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Highway Shooters Claim To Emulate GTA

Posted by simoniker on from the stupidity-is-stupidity-no-matter-what-excuse dept.

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."

3 of 313 comments (clear)

  1. Hit the trailer? by Jayjr · · Score: 4, Interesting

    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)

  2. So? by jarran · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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.

  3. Only in America... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    ...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!