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Valve Will Stop Removing Controversial Games on Steam Unless They Are 'Illegal or Straight up Trolling' (geekwire.com)
Valve will no longer remove games from its Steam game marketplace unless they are "illegal, or straight up trolling," according to a statement from the Bellevue, Wash.-based gaming company posted today. From a report: The announcement comes a week after Valve removed a controversial game that simulated school shootings, following a nationwide outcry to ban the title. Last month it also issued warnings to developers about adult content in games. In its blog post, Valve executive Erik Johnson writes that "Valve shouldn't be the ones deciding this." "If you're a player, we shouldn't be choosing for you what content you can or can't buy," it reads. "If you're a developer, we shouldn't be choosing what content you're allowed to create. Those choices should be yours to make. Our role should be to provide systems and tools to support your efforts to make these choices for yourself, and to help you do it in a way that makes you feel comfortable."
So a student is more likely to be killed by a deer than from a school shooting. Where are all the walk-outs and protests advocating deer population control?
For some perspective on the scope of the school shooting problem, look at the stats the CDC puts out. For 2015, the leading causes of death among the 15-19 year old demographic were:
3,919 deaths - Accidents (mostly automobile accidents and drug overdoses). 282x more than school shootings.
2.061 deaths - Suicide. 148x more.
1,587 deaths - Homicide (mostly outside school, and gang related). 114x more.
583 deaths - Malignant neoplasms (cancer). 42x more.
306 deaths - Heart disease. 22x more.
195 deaths - Birth defects. 14x more.
72 deaths - Influenza (the flu). 5.2x more.
63 deaths - Chronic lower respiratory diseases. 4.5x more.
61 deaths - Cerebrovascular diseases. 4.4x more.
52 deaths - Diabetes. 3.7x more.
41 deaths - Complications from pregnancy and childbirth. 3x more.
A protest over excessive rates of teen pregnancy could potentially save 3x more lives than a protest over school shootings. Likewise, teaching kids not to each too many sweets, to exercise, not to smoke, get the flu shot, use sunscreen, not to join gangs, to buckle their seat belt, not to use drugs, and offering them counseling for depression, would all be much more productive uses of our time and effort than worrying about or debating school shootings. For that matter, controlling deer populations to reduce the number of fatalities from striking deer could potentially save 1.35x as many students' lives as lost to school shootings.
If you want to tackle a life-threatening issue that students face, probably the best choice is suicide. It results in more than a hundred times as many student deaths as school shootings. But when's the last time you saw the media run a story about teen suicide? The only reason school shootings are even on the radar is because of the media using them to play the "think of the children!" card against guns.
2. Raise the age to purchase a gun or use a gun without supervision to 21.
I'm all for this provided we raise the age of adulthood to 21. That also means you can't vote until 21. If you aren't mature enough to have a gun you aren't mature enough to choose the leaders of the country. The pro gun control crowd wouldn't go for that though because young people tend to be very liberal.
3. Raise the requirements for assault rifles and other weapons with the potential for mass carnage. Require a more thorough background check. If you can't get the equivalent of a security clearance, then you probably shouldn't be owning a weapon of war.
"Potential for mass carnage" and "weapon of war" are undefined. These are scary sounding terms that mean nothing. Full auto has been essentially banned since 1986. This is why gun owners roll their eyes at "assault weapon" bans.
4. Raise the requirements on handguns to 25, and require regular certification if you are going to carry a concealed handgun. Can you hit what you shoot at and can you reasonably identify appropriate targets from bystanders? This wouldn't be to produce a marksman, but to at least make sure of a minimal level of knowledge, including keeping a gun secure.
Most states already require some amount of qualification for a concealed carry permit and to renew one if I'm not mistaken.
5. Limit the amount of ammunition you can buy at once for assault style weapons. A licensed gun range maybe able to get unlimited, but only for use at that range. If someone brings in the spent casings they can buy more.
Again, "assault style weapons" is a ridiculous term. It's literally defined by things like what angle the grip is and whether the stock is adjustable. The whole concept of an "assault weapon" is a complete fraud. The campaign against "assault weapons" was created in part with the intent of deceiving people into thinking they were still talking about fully automatic rifles and getting them on board with something they didn't understand. Hence the similarity to the term "assault rifle", which is the term for the select-fire rifles that had already been banned.
Also, you don't need very much ammo for a mass shooting. Ammo is heavy. From what I've read most mass shootings involve up to around 300 rounds fired. You can shoot that much in a day at the range.
6. Teach critical thinking in schools. Too many people don't learn how to think logically. Include funding for after school programs. Keep people busy doing something, not messing around in some gang or something.
I'm actually on board with this. I would expand it to teach things like logical fallacies and manipulation tactics so people are harder to manipulate with propaganda.
7. School uniforms, because they equalize things somewhat for students, and give people a bit more even chance.
On the fence about this. Part of me wants to let people dress like crazies so they're easier to identify.
8. Harden school's with fences and limit access points where guns can come in to something with a metal detector. Yah, I'd like to live in a world that is not required. We aren't in that world.
Security should probably be dealt with on a local level. It's a big country and I'm not sure there is a one size fits all solution. There should definitely be security guidelines for newly built schools though. And maybe some experts sent around to do security assessments.
9. Offer to pay for training for school teachers who wish training in firearms. They must pass with a high degree of competence to be allowed to carry a likely concealed weapon. Don't pay them more to do it. Don't pressure them to do it. Just make it something they can get if they want it. Spread teachers that are armed out so that they are somewhat d