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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."
Now if they were imitating a game by shooting at tractor trailers and trying to hit the trailer (those of which ther are none of in GTA3/GTA:VC) how the hell did they hit people. They must not play many FPS's either if they cant hit the broad side of a truck without hitting a person in another car ... This is just what the Games=Violence activists need, more ammunition (no pun intended)
I think the sad facts are, idiots and psychos will always find something bad to emulate. If there were no games, they would been inspired to shoot at people by a movie. If there were no movies, they would have been inspired by the Washington sniper, or the US government.
If someone doesn't know the difference between fantasy and reality then obviously playing computer games and watching TV could cause them to do something bad. But the problem is with them, not with the game or film.
The parents are always responsible for their children's actions. The media is not going to report on this because irresponisble parents are not going to want to watch or read anything that tells them that they are bad parents. You don't want to potentially alienate your audience. It's much easier to blame it on movies and videogames.
...and the sicken thing is that the parents either dont care, dont know, or dont care to know.
Last Christmas I worked at Best Buy, selling consoles and console games. 9/10 parents didnt know about the ESPR rating system. 5/10 were shockedthat there was one, and that the game their kid wanted was rated "M" because of sex, drugs, violence, murder, life-like gore. 8/10 partents would putthe game down and not let their kid buy it. But 2/10 parents were like really....I'll get it anyway.
You can't blame video games for sheer stupidity.
...can a pair of stupid kids play a game, get a gun, and start shooting people... ...and have people immediately jump on the fact that they played a game instead of HAVING A FUCKING GUN!
We want to fix the flaws so that the country, like our dogs, can live a long and healthy life.
I agree, for the most part. Except that all the "fixes" for the "flaws" of this counry that I've heard from certain people, including Tom Daschle, Bill & Hillary Clinton, etc., and eventually down to Michael Moore, generally include comparisons to other countries, specifically in Europe. That's one part I disagree with. With children in education, the Left (speaking generally here) thinks that each child is special, and shouldn't be held accountable to the achievements of other, more "lucky" children.
We're always hearing about children that pass a grade, even when they get straight F's and can't speak basic English. (Now we're hearing about TEACHERS who can't pass a basic English test.) My point is this: If children must be judged by their own accomplishments, with no referencing of others, why must this country be judged passed only on the failures? There are a few things in Europe that work better than in the United States, although I can't think of any right off the top of my head.
One example that springs to mind is health care. The government now wants to set up a giant medicare system to make hospital visits and doctor appointments "free"... except that it's not free. The taxpayers will have to pay for it. The problem with that is that the taxpayers are an increasingly decreasing group. Half the people pay almost all the taxes. The people that don't pay any taxes generally don't have jobs, and collect unemployment and/or welfare (which isn't counted in the unemployment rate). Since they don't have jobs, they'll go to the hospital for any reason, since it's "free". I, and you, and others like us end up paying for it. We got this wonderful idea from places like the USSR (where it didn't work, never has worked, and never will work).
When I hear a solution to a problem that makes sense, I'll consider it... no matter where the idea comes from. One idea I definitely agree with to help with the tax situation is the FairTax. It abolishes the IRS, eliminates paperwork on April 15 (for individuals and a lot of businesses), and makes all necessary items non-taxable. Food, rent, etc. wouldn't be taxable. To replace those prices, a nation-wide sales tax would be enacted at around 22%. Corporations would save more than 25% because of the lack of taxes they'd have to pay, and prices would come down because of it. In the end, a $.99 2-liter of soda would still cost $.99... after taxes (if soda were taxable, which it wouldn't be). It would also make credit card payments non-taxable... so I could pay several hundred dollars more per month towards my debt... and that makes me happy.
If any of this post is slightly unintelligable, I apologize. It's 1:15am, and I'm quite tired...
"It's better to have a gun and not need it than need a gun and not have it." ~ Christian Slater, True Romance