Slashdot Mirror
Kids Kill, Victim Sues Game Maker
qbproger writes "Sadly, two kids decided to go outside and start shooting cars. They were mimicing a video game they had been playing, Grand Theft Auto. I think it's about time parents started paying attention to the rating on video games." The family of one of the victims has decided to file suit against Take Two Interactive, presumably deciding that blame should be assigned to whoever has the deepest pockets instead of to those who actually did something wrong.
From Carter, C. J., "U.S. Leads Richest Nations In Gun Deaths", Associated Press, Friday, April 17, 1998:
(selected figures for) gun-related deaths per 100,000 people in 1994:
United States 14.24;
Northern Ireland 6.63;
Canada 4.31;
Israel 2.91;
Australia 2.65;
England and Wales 0.41;
Japan 0.05
"You can justify anything by putting it in quotes, adding a famous name and making it a sig" - Albert Einstein
I live in a state that has very high gun ownership rates, and also the lowest rate of gun related crime /deaths... why? hunting is common, and kids are often taken with at an early age. we grow up with guns, so we know how to handle them safely. nearly everyone has taken a hunter safety course.
owning guns != death by guns
I have observed this enough times to dub it Sarah Brady Syndrome:
- Something horrible happens to someone close to you.
- You decide that Something Must Be Done <tm> to prevent anyone else from suffering the same fate.
- After considering, and rejecting, the idea of using the existing laws that punish the person who actually caused the problem (especially if that person is the putative 'victim' himself, as in the case of cigarette smoking or McDonald's food), you settle on:
- Suing someone other than the perpetrator, under the theory that they aided and abetted the perpetrator by manufacturing one of the tools used, or wrote a book/movie/TV program/video game that 'inspired' the criminal act
- Lobbying your legislators for new criminal remedies against these enablers.
- Both.
I am heartened by the fact that the latest lawsuit against McDonald's (apparently for forcing kids to eat so much of their food as to have fat asses) was rejected with prejudice by the judge, but recent history is filled with too many examples that go the other way.We not only have the Brady Bill, but countless other laws named for a victim, and almost without exception, they're bad laws - unnecessary and counterproductive, because they punish people other than the actual perpetrators, which teaches the next round of dumb kids that it isn't their fault when they shoot up their high school, killing scores of people and giving Michael Moore a chance to make another preachy movie (and Katz an excuse to compile a book).
I expect someone to go paint a tunnel on the side of a concrete wall, run their car into it at 60 mph and their family sue Warner Brothers for making Road Runner cartoons give them the idea.
[100% ISO 646 Compliant]
SVM, ERGO MONSTRO.
I hate having to say this, but before you go start posting on emotion:
RTFA!!!!!!
The kids aren't trying to use this as a defense. The family of the victom is trying to sue Take Two. I feel bad for the victoms and their families. If I were to guess their intentions they simply want some compensation because they know they'll never get anything from that damn red-neck family that was the _real_ cause.
On another note: What the F*** is this about they'll have to be realeased at 19 under Tennessee law!?! That means that one of these idiots will be out in 3 years!!! Could someone _PLEASE_ find some federal charge so they can be put away longer.
Please Darwin! Do your magic once again!
-B