Kentucky Senator Blames Video Games For Violence

[TX expat]

If violent video games push people out of kilter, we'd have a heck of a lot more murderers than at present. Until I had kids, I spent a fair amount of time playing the Quake, Unreal, and Doom series. And yes, I had the gore setting to the maximum, and yes, I tried for head shots. But I never thought about killing real people.

Millions of teens and adults play these games. If video games are causative of violent spree killings, why aren't they a daily occurrence?

As for the Norway killer, I seriously doubt that if he did not have Call of Duty he would be a upstanding citizen today.

Query: What violent video games did Charles Manson play? Or Dick Hickock and Perry Smith?

Correlation is not causation.

And where do we draw the line? Have y'all read any of Cormac McCarthy's books? Very very brutal and bloody. If the next killer is a Cormac McCarthy fan, should we blame Cormac McCarthy for the murders? Or Quentin Tarintino?

For the love of Pete, some people are just Evil and want to kill. With a birth every 8 seconds in this country, we are just going to end up with some bad seeds. It's as simple as that.

I don't believe that it's fair or accurate to say that video games "cause" these events. Rare would be the case where you could pick out a single item that could be blamed for anything like this event. I do, however, believe that the violence that saturates all forms of entertainment (movies, video games, television) can do a great deal of harm to an individual that is wired to be affected by those sorts of things. Enough exposure to violence, IMO, can lead to desensitization and, in the "right" individual, that lack of emotion or empathy towards others can lead to acts of violence.

Personally, I think it's a lot like darn near any other thing that causes addiction in some individuals. Some people can drink alcohol most of their adult life and never have any sort of problems; others become alcoholics and basically cannot ever touch alcohol again. You can literally pick anything that has clinical addicts and make the same parallels; drugs, porn, food, sex, you name it. Some people can do whatever and not suffer long term effects and others get 'hooked' and suffer dramatic negative effects.

So yeah, I agree, video games aren't the problem and most people could play them and it'll never mean a thing. Unfortunately, for some individuals, it may really be part of some recipe for unbridled aggression... The truth is that it's a terribly complex issue and there are no 'easy' answers.

[DefensiveCarry.com]

[Happypuppy]

Charles Manson? Have you forgotten Helter Skelter and how it told Manson what to do in his mind?

Again to compare a sane person to one that is anything but is making an assumption that they view movies, game and video the same way a sane person does

There is evidence to indicate that the interplay between a Mentally Ill person and various stimuli is not the same. Look at the Batman shooter, Columbine and music( Ozzy and Marilyn Manson).

We do know Researchers in Indiana have measured the effects on a MRI and PET brain scans. The study's principal investigator, Dr. Vincent Mathews, said prolonged exposure to violence actually affects brain function and behavior.


Crazies do things sane people can't comprehend, such as Dahmer and what he did. I do believe there is a relationship , but to what degree I do not know.



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[DontTreadOnI]

Kentucky Senator Blames Video Games For Violence

Yeah, so did our guys...

NRA blames video games like

[tokerblue]

Millions of people have been killed in this century before videogames were ever dreamed of. Not to mention that a lot of mass shootings in the USA happened before they were ever created.

[archer51]

Unfortunately there is no 1 thing that is the "cause" of the mass shootings. IMO it's a combination of many things. Lack of respect for authority. Lack of respect for self. Lack of respect for life. The media for the way the sensationalize the shootings. Breakdown of family values. Poor parenting and lack of discipline. The mental health system that turns those referred back to the streets. The judicial system that is a revolving door. People not being held responsible for their actions. The education system for not preparing students to deal with the real world. As well as the lack of faith, that this country has held for hundreds of years. There's probably many more that I've missed.

What is sad, is I don't see anyway this will turn around. It seems all they want to do is slap a band-aid on the problem and hope it will go away.

[onacoma]

Here is a book Ya'All should read before commenting on the issue!

Stop Teaching Our Kids to Kill : A Call to Action Against TV, Movie and Video Game Violence: Dave Grossman, Gloria Degaetano: 9780609606131: Amazon.com: Books

Also you may wish to do a little research into the Stanford study that Ltc. Grossman references in his recent appearances!

[PEF]

Charles Manson? Have you forgotten Helter Skelter and how it told Manson what to do in his mind?

Again to compare a sane person to one that is anything but is making an assumption that they view movies, game and video the same way a sane person does

There is evidence to indicate that the interplay between a Mentally Ill person and various stimuli is not the same. Look at the Batman shooter, Columbine and music( Ozzy and Marilyn Manson).

We do know Researchers in Indiana have measured the effects on a MRI and PET brain scans. The study's principal investigator, Dr. Vincent Mathews, said prolonged exposure to violence actually affects brain function and behavior.


Crazies do things sane people can't comprehend, such as Dahmer and what he did. I do believe there is a relationship , but to what degree I do not know.

I don't believe there is one causative trigger - it could be a lot things - lack of affection during youth/physical & mental abuse/poor diet/exposure to violence/music/lack of moral guidance/exposure to chemicals/substance abuse/<you name it>.

I don't think we'll ever know the exact recipe that makes a spree or serial killer, because I don't think there is one.

We always seem to ask ourselves "why?" I don't believe we'll ever have satisfactory answers - most people don't want to accept that sometimes certain people evil acts for reasons we do not understand and never will.

So instead of dealing with the person we decide to deal with "societal ills" - music, movies, guns, video games, etc. - merely because doing so make us feel as though we are "controlling the problem."

But the truth is you can't control the one-off psychopath that is going to kill people.

Killers will always walk among us, and we will never be safe from them.

[Happypuppy]

.

We always seem to ask ourselves "why?" I don't believe we'll ever have satisfactory answers - most people don't want to accept that sometimes certain people evil acts for reasons we do not understand and never will.

So instead of dealing with the person we decide to deal with "societal ills" - music, movies, guns, video games, etc. - merely because doing so make us feel as though we are "controlling the problem."

But the truth is you can't control the one-off psychopath that is going to kill people.

Killers will always walk among us, and we will never be safe from them.

I agree. All the reasons are just that, they don't change what we have to do to protect ourselves.


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[Jeanlouise]

Slightly off the OP's topic but I think Manson was the scariest one of all because he was able to get other people to do the killing FOR him. He wasn't directly involved in the Tate/LaBianca murders but was so charasmatic that people did what he told them to.

[OldVet]

Slightly off the OP's topic but I think Manson was the scariest one of all because he was able to get other people to do the killing FOR him. He wasn't directly involved in the Tate/LaBianca murders but was so charasmatic that people did what he told them to.

I bet Hitler, Stalin, and Pol Pot never actually pulled the trigger either.