Washington State Restricts Anti-Cop Videogames

Thanks to an anonymous reader for pointing to this CNN report mentioning that Washington state is the first in the US to regulate the sale of videogames to minors. The bill, passed Monday, "..forbids selling minors any video or computer game depicting violence against law enforcement officials.". Interestingly, the law (as mentioned at Slashdot a while back) seems to ignore the fairly well-respected voluntary ESRB ratings for games, with the article suggesting that Enter The Matrix might be banned for purchase by those under 17, due to the player battling cops, despite EtM only being rated 'Teen' by the ESRB.

Comments

Re:Bill of Rights?

[1029]

More to the point, guns, be they a fundamental American right or not, kill vastly greater numbers of innocents each year than video games.

Ok, three HUGE problems with the above statement.

First off, guns DO NOT kill anyone. Whatever belligerant little shit that claims a gun killed anyone is an idiot. PEOPLE KILL PEOPLE. A gun is an INANIMATE OBJECT, that does not move, fire, hunt people down, or make decisions on its own.

Second, guns are tools used to SAVE thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of lives a year (perhaps not all from imenent death, but also from rape, beatings, etc) when used for defense.

The other problem being the assertion that they may not be fundamental rights. The Bill of Rights does not grant rights, it does not bestow rights that someone at the time thinks we should have. Instead, it enumerates rights that ALL people have ALWAYS had and ALWAYS will have. I simply fail to see how someone could say "be they a fundamental American right or not" and still insist that the 1st amendment is rock-solid no-debate, 100% a right that all American citizens have. You either acknowldge that we all have the inherant rights listed in the Bill of Rights, or not. There really isn't picking and choosing without invalidating them all.