I'm going to be showing my stepkids or my soon to be biological kid violent movies along those lines anytime soon. But my husband and I can only shield them from so much.
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