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Highway Shooters Claim To Emulate GTA
Thanks to Yahoo! for their story regarding teenage stepbrothers who randomly fired at cars on a Tennessee freeway, killing one person and wounding another, and told police they were inspired by Grand Theft Auto's sniper mode. According to the piece: "From a wooded area near their home at the Smoky Mountain Country Club, the boys fired a .22-caliber rifle up to 25 times through a break in the trees at cars driving along Interstate 40 about two miles east of Newport. They said they were bored and decided to shoot at tractor-trailer rigs, just like in the video game, 'Grand Theft Auto.'" According to this IOL/Reuters article, "Prosecutor Al Schmutzer told Judge Ben Strand that the boys told authorities they were mimicking the video game by trying to hit the sides of passing trucks."
We need to make a game where people jump off a cliff and kill them selves to finally clean out the shallow end of the gene pool? Sheesh. People will say anything these days to shift blame from themselves.
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Unix is very user friendly, it's just picky about who its friends are.
The ESRB rating for GTA3 and VC is 17+. What were these kids doing with a game that they shouldn't be playing? They should sue the parents for negligence.
the pun is mightier than the sword
The real question is, who was dumb enough to give these kids a gun.
They should receive the same punishment, because through their action/inaction they helped kill this driver.
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Unix is very user friendly, it's just picky about who its friends are.
"Prosecutor Al Schmutzer told Judge Ben Strand that the boys told authorities they were mimicking the video game by trying to hit the sides of passing trucks."
Yeah, and he probably forget to mention to the judge that due to the lack of parental attention and involvement in these boys lives, they grew up to be anti-social and depressed kids who deep-down really just wanted somebody to pay attention to them while their parents sat on the couch, drank beer, and worshipped the idiot box.
Before you knee-jerk at this one, remember that it is the prosecutor who is explaining their actions here. They are being prosecuted for their crime. So yes, they are being blamed. However, it is in society's interests to look at their influences as well as sending them to jail. Media has influence. You cannot make a game that will be played by children, and hope that children will not be affected. That is not how children work.
Point 1) There are No Tractor-Trailers on the roads, for shooting in either Grand Theft Auto III or Grand Theft Auto Vice City. Looking into previous revisions of the game, which don't have the aforementioned 'Sniper Mode', the closest you can get to a Tractor Trailer is a snub-nosed fuel tanker truck.
Point 2) Where did they get the gun? Notice how everyone is 100% ready to jump on the video game... my question... WHERE THE FUCK DID THEY GET THE GUN? I mean, of course the gun isn't dangerous. No way. Guns never kill people. That's why cops and 'sportsmen' carry around RAZOR SHARP DVDs.
It's fucking obscene. I can't wait to see what happens to such good titles (and yes, you have to admit, even if you hate the content with a passion, the games are done really well..)
Informatus Technologicus
The best line by far is :"I didn't want to hurt anyone"
.22 rifle and shoot at cars...wtf are you trying to do?
You got to be shitting me. You take a
If you're shooting a rifle anywhere but at the shooting range, you're shooting to kill as far as I know.
Even in GTA, you only ever shot to either blow up the truck or kill the driver.
It's absurd that anyone believes their bullshit.
In Soviet Russia, the television watches YOU!
Sure it's conceivable for a 13-year-old to have a concept of "the rest of my life", and for him to imagine the guilt he will feel over that length of time, but could that maturity and self-awareness really exist in the sort of kid who shoots at cars because he did it in a computer game?
Methinks an adult had a hand in writing that letter.
And, you cannot have a child and hope that child will not be influenced by you. That is not how children work. I think that's a more important point.
Personal responsibility and accountability is perhaps the most important thing that people can teach their kids. However, it seems that popular culture is increasing making it appear that people are rewarded for lying, cheating, killing, bribery, getting something for no effort, etc. Take Enron, WorldCom, the current Republican administration, reality television, nationalized health care proposals, Grand Theft Auto (to be on topic, of course), public schools, the Earned Income Credit, short-term cash loans, pre-approved credit, six-year car loans, no-money-down mortgages, rent subsidies, many organized religions and labor unions, student loans, professional sports, soft drink commercials, and so forth.
People need to be much more cynical than they are. They need to realize that both large government (whether Republican or Democrat flavored) and large corporations do not act in the interests of individual people. They are much too wealthy, powerful, and corrupt to care. They are their own means and their own ends. People need to stand up for themselves in the midst of this, vote their conscience with both their wallets and their ballots, and be prepared to sacrifice materialistic prestige and social popularity in favor of knowing they made the right decision and did the best they could. Corporations and government need to become more modest and come back to realizing that they exist because of and for the People, not the other way around. It seems that every day the opposite of this is actually happening, and, ultimately, people will exist miserably in a rusty machine of regulation and consumption and live in complete fear of their creditors and their own government.
Healthcare article at Kuro5hin
From the article: William Buckner, 16, and Joshua Buckner, who turns 14 Sunday, pleaded guilty to reckless homicide, reckless endangerment and aggravated assault.
A 13-year-old and a 16-year-old. Now, I think the argument could be made that a 16-year-old MIGHT be mature enough to play GTA (obviously not Billy-boy, though), but WTF was a 13-year-old doing playing that game?!? To add on to that, why have I seen kids - young kids - in game stores getting M-rated games? My wife and I watched a 9- or 10-year-old kid and his mother buy Vice City earlier this year, and the mother asked him if he wanted the strategy guide! Obviously that's one smart little kid...
Now, don't get me wrong: I love the GTA series, but I'm 30. I wouldn't have let me at 13 play GTA, and I sure as hell know my mother wouldn't have, either. At 13, I couldn't handle that game, I know that.
Where the hell are these kids' parents? Is Tennessee going to prosecute those idiots (I hope!)?
25 charges of public mischief.
24 charges of attempted murder.
1 charge of assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill.
1 charge of murder one (since they clearly planned it).
The statement that they were inspired by GTA is irrelevant. In the 16th century, some Catholic nuns started to walk around with heavy pelvic thrusting all the time. They claimed it was because Satan had visited their convent and ravaged them in both holes with his evil, barbed, bifurcated penis. Did Satan really do that? No, not any more than GTA is responsible for this.
An action is not the same as an idea -- it takes a diseased mind to put an idea like, "it's fun to kill people" into practice.
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Internet Explorer (n): Another bug -- that is, a feature that can't be turned off -- in Windows.
I tried the same excuse when I bit a guy's finger off and jumped to my fiery death in a pit of magma. I'd read about it in a book and it seemed cool.
But seriously folks gun control is this issue here, not video games, or movies, or the sulky, moody, violent, careless, callous and fundamentally stupid nature of teenage boys.
America has a lot of such boys and a lot of guns. Together they'll cause deaths. They'll never be rid of the boys so they'll have to do something about the guns.
If they have to be pried from Charlton Heston's cold dead fingers I say "your proposal is acceptable".
erroneous: look me up in a dictionary
I hope when I finally do something stupid and evil that there is something popular that I can blame it on.
Ehh...
Doom made me do it...
GTA made me do it...
Satan speaking through my dog made me do it...
Further proof that there should only be one punishment for violent crime; an industrial meat grinder.
Ah, so nothing should ever be made if there is any chance that it is not suitable for children, because they _might_ show interest, and they _might_ get their hands on it.
Hm, no adult games, no mature television and movies, no mature music or books, including porn.
Ah, no more cars either, some kid might try to drive one. And no guns, or alcohol.
I've got it, lets let Fisher Price have sole controle over every single available consumable on this planet!
Oh, well, I guess we could take responsibility for our own children and actions if you think that might work too.
Slippery slope my friend, slippery slope.
No Comment.
I can tell a lot of readers have lived in/near big cities most of their lives. A .22 is a small caliber rifle, and lots of people have them. To give them the (marginal) benefit of the doubt, it was the probably older kid's and meant for hunting. These were a couple of bored kids tired of shooting squirrels or stop signs and decided to shoot at moving targets, and are now (hopefully) horrified by what happened. (That's giving them the benefit of the doubt obviously - they may only care that they got caught, not that they hurt anyone.) The mere fact that they had a rifle doesn't mean anything; the fact that they seemed to think shooting at vehicles with people in them was ok does mean something.
GTA is a smoke screen, and probably came from leading questions from the prosecutor hoping to get a name for himself or to shift blame - there is no point in GTA where you randomly shoot at trucks. You shoot at people, so if they were emulating the game then they knew full well that people could die.
The sad part is that the 'juvy' distinction should be lifted for homicides. These murdering kids will be out at 19 each, and aren't going to be able to do anything besides turn to crime.
R: That voice. Where have I heard that voice before? B: In about 365 other episodes. But I don't know who it is either.
Once in a great while, a couple of nuts raised by twats go off and kill somebody. Obviously it's a very rare case. Or should we try to make it impossible? Oh, this is America, we're working for a zero-risk world. See you in Utopia!
Slashdot: Failed Car Analogies. Amateur Lawyering. Anecdote Battles.
sorry about the "moron" barb in my other comment. a bit out of line.
MORTAR COMBAT!
OK then, and what agenda is this propaganda attempting to promote?
What is the point of the 'vicious pack of lies'?
Look, if I called you an asshole (I'm not, just an example...bear with...), who would care? Well, there are 2 answers:
1: If you aren't actually an asshole, nobody would care. You wouldn't give a damned because I'm absolutely nobody and you're sound in the fact that you aren't actually an asshole so you would just ignore it.
2: If you are actually an asshole, well then nobody except for you would care. Nobody else would care because you and I are both nobody. But, chances are very good that a statement that hits so close to home would result in a fairly animated response at a minimum wouldn't it?
Now you have to apply this example to Bowling For Columbine, and then answer the following questions in order: (You cannot legitimately answer b without first answering a):
a) What are people getting pissed off about?
b) Why are people getting pissed off about it?
Can you do that?
If so, please do and then we can continue this conversation.
If not, please, don't bother responding.
No Comment.
Some people love their country as a child loves a dog. As far as the child is concerned, the dog can pee on the carpet, chew up the shoes, and bite the neighbors all it wants -- the child does not see these flaws, and continues to love the dog unconditionally.
Some people love their country as an adult loves a dog. The dog shouldn't pee on the carpet, chew up the shoes, or bite the neighbors, and the adult gets mad at the dog and does what they can to stop the inappropriate behavior -- but at the end of the day, the adult loves the dog, too, as much as the child does.
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I am not calling anyone a child here, but simply making an analogy. I believe that Michael Moore, myself, and many others love this country as adults love a dog, while a whole lot of other people love this country as children love a dog.
Here's the good news: at the end of the day, the dog is still loved, and neither type of love is a threat to the well-being of the dog.
Here's the unsurprising part: those that love this country unconditionally believe that pointing out the flaws of this country == not loving this country. That is simply not true, and while you can shout us down all you want, we're going to keep on pointing out the flaws, for one reason:
We want to fix the flaws so that the country, like our dogs, can live a long and healthy life. I think we can all agree on that.
-Dave
Wait a second, this is sounding like the FBI profile they always turn out five minutes after they find out there's a serial killer of any kind.
Yes, I agree that the parents probably weren't doing their job. But at some point you have to blame kids for what kids do. These weren't little 6-year-olds with no conception of the permanence of death, or the lethality of bullets. They were teenagers. They knew what they were doing, and they did it.
You say "people are once again looking for the scapegoat to blame" yet yourself blame the parents. Sounds like scapegoating to me. The blame for this rests on the shoulders of the perpetrators.
"I don't care about the Constitution!" --Bill O'Reilly, November 17, 2009