Slashdot Mirror
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.
=================
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.
=================
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.
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.
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
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.
--
Internet Explorer (n): Another bug -- that is, a feature that can't be turned off -- in Windows.
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.