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6-Year-Old Says Grand Theft Auto Taught Him To Drive
nandemoari writes "A six-year-old who recently stole his parents' car and drove it into a utility pole has passed the buck onto a familiar scapegoat: the video game, Grand Theft Auto.
Rockstar Games' controversial Grand Theft Auto video game has been criticized by parent groups and crusaders (or in the eyes of gamers, nincompoops) like former lawyer Jack Thompson for years (Thompson once tried to link the Virginia Tech slayings to late-night Counterstrike sessions. He's since been disbarred). However, not as of yet has anyone under the age of, oh, ten, blamed the game for a car theft."
Let's put the blame squarely where it lies... on the stupid freakin' parents who were letting a 6-year-old play GTA!
It doesn't take that much effort to monitor your kids. But it does mean saying no and standing up to their whining and crying. It does mean dealing with the inconvenience of not being able to always do what you want to do and having to spend some time actively engaging them.
If this kid was playing GTA, then there should be additional charges filed against his parents.
Start a happiness pandemic
Now you can blame plane crashes on Flight Simulator!
The parents should be neutered, then thrown in jail.
The parents had car keys where the six year old could get them?
With kids, everything is on high security lockdown. Especially when young.
I'll bet his was surprised when the pole didn't just fly out the way gracefully, thank goodness ho found a pole before a hooker.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
No mention of how many hookers he had blow him and then subsequently ran over.
Bad parenting.
How many kids used to grow up emulating old western movies?
What about the Rocky movies?
Footloose?
Most of the time, decent parents stop the children before they act out gun fights, boxing matches, and tractor chicken.
Stop blaming your environment and start taking responsibility for yourselves!
Who is this that even the wind and the waves obey Him? Surely this computer must submit also!
The real story is somewhat sadder. Dad went to work, kid missed school bus, Mom was asleep (and the boy didn't want to miss breakfast & P.E. at school) so he tried to drive himself in Mom's car. Police asked him how he did it and he told them he stood next to the wheel and steered with one hand. Then when asked how he knew how to drive, he answered, Grand Theft Auto. It sounds like this came mostly from being hungry. Both parents I understand have been charged with felonys related to this.
Idle isn't really my cup of tea most of the time, but I admit I get a little thrill every time someone puts the fact that Jack Thompson has been disbarred in print.
I take it he did well pressing W or S repeatedly to hotwire the car then
Other than the obvious parenting issue. Anyone else find it odd that gta can teach a kid how to drive? I mean it's not like the game actually shows you the character shifting gears and doing anything inside the car. Last i remember, all it showed was a car moving... He probably learned it from watching mom/pop in the car.
My thought: the kid was being a wise ass or just because it's the first thing that comes to mind (whether true or not, reason skills at that age ususally aren't great).
Associated Press
Thanks for reading TRFA -- looks like you're almost right. It wasn't just GTA, either:
The boy told police he learned to drive playing Grand Theft Auto and Monster Truck Jam video games.
Ironically, on the directly linked TFA:
Here's hoping that the parents who allowed a child to see (let alone play) Grand Theft Auto will attract more attention that the award-winning video game (which anyone will admit, should only be played by adults).
Yeah, good job. Your pre-emptive, kneejerk, anti-Jack-Thompson interpretation has already drawn more attention to both Jack and GTA than the original article did.
Don't thank God, thank a doctor!
A snake taught me to drive while I was on acid.
... GTA also taught him that you can drive through lampposts, notice that he avoided the trees.
Worst BBC News Stories
The main article case was a child play. 4 year-old shoot his sitter is really news.
I would love for this to go to court and have them use this GTA defense. I totally agree. GTA is a danger to kids. We should keep it away from kids.
That being said, keep it the fuck away from kids.
My dad used to work at walmart for his retirement job and he would tell parents he wasn't going to sell them M rated games if they had little kids with them. The management backed him on it too.
Everyone who works in retail has an obligation to let parents know that games have ratings. There is such a thing as games for adults.
They're using their grammar skills there.
I tried blaming backing the car down a hill on Pole Position when I was a kid, didnt work then I really doubt this will work now.
has a bright future in politics.
-AC
Would you please not post pictures of his ugly mug on the front page? I'd rather see a picture of goatse than that douche. As if we don't already have enough reasons to hate idle.
Are they assuming here that a 6-year-old who had never played GTA would not have crashed his parents' car? Seriously, a driving 6-year-old is bound to get into an accident no matter what games he has played.
Seek and ye shall find.
The summary associates this story with Jack Thompson's disbarment, which is irrelevant. Should we continue to expect such childish guilt-by-association from Slashdot, in place of reasoned argument?
I have no great love of video games, but I really don't see the sense in spinning this story into an anti-gaming message. The kid learned something useful by playing video games. How is that bad?
Okay, six-years-old, not exercising the best of judgment, but what if the scenario was different? Say that his mom was unloading groceries when the car slipped out if gear and rolled back crushing and pinning her against a wall. The kid then uses his acquired skills to drive the car forward, saving her life. What would the spin be then?
A 6 year old cannot be blamed if the parents cannot provide the proper framework needed for his mind to develop sensibly. The parent()s allowed the kid to play and therefore, is/are liable, not the kid. Game ratings do make sense (with exceptions). Grand Theft Auto is not suitable for kids and these parents need to be cognizant of that fact.
Losing their car should be enough to have them do the right thing, which hopefully, is to dump Grand Theft Auto in favor of say, RuneScape.
GTA doesn't show the fundamentals of driving a car but it is a simulator of cars driving. Seeing common road signs, keeping to the right, the very basics anyway and I'm sure this is what the kid meant. He learned the rest from watching his parents as he knows where his mom keeps the keys and how to use them. You can't learn much more from pressing X and Square on a controller.
What some people forget while they get on their screw Jack Thompson rants is that the kid is 6! He's in kindergarten or maybe grade 1! Where was your mom when you were going to kindergarten? Mine was holding my hand walking me to school every frigging day. Naps came second if she had any at all. Most parents will be standing with their kids making damn sure that they get on that bus and usually will be waiting at the end of the day making sure they come home as well.
This wouldn't be getting the reaction that it is if the kid said Grand Turismo or nothing at all but because he said GTA we get this. Of course now Ford will have a new marking angle for the Taurus. The number one vehicles chosen by 6 year olds.
1) Regardless of whether or not he should have been allowed to play GTA, he should not have been allowed to drive the car. Now, you say, his mother was sleeping and didn't know . . . that is beside the point. By "not allowed," I don't mean she needs to be watching him ready to grab the car keys away. What I mean is that it should have been clear to him that the car is not a toy; he can't touch. Things like taking the car for a joy ride never even occurred to me as a kid. It was very clearly off limits. I am reminded of Sesame Street's cookie monster having to say that cookies are a "sometimes food." I watched Sesame Street as a kid, and the puppet stuffing cookies in his face never gave me the idea that I was allowed to do it or even that it was a good idea. Children are able to tell the difference between fantasy and reality, although it helps to have decent parents giving him guidance.
2) It is conceivable to me that GTA "taught him how to drive." Clearly, he didn't learn very well, but I have had my own experience with a computer game teaching me how to do something in reality. I learned how to use the rudder to keep an aircraft from sliding during a turn from a flight simulator. I did not even have rudder petals or a control yoke; I flew from the keyboard controls. Later, when I was in a real aircraft, the flight instructor told me I was a natural with the rudder. I made some comment along the lines of it being just like my computer game, and he replied that he found the younger students who played computer games were more natural with the controls. Now I know that flight simulators have a history of being designed for accuracy in simulating flying whereas GTA is certainly not meant to be an accurate driving simulator, but I can see how even an imperfect simulation will aid in learning real world skills.
If the car had been a manual shift this wouldnt have happened.
He learned more from watching mom from the other seat be sure. You could totally reduce the amount of auto related child injuries and DEATHS in this country if children were not allowed to watch drivers or drive in a vehicle at all.
I stole my parents car when I was 6. Fortunately I had the sense to keep it to the field.
It's more realistic than the god-awful simulator we had in Drivers' Ed in 1979.
-fb Everything not expressly forbidden is now mandatory.
I plan on using the Team Fortess defense when I next use a baseball bat on someone.
For getting a car that is driven with an analog stick and/or a D-pad
If he had learned how to drive in GTF, he would have ran into a prostitute.
And watching Star Trek taught me how to build a Warp Drive....
In GTA the player never sees or simulates the use of the real controls used to drive; you use a joystick or controller to play. You are never made aware of the real controls; like an ingnition, steering wheel, gas pedal or break pedal. This kid learned to drive either by watching any number of TV shows that give a lot more information about the act of driving or by watching his parents. He is talking about GTA because he knows its the way to increase his 15 minutes of fame (or infamy) and get the kind of attention that he obviously doesn't get a home from his parents.
No it didn't, He crashed. That's pretty much the first thing you are expected not to do when you learn to drive. In fact, I'd say that "not crashing" is the essence of driving. Silly boy. Moron parents.
To drive (and crash) a car, you need to be able to put the keys in the ignition and put the car into gear.
He didn't learn that from GTA (its not part of the game).
Most likely, the kid learnt to drive by watching his parents.
I had my first threesome at age 5. It was all because I played the shit out of Leisure Suit Larry and felt I needed to take it to the next level. My parents wanted to sue Sierra but back then they couldn't find a lawyer willing to take the case. What a shame Jack Thompson was too busy going after radio DJ's in those days.
this is why irresponsible parents must have manual transmission in their cars :)
So GTA taught him to drive. Why not Gran Turismo, Need For Speed, Midnight Club, Forza, etc? This is a load of crap and everyone knows it, video games don't cause you to do anything. Until the day that you have a holo-deck type simulator to play video games in, it didn't "teach" you anything, it just provided you with fun. I won't say "the real blame is on the parents, blah blah blah" since 1000 people before me and after me will. But when does this crap end? When a 2 year old sues the Nintendo for making Zelda, which taught him to walk and he fell and bumped his head? Seriously, it's a game, it doesn't teach you a damn thing.
Honestly, where do you take the car from park to drive in GTA. And where do you push down on the gas pedal and brake in GTA. The kid "learned" that cars get their impulse from people, but clearly, he did not learn how to drive in GTA. If that's the case, he has also learned how to take the safety off of a weapon, and how to load a magazine, and clear the weapon. C'mon. I really don't appreciate the way conclusions can be drawn based on what ever the reporter wants it to sound like. It's just a load of dung. By the way, I doubt he learned how to get dressed watching GTA...
Hmmm, interesting priorities. I, for one, would rather get stoned and laid than shot and killed...
In Iran, getting laid can lead to you getting stoned and killed. That's three to both your nations' half hearted two.
I always wanted to drive when I was six but never could manage it. This kid is a go getter and show great management potential. A real go getter in a down economy. Keep up the good work kid.
-Your fans from PS. 92 New York.
The usual case would be "GTA made me want to drive dangerously, commit crime, etc.". He is not claiming that the game affected his motivation to take the car, just taught him how to do it.
I plan on using the Dwarf Fortress defense when I next use a sledgehammer on someone and dump them in a pit full of magma.
..See we don't have this problem here in England, beacuse even if a 6 year old managed to play GTA, steal their parents car keys, and get in and start the car. I bet you my life savings that he would stall before he even managed to pull off!
That is the ONLY reason why we still use (as you americans like to call them) manual cars in the UK. To stop our kids stealing them!
Once 'GTA:Manual Shift' comes out, that's when all of us in England and Europe will quietly swear under our breaths.
If only the car was manual (I believe you refer to it as a 'stick shift' on the other side of the pond) you wouldn't have had this problem. Why won't the government ban automatic transmissions? Won't somebody think of the children?!
Blaming GW Bush for the Iraq war is like blaming Ronald McDonald for the poor quality of food.
Poor videogame choice strikes again. If the kid had been given appropriate games where the key focus is driving (Burnout, Gran Turismo) or that freeware Japanese delivery game Rider he would have realised the tedium and complexity inherent in driving...
Remember - give your kids APPROPRIATE games.
> Let's put the blame squarely where it lies... on the stupid freakin' parents who were letting a 6-year-old play GTA!
That's terrible. Next thing he'll stop paying his hookers.
My family was so poor that if I wanted to play GTA I had to steal a real car.
Actually the blame is more complex. I agree that bad parenting is normally the main cause in cases where behaviour gets blamed on video games. But that doesn't mean games are blameless. I think almost everyone here would agree that advertsising works. If it didn't, why the hell do people waste billions on it? I've been reading 'the advertised mind' which is a book on how advertising works at the brain chemistry level. it's fascinating stuff. Basically you have zero defence against ads, because the information from ads already registers in your brain and strengthens certain synapses long before the higher areas of your brain decide not to pay it attention. Essentially, you just don't have the option to reject what you see, because the emotional fear-response 'early warning' section of your brain already kicks in first to check its not something urgent.
Anyway, what I'm getting at, is that everything you see and hear affects you. If you see certain activities portrayed on a regular basis, and do not get a corresponding physical pain response, then your brain cannot help but normalise those activities at a subconscious level. As n urban westerner, I don't get scared when I see tigers and bears, because those are things that I just see on Tv or in cartoon, but it's a different story if you are a kid in Nepal thats run like fuck from a real tiger.
My (somewhat strange) point, is that a six year old kid hasn't been in a car crash, he hasn't been hurt in a car, he hasnt seen a car crash or know anyone thats been in one. His only knowledge about car crashes is they are fun things that happen when he plays a game. Because he doesn't have the experience of the real world phenomena, he is in no position to develop a sensible approach to his actions here.
So the ultimate blame is dumbass parents that let a six year old kid play a game like GTA, but lets not kid ourselves that video games don't affect them. All video games affect everyone who play them. They change our behaviour and our attitudes. The older you are, the more real-life experience you have, the less pronounced this behavioural change will be (your behaviours are already more established). But young kids playing violent video games is not a good idea.
DRM-free indie games for the PC and Mac: Positech Games
Not to mention the fact that the game has an adult rating. Parents always blame the games, but who buys the games for their kids? I would assume they do or they should have control (if they are a good parent) of what their 6 year old has access to.
I learned to drive at six, might have been seven. That old automatic station wagon of my uncles was a great thing, he even taught me the finer points of proper parking, and parking on hills. My parents on the other hand, had taught me how to drive a stick not long after, but I'd already figured it out on my own by watching their feet and how they shift, as well as listening to the engine. If I'd been able to reach the peddles I could have driven either car without much of a problem.
I guess it's one of those old things, both my parents, my uncle and most of my family either grew up on farms or lived on farms at one time or another. Came with the life, you learned what you needed to do to get through the day. This however, seems to be a blame game. Bad parenting? I'd say no parenting. Just another example of an adult dropping their kid in front of the TV and walking away. I'd say child, but obviously they didn't try to go that far.
Om, nomnomnom...
The only safe gun is one that doesn't exist. Guns are unsafe by definition.
Anyone who has a gun and claims to practice gun safety is deluded or a liar.
my 5 year old was playing GTA and HALO, last year... now he's in 1st grade ahead of schedule. Kindergarten lasted 4 months. with a parent sitting behind or beside a child, games and movies can be used as educational tools... no matter how 'adult' they may seem there's something that is learned from them, whether it's 'actively and intentionally learned' is the question. exactly what kind of stories do you think fathers used to read/tell to their children 4 hundred years ago? why is it that only 1 hundred years ago 12 year olds were taking on the responsibilities of adulthood, but today, seesh, i know 40 year olds that have no idea what that means, "the responsibilities of adulthood." good guys, bad guys, cause and effect, consequences, laws, the concept of property via theft, the dangers of weapons, gravity, speed, the manipulation of objects in space... heck, taylor learned that when you do things people don't like they can loose interest in having you around (call it loosing friends). he learned this from GTA after noticing and questioning why rival gang members were shooting at him while he was on their turf. i laughed when his grandmother shivered at the sight of him playing HALO, a first person shooter. i used it to encourage him to learn to read (which was a problem), and to teach him to follow directions, as well as--through online play--to work as a group... as well as other things i can't quite recall. and yes, he realizes the difference between real life and video games... if you ask him what a gang is he currently says "bad guys on GTA" or something along those lines, not a group of notorious criminals who have incorporated to better control their ability to earn a buck, illegally--or something along those lines. more importantly he doesn't think being in a gang or hurting people is cool, even though he does think driving around in a simulated environment destroying things and setting people on fire is. i don't say, "i can do this, but you can't." if Taylor wants to do something he's not ready for i tell him he can learn, but that he's not ready yet. simple as that. there's nothing he cant do. and i down right expect him to take on and be successful at managing all the responsibility of a grown adult, as long as he's had the opportunity to learn how to. it's all a question of parenting and personality anyway. not a question of age. a poorly parented individual is probably more likely to act as a criminal, due to the lack of moral leadership, and a well parented individual can still decide later to become a criminal. but if we're going to remain focused on kids, look to their parents, not their learning tools.
DON'T CAPITALIZE! CO-OPERATE! AND FREE EVERYTHING!
I did the same thing when I was 5 or 6. Know where I learned to drive?
BY WATCHING MY PARENTS DO IT.
. . . because he didn't even get 1 star before crashing. The game taught him nothing. I've also played my fair share of GTA and Saints Row and not once did the game ever require me to go snatch car keys and then start up a car. So this kid was already eyeballing his parents and watching how they did things in the car. So in actuality his parents taught him how to drive and not the game. And why is this kid playing GTA when Saints Row II is 5 times better and has online co-op.
Can I bum a sig?
... if the kid had been playing Gran Turismo, he would have been skilled enough not to crash!
To be fair, this sort of thing highlights a positive aspect of manual-shift cars. There's no way a child could get in and start driving. You need practise to get it down and not stall the car. Plus, as convenient as cruise control is, if you remove it and make all cars automatic, I would imagine that people spend more time thinking about driving properly than just zoning out behind the wheel...
This brings back my usual argument - anyone claiming that GTA or Counterstrike can give you real life combat skills should be given a copy of Skate or Tony Hawk, a skateboard and one week to prove that playing the game can teach him to make a double Ollie flipkick handstand.
this is a copout reason. the kid said this because he is below the age of criminal responsibility, and saying "i got it from a game" pretty much makes him innocent. and also removes quite a lot of blame and possible charges from the parents.
same reason why criminal gangs bring in very young kids to carry their guns for them. if the kid gets caught "i found it, and i thought it would make me like [character Y in game X]".
portfolio
I clocked many long hours of playing Test Drive I and II before I was 16. I figure thats why it took me only a couple hours behind the wheel to get the hang of it. Its not surprising a 6 year old whos spent days on end playing GTA would be able to drive a car a significant distance. Hes already got a pretty good feel for how the thing behaves during acceleration, braking, turns, etc. Videogames arent real life experience? Maybe not, but theyre a good part towards it. We train fighter pilots on flight simulators for crying out loud. $15M and 10 tons of explosives, flown for the first time, by someone whos been playing a really expensive video game for a couple of months. If thats not proof that you can learn from a videogame, I dont know what is. Parents should have left the keys up on that cute little wooden keyholder their kid made for them last year... out of his reach...
No. He said he wanted to go to school and had missed the bus. Unlike many adults, he accepted responsibility for what he did.
He just said he learned to drive playing the game, which explains why he hit some many things, ran off the road, and crashed into a tree.
There is no "-1 offended" or "-1 you don't agree with me" mod options for a reason.
...anyone who's played GTA knows you can't drive through a utility pole. That's why you're supposed to drive on the sidewalk.
If I was going to kill them from ten feet, ten yards, or ten miles...
I would use a car.
The kid probably hit the utility pole while he was trying to run over "a pimp or a ho" on the sidewalk...
I saw this story on the local news last evening (Nova Scotia, Canada if it's all relevant) and the story spin was more about a 6 year old who didn't want to miss school and managed to drive the car 10 miles. Which was pretty darned interesting. In the last sentence of the story they mentioned that he learned to drive from a video game. They didn't even say which game. Apparently our local news service didn't feel the need to scapegoat the game. All that being said I do agree that no children should be playing GTA period. I like the game personally but it is NOT appropriate for kids. So how he got the game and played it often enough to derive any sort of skill-set from it I think should have the focus of any articles that seek to place the blame on the game itself. And I might add that I took off with the car twice in 1980 when I was 3 years old and for the record I never even encountered a video game of any sort nor would I for at least 3 more years.
To him, it's the "Oyster Hunting Game"
It's all in the parenting, I suppose. /plays with audio off
I've long wanted to see a European version of Left4Dead, where all the zombies are replaced by sex-crazed orgy-goers and you have to satiate them with your various handheld "toys". There would be surprisingly little reprogramming necessary for such a mod...
I knew that GTA for Leapfrog was a bad idea! Totally irresponsible.
the game didnt teach him how to drive if he smashed into a pole. gta is nowhere near a driving simulator. heck most simulators dont even have the full controls a real car does. this is just some brat who hasn't had enough beatings with the extension cord making up excuses. then again as a parent i wouldn't let a 6 year old near gta. so we have spoiled kid and failed parenting lets place the blame where it should be.
six-year-old who recently stole his parents' car and drove it into a utility pole has passed the buck onto a familiar scapegoat: the video game, Grand Theft Auto. Rockstar Games' controversial Grand Theft Auto video game
Of course it's his parent's problem. Not only did they leave the keys where the child could find them, but they didn't prepare him properly. Everyone knows that they should have bought him Gran Turismo or any other driving simulation, instead of the game GTA, if they really wanted him to drive to school!
i try not to say, "i can do this, but you can't." if Taylor wants to do something he's not ready for i tell him he can learn, but that he's not ready yet. simple as that. there's nothing he cant do. and i down right expect him to take on and be successful at managing all the responsibility of a grown adult, as long as he's had the opportunity to learn how to.
Thank you so much. What is it with people who can't understand this? It's like half of /. got replaced with Helen Lovejoy.
Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
Have you ever driven a manual? Or are they just fabled machines you read about? I have heard of far more kids that were able find neutral in a manual than be able to start a car in any way. Not to mention you don't even need the keys at that point.
From what I've heard of the story, that 6 year old made it 9 miles before wrecking the car. I have to grant kudos - my first learning drive at 15 I whacked a mirror within less than 9 miles.
To be honest, you can't ask much more of a video game for giving your kid a fighting chance.
You can get 15 minutes of fame, but you can go down in history for infamy.
I'm not surprised he hit a lightpole, it's all I can ever manage to do.
At least he didn't hit one of those indestructible trees.
Did he go flying through the windshield upon impact with realistic ragdoll physics?
Oh, wait, I got one more - he only hit the lightpole 'cause his cousin called him up and wouldn't stop babbling about Spongebob, the annoying bastard.
PERL:
All of the power of Voodoo with most of the understandibility!
Since many of them dont learn to drive until they start here, if ever.
Literally, the only person ever to steal a ford taurus. Thats why their insurance rates are so low, noone will steal them!
I wonder who trained him in this parroted buck shifting?
And how strong is the evidence that he was at the wheel and not his drunk dad/mom?
kartune85 : Incapable of reason, observation or learning. A kind of dim, drab, flightless parrot.
My son played driving games on PC's for years growing up. He was skilled at weaving through lanes, where when I tried it, I was totally off the track in a few moments. A few years later he got his driving permit. We were heading across a long narrow bridge when suddenly a large RV appeared in the opposite lane, and we were going to meet on the narrowest part of the bridge. Before I could even think, my son threaded that tight spot perfectly, with inches on each side, and calm as a cucumber. Later, after I calmed down, I asked if the video games helped. He said, 'Yup, it was just like in the video games". So to me, they are driving simulators that maybe saved us from a wicked accident.
Why all the anti-vidya game hatrocity?
My 7 yr old has been playing GTA since he was 5, he is compassionate, sensitive, just made gifted class. He would not dream of stealing a car. Is gta better or worse than the roleplaying cops vs robbers, cowboy vs indians, vietnam war fests I uses to have as a kid? I doubt it. Vice city is a fun game, and hey, who doesn't like running people over?
Is there any way to fix the margins so i can read comments below this with more than 1 word per line ?!?
Was he drinking a cup of hot coffee?
My wife learned to drive on GTA at age 30 and is now the best driver I know. She was too terrified to try driving a car before mastering it in the video game.
I learned to drive when I was 6 by playing 'Night Driver' on the Atari 2600. Having the car move instead of the trees took some getting used to.
The kid claims GTA taught him to drive, but obviously not very well...
Taught me how to steal money... DING!
What kind of mother SLEEPS while her six year old showers, makes breakfast and is responsible for getting himself to school? She obviously has let the media and video games raise her child instead of teaching him anything, so they are clearly to blame, not her.
Shame on the media for doing such a poor job of raising everyone's children.
Seriously, I know idle is supposed to be random easy going article but at least get your facts straight. People need to start doing some research before talking out of their asses.
Lets take a look at these:
This one
and this one
First of all, he wasn't blaming games. If anything he just wanted to get to school. It was more of an explanation on how he pulled it off.
Second. The parents were arrested. Apparently the kid wasn't allowed to be left alone with his dad's new bimbo. And by not allowed I mean a court order had been issued.
The kid missed the bus and since his "mom" was still sleeping (hungover or drunk) he decided to grab the car keys and make a mad dash for school so he could "get breakfast and go to PT". I wouldn't call that stealing. I call that dedicated.
I would just like to point out the main difference between a gun and a [insert car, hammer, or knife] is that a gun's only use is to kill. It's not so much as whether it's more dangerous, but whether it should be okay for people to carry around objects that are only designed to murder others.
Do you see the issue/difference?
but whether it should be okay for people to carry around objects that are only designed to murder others.
Did you read a single word from my post? The only reason you think guns are only designed to murder others is because you live in a city, and that's all you've ever seen them used for.
For that matter, I'd seriously like to know how you'd get a 3 foot long .303 caliber rifle into somewhere to kill others without getting shot yourself. I'm not talking about handguns.
I'm talking about stuff like this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Lee-Enfield_Rifle.jpg
This is not an inner city drug lord weapon. This is...well, this particular one is a World War 1/2 vintage military weapon. But any rifle of this length is not a concealed carry type weapon. Concealed carry is what you're worried about, because those types of weapons are what cause problems in cities.
These types of long gun weapons are meant, currently, for rural residents to protect their livelihood from wildlife predators. They're also used by northern Canada (and other parts of the world) residents to hunt for food.
Maybe you need to get your mind out of the box you've put it in before you start making claims as to how others should live their lives.
"City hall" in German is "Rathaus" Kinda explains a few things......
Didn't GTA IV teach him the joys of getting drunk BEFORE trying to drive? Tch. Way to half do things!
What makes a person with a gun any less enticing to shoot? It just makes you the first target.
Just because you can, does not mean you should.
This is why we have the ESRB, don't get me wrong I was playing T games when I was 7 and M games when I was 10 it was still useful. The parents should not let a 6 year old play GTA.
"I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them." - Thomas Jefferson
6 year old getting a hand of a video game rated Mature sounds like parents gave it to him to me. Or not securing the car (or keys) from a kid. Maybe that house has knives sitting on the kitchen counter, dangerous chemicals under the sink not secured/locked, powertools in out in the open in the garage, that the parents should also consider. We don't need the government to tell us to have some common sense. Parents need to learn to be parents, have some common sense, and take ownership of themselves being parents.