The Violent Video Game Debate, Why the NRA is Wrong

NRA has to accept the fact that it has nothing to do with any type of media.

[TheGrimBunny]

freakin NRA... its a joke.

[THESHAUNZY]

NRA can suck a D!CK

[violents]

The NRA is just scared and pointing the finger at an easy scapegoat. They are afraid the public will get in an uproar and they may end up changing the gun laws. They are just trying to take the attention off of themselves. Basically the way the government made gay marriage/civil unions the top headlines when everyone was crying about the war in the middle east. they are trying to distract america from themselves.

The real problem is the responsibilty of gun ownership. If guns were not left where a mentally unstable person could get thier hands on them this tragedy could have been averted.

Video games dont kill people, guns dont kill people, stupid people with guns kill people.

The really bad part is if you did manage to take everyones guns away people would just go out and beat people with bats or slice people up with knives or swords. Unfortunatley this is the just a part of human nature. Occasionally your going to get a nutty person that does something really messed up. You can't punish the rest of society because of what less than one percent of the populous has done.

[blackblades]

If the nra keep blaming video games and other as well there will be a uproar from the gamers, watch if they keep pushing putting restrictions on video game and all it going to makes us gamers mad then there going be riots and everything, then we can blame it the nra, for starting it.

[rainslacker]

Seriously? When have you ever known the gamer community to really go out and make a fuss in public about this issue. The closest I can think of is in Australia with that one politician actually getting close to banning violent games. They actually made their own political party. That particular guy was an idiot, and I don't know how far the gaming party actually got, but at least they did something.

No, we'll continue to sit here and bicker over console wars, bad choices by Capcom and Square-Enix. Luckily the industry itself isn't going to sit idly by if it ever comes to that. The ESRB has been fighting this nonsense from day one, and even came into existence because of it.

For all us US N4G'ers, all your senators, governors, congressmen, and political officials have websites where you can send them letters. I've already sent mine off saying I want to see a focused look on the problem of violence and meaningful ways to fix it, and not the scapegoating that becomes so prevalent in these times.

[maniacmayhem]

"If guns were not left where a mentally unstable person could get thier hands on them this tragedy could have been averted."

Well here's the tricky part, how do we keep these guns out of their hands? It's easy to say "if they weren't around it would have never happened.". But it did happen, and it's happening quite a bit. These incidents will always occur as long as these types of weapons are allowed in homes.
The truth is some people are just NOT responsible and the rest of us have to pay for their negligence.

"The really bad part is if you did manage to take everyones guns away people would just go out and beat people with bats or slice people up with knives or swords."

I'll take my chances with a lunatic and a sword than an automatic weapon any day and I'm sure those kids at Sandy Hook would agree.

"You can't punish the rest of society because of what less than one percent of the populous has done."

Punish? Why do you need an automatic? Why is taking away these types of weapons a punishment? I don't feel punished, in fact I would feel safer knowing that these lunatics weren't able to get these types of weapons or any gun for that matter.

[violents]

We have constitional rights to bear arms. Its not my fault somebody wasn't responsible enought to own a gun safe.

The school shooting didnt have any automatic weapons. He had a .233 semi automatic rifle and two handguns. He could have caused just as much damage or more with a homemade bomb but no one's trying to outlaw those materials or add extra restrictions to buy them.

"Well here's the tricky part, how do we keep these guns out of their hands? It's easy to say "if they weren't around it would have never happened.". But it did happen, and it's happening quite a bit. These incidents will always occur as long as these types of weapons are allowed in homes.
The truth is some people are just NOT responsible and the rest of us have to pay for their negligence"

You have the same solution I do, yours just means no one can have them. Then the people that get them illegally will just be that much more dangerous and you would be powerless to stop a home invasion or robbery in your own home. Wouldnt that be lovely.

At least get your facts straight before you question my opinions.

I can understand your concerns however I believe that everyone should have the right to own firearms so you can protect youself and your family from harm or our government if necessary, just like the constitution says.

[maniacmayhem]

"He could have caused just as much damage or more with a homemade bomb but no one's trying to outlaw those materials or add extra restrictions to buy them."

I hate this type of thinking, here's the facts: He did NOT have a bomb made out of home materials. He had GUNS brought from home. Same with the movie shooting incident and same with the Columbine shooting. And the recent incident in Philly. All shootings.

"Then the people that get them illegally will just be that much more dangerous and you would be powerless to stop a home invasion or robbery in your own home. Wouldnt that be lovely."

People have been getting them illegally now and I have yet to be home invaded ever. Another "what if" scenario that doesn't solve the problem at hand. And if you were home invaded, a surprise home invasion what are the chances of you grabbing your guns and defending yourself? What if you do? A Die Hard gun fight with your family caught in the middle, very smart.

I have my facts straight all you have are what if scenarios with made up situations. When was the last time the government harmed you Violents? Think about this for a second, you think your firearms will protect you from THE GOVERNMENT and all of it's power. Another excuse that is outdated and insane.

Our forefathers wrote that in the constitution because it was a different time and different place. But I bet you our forefathers never even conceived or imagined that a lunatic with guns would walk into an elementary school and start shooting children.

Fact!

[negroguy]

I watched part of it and he showed people a game called Kindergarten Killers on youtube. I looked it up and all the videos have about 1-5k views being 4-5 years old, with only about 5 videos. Grasping for straws in a serious understatement with what he tried to pull off that video.

[zerocrossing]

From a gamers perspective this is ludicrous, we all know that playing violent games wont make you violent, worst case you rage quite but then you're just pissed at the game.

Why should our hobby/pastime or what have you be called into question purely because some seriously sick people commit heinous acts of violence and blame games as the influence for it? Have you heard of diminished responsibility? (look it up)

It's easier for society to have a "scape goat" a reason to help explain what we really don't want to hear, some people are just plain sick and will cause harm regardless of the stimuli and are better of being kept far away from society.

[Soldierone]

NRA lost my support with the comments. I don't support any politicians pointing the finger, and now they are doing it? No. You guys are supposed to be the defense, the ones that don't point the finger at anyone, yet here they are doing it. Really sad.

I don't support extreme gun laws, but now I don't support the NRA either.

[TheGOODKyle]

Research paper on why video games don't cause violence and with sources! la gasp

http://www.youtube.com/watc...

[Adolph Fitler]

Scapegoat for the real problem....Nutcases that don't have an affordable health care system in place, & even if affordable, no system in place for mental health issues. Add to that, the inherant problem that U.S. has with guns & there you have the recipe for distaster. 9/10 the guns that are used in these crimes are legally obtained firearms, not illegal. Domestic violence where a guy/girl shoots there partner or ex-partner (near always legally obtained guns), mass shootings (near always legally obtained guns). The NRA know they are wrong about this, they know they are the guilty ones, not some frigging videogame, they are just cowards that cannot fathom living life without a gun, or collection of guns that they will never have to use for the reasons they claim to own it.

These shooting were going on in the early 80's when videogames were nothing more than blips on a caffa ray tube tv, the days where the original Mario was throwing his couple of hundred sprited but down on a walking mushrooms head......the days when the media didn't even know what a home console, or videogame was, let alone it's scapegoat uses when a nutcase when poco loco with a semi auto weapon.

The NRA should have to pay ALL burial costs, medical costs for victims & victims families of these crimes. And, after that, they should be legally responsibe & therefore, able to be sued by victims, victims families, as well as by the establishments where these crimes occur. Make the NRA financial responsible & maybe they won't think there BS about the 2nd ammendment is so important (which was written with no such concept of the devastating weapons available today, or the ammounts of unstable people with access to them), and they may realize there are more important things to spend money on thn firearms & ammo, & the cause to keep them legal...I mean, donate that useless gun money to victims of Katrina, as so many poor buggers in new orleans STILL haven't got a house to protect, let alone need for the gun to protect it. Get your priorities straight & help out your fellow human beings, instead of being paranoid, dillusional idiots that are so scared & little in life, that you think a gun by your side fixes that, as it doesn't, because it just means that your a paranoid, dillusional, cowardly, idiot with a gun by your side.

[Sharingan_no_Kakashi]

I believe media has something to do with it. I dont think playing video games will make you shoot someone unless youre already mentally unstable. But everything you perceive with your senses has a subconscious effect on you. Afterall, you are what you absorb, whether it be news, music, movies, philosophy, religion. Pin-pointing an exact combination of all these elements as a reason for gun violence would be difficult.

And no, this is not the NRA's fault either. Guns dont kill people. People kill people. If a person is dead set on killing someone, not being able to access a gun wouldnt stop him. There are tons of alternatives. Tell me....... how do you control pipe bombs?

[Saryk]

Like I stated!

https://www.youtube.com/wat...

I will blame the media first, NRA next and lack of mental health funding!

Video games don't kill people, guns and people do! The media just show boats the hell out of it!

[JoeSchmoh]

Anything that glorifies guns is to blame whether it be videogames, tv, movies, music, etc. America is a country that encourages and glorify guns..for what reason I cannot write because there are too many. But, I will say this.
I grew up in the 90s and in the 2000s I saw this culture of guns over come America because of 9-11 and getting America into this military industrial complex. think about it..why in the fk would Miyamoto the creator of Super Mario Bros. be like "Oh, I want to create an FPS game". Look at our videogame libraries today, more than half if not all are shooters and don't say im lying cause you know it's true.
I would say 3/4 of the games out the west are FPShooters. We're surrounded by gun violence in movies, news, and now our videogames. We believe that guns are the norm. so much that we condem the Japanese for not making FPShooters like the west does. Im not blaming videogames, but we gotta stop glorifying guns in everything. Do you understand that we now in the videogame industry have FPShooting franchises coming out yearly like a madden game just for blatant competition!? Modern Warfare vs. Black Ops .
I remember back in 2000 people dogged the fk out of me because people be like "oh, you play street fighter? don't they come out with two versions of those like every year?" now its 2012 and it's FPShooters galore

[rainslacker]

I'm not sure why you would assume 3/4 of the games from US developers are FPS. It's nowhere close to that.

For 2010
http://www.statista.com/sta...

For 2009
http://digital-stats.blogsp...

Both show that genre's other than shooters far outsell FPS games. While FPS is certainly up there in the charts, if 3/4 of the industry is supporting only 12% of the sales then the publishers are quite dumb, and believe me they aren't dumb. They know these numbers very well, and the bulk of their library is going to be made up of what sells the most.

Don't assume what is most popular on here is the entire industry, because this is but a very very small portion of it.

I guess it wouldn't make a difference to you to see that Family Entertainment sells higher than shooters, or that non-violent games outsell violent games by almost 50%(assuming all action and fighting games are violent)

While the gun culture in the US is certainly more prevalent than when you and I grew up, it's not because the game industry is promoting it. The game industry is just making games based on social trends like it always has.

[JoeSchmoh]

i just dont care for games that simulate shooting people from the first person perspective. I play games like lost planet, shadows of the damned, vanquish..shooters in the 3rd person where you're shooting demons, robots or aliens. not people. I just never cared to follow trends or hop on bandwagons because everyone else is spending 60 bucks on the newest co-op FPShooter.

[rainslacker]

Fair enough. I'm much the same way, although it's more because I find most FPS to be pretty lame in the story department, and never really cared for was simulations, no matter how accurate they are. I think the only "shooter" type games I've liked this gen were Uncharted, where you shoot people but it's usually henchmen so it's more like a cliched movie, and Mass Effect, where your a soldier doing soildery type missions. Halo is a lot of fun, and Gears of War is technically brilliant, just the story doesn't fit with what I like. Getting the killzone trilogy a few weeks ago reminded me how much I don't like FPS games, even though it's a pretty good series.