Is Gaming the Next Scapegoat for Arizona Shooting?

After the horrible tragedy that took place in Arizona a few days ago, it didn't take long before people stood on their soap box and started pointing fingers at who to blame. So far there is an expanding list that includes the devil, gun laws, Sarah Palin, his parents and so on.

[Queasy]

Didn't take long? I don't even think the barrel of the gun was cold before people started throwing blame around with no basis of fact.

[LordMarius]

I thought we were blaming Sarah Palin?

[lastdual]

No, this was clearly all part of Bobby Kotick's dastardly plan.

[Darkstorn]

The shooter was a gold standard-obsessed conspiracy theorist who didn't fit in with his peers. I don't think gaming had a significant effect on his mental instability.

[BISHOP-BRASIL]

What about a mentally ill guy with an arrest record legally buying a gun? Does anyone can have a gun there?

[JoySticksFTW]

According to reports, this guys was heavily into drugs and the concept of lucid dreaming, in which you know you are awake in your dreams and can control them to become a super being.

The news referenced the Matrix's Neo and Inception.

I really doubt anyone can lay this at the feet of video games. That doesn't mean certain people won't try though...

People will twist anything to fit their agenda.

[ATi_Elite]

This is totally stupid!

Violence has been around since mankind. People have killed other people way before electricity was even discovered. So to blame one person's lack of judgment on video games is totally STUPID and is a cop out to society's real problems.

Seeing how America is ALWAYS at war, how about you blame it on that seeing how the United States has been at war in every decade since 1775. Actually only from 1921 -1941 was the only time the United States was at peace for more than a decade.

The United States is a waring nation so how can you expect the citizens to be peaceful and serene when all we know is WAR. This guy was mentally unstable and listening to reports all the people said he was "Crazy" but so far no one tried to get him help. They just pushed him away and pushed him away until he pushed back Unfortunately at the cost of lives.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wik...

[MariaHelFutura]

Last I heard they were blaming Conspiracy Theorists.

[palaeomerus]

Maybe they should consider blaming THE GUY WHO ACTUALLY DID IT!

[Balt]

I think it certainly has some factor in it. More and more FPS are coming out by the hour it seems, and these FPS are glorifying death, dominance and rank above all else.

America is a violent, disinvested nation. They've become so because of their so called "freedoms". Back when all we could do was jump barrels, bust blocks out with our head, climb vines and collect coins this stuff did not happen in near the capacity that it does now. And when it did it was never in direct correlation to gaming.

Gaming, media, movies and music have turned America even more violent than ever; weakening already weak, impressionable minds who are hungry for attention and turning them into lunatics.

Gaming needs to be sanctioned. FPS and online deathmatches need to come to a head. And while all the blame cannot be placed on gaming, the guy is a very sick individual -- It was gaming, coupled with all the other pressures of life that lead him to his paranoid state of mind.

[Bigpappy]

This had absolutely nothing to do with FPS. It had all to do with politics tubulance and a nut case who thought he was helping out by murdering people. Just like terrorist from religious groups, and right to life groups, who think every one else should see things they way or die. It looks like these people don't believe in gods power, if they think they have to kill for him. Guess they think god is too weak, so he needs their protection. I would never understand why people would kill in the name of a god. Kind of make their god useless, No? I am not saying this guy had any religious reasoning for what he did. I am just saying that some people get over emotional about politics and religion and these things are a result of that emotional trubulence.

[Balt]

To be fair it's also far, far easier to blame media than it is Religion or Politics. There aren't as many gamers out there as there are political or religious fanatics. Less to offend or debate with.

[feelintheflow]

Well since he hated religion, smoked tons of pot, didn't watch tv, or listen to political radio, it can simply be said the guy was a nut. The only blame is that we allow nut cases to walk around in this country. What happened to the good old days when nuts were in nut houses.

[ULTIMATE_REVENGE]

Why do you guys get all upset when the media blame video games? 30 years ago people would've laughed at you guys for getting upset over stupid petty things.

[JoySticksFTW]

There is currently a big-time push to have all violence and sexual content removed from video games, or at least monitored more closely

It's been brewing since the GTA:SA hot coffee incident. Gamers think that it just went away, but it currently being looked at by our court system.

The video game world is desperately trying to defend video games under Free Speech and Artistic expression, and have been able to demonstrate the ability to "police" themselves through ratings, etc.

But as the blaming of video games leading to horrible acts continue to pile up, if people in power (ie judges) start to be influenced by these repeated reports... that's going to have a significant effect on gaming

[Kewl_Kat]

Sanction gaming and hate America's freedoms, but don't hate hackers because of freedom of speech?
http://img211.imageshack.us...

[awesomeperson]

LMFAO

Good find Kat, ahh people like Balt are a bit messed up at times it seems.

[HolyOrangeCows]

Balt is a troll who will say anything to fit the situation. One second, it's "I'm not a gamer" then he goes into a rant about how long it takes to backup a large PS3 HDD, claiming he has 250GB worth of PSN games.
I don't know what he's trying to pull.

This picture is hilarious. + bubbles

As for the shooter, he was clearly mentally unstable. Liberals will run to the opportunity to demonize him as a supposedly average Republican, VG haters will blame video games, Genies will blame poor quality of lamp-polish.....people take a sad situation of a psychopath attacking a crowd of people (What....so, he shot the babies because they were Democrats?....or for bonus points? ....no, his actions didn't have a clear agenda) and turn it into something to fit their agendas.
A sad world we live in where people are so far up their own behinds that they have to pseudo-analyze everything like that.

"Killing was around way before videogames"
Don't be silly. Hitler and Genghis Khan played Call of Duty 12 hours a day.
/s

[Led-Zeppelin]

I live in Tucson (I'm 5 minutes away from where Giffords was shot). Just weird to see my unpopular city being the center of attention of the world right now.

[Kewl_Kat]

Hey Balt, why would you want to sanction gaming but hacking is fine 'cause of freedom of speech?
http://img211.imageshack.us...

[ULTIMATE_REVENGE]

Because Balt is right, Gaming is destroying the youth, todays kids & teens are falling way behind, these so called freedoms are nothing but traps.

You people need to understand the difference between freedom and desires. Freedom doesn't mean you can do anything at any time.

[MariaHelFutura]

Killing was around way before videogames.

[lostinplace]

Video games are to blame.

[DERKADER]

PEOPLE KILL PEOPLE! It's that simple.

[DelbertGrady]

Yes. Allowing your citizens to carry assault rifles has nothing to do with it at all.

[feelintheflow]

Because if you don't have a gun, nobody would kill anyone. I wonder how all the people died before guns were invented? What an asinine statement.

[Darkstorn]

Gun laws are very loose in Arizona. The shooter passed a background check, attained a glock, committed murder, and is now going to jail. In fact, a New York Republican just introduced strict gun control legislation to debate on the House floor: http://www.congress.org/new...

Guns may not kill directly, but they sure make killing easier in the hands of the mentally compromised.

[feelintheflow]

Washington D.C. has the strictest gun laws in America and they also have one of the highest murder rates using guns. Strict gun laws are not the answer. If someone wants to kill it is not the gun that makes it happen. While I do not own a gun, I respect others rights to have them. We have some of the loosest gun laws in Montana, and we don't have the problems with gun murders like they do in other places. I just think it is foolish to blame a weapon for what a person does.

[Kalipekona]

There are other places that saw similar things happen as happened in Washington D.C. under strict gun control laws. Crime often goes up, not down. Not to mention that law abiding citizens are denied their right to defend themselves. An elderly person generally cannot defend themselves with anything but a gun.

Like feelintheflow I don't own a gun, but I simply see the reality that gun control laws actually tend to have a negative effect and never accomplish what the gun control advocates promise.

There will always exist crazy people. They represent a super small minority, but unfortunately there is no way to reliably prevent such people from doing harm to other people. You could turn the planet into a police state with cameras on every corner and where gun ownership is illegal and there would continue to be periodic tragedies. Hell, you can drive a car into a crowd and kill just as many people.

Attempts to create utopias invariably result in the creation of hell on earth.

[Darkstorn]

I'm not a supporter of full gun control, but I don't think people need high-powered assault weapons for everyday use (and yes, I realize that the weapon used to kill Rep. Giffords was not an assault weapon).

Don't you think it's disturbing that glock sales have doubled in the days since the Arizona shooting? I sure as hell do.

[Sub-Zero85]

I strongly disagree. ..... in recent studies gamers who play shooting game are less likely to commit crime, fact of the matter is this kid had serious issues. . Can't blame video games on this one !!!

[DanteKnightsTemplar]

blame the parents instead. its always everyones fault, but theirs , in the media.

[xGet_In_There]

I blame it on Treyarch. He must of owned the PS3 version.

[Strikepackage Bravo]

For the love of all that is good and pure what is wrong with you people!!!! It is HIS fault!!! He is a nut!!! If there was no politics, gaming Sara Palin, or religion in the world he STILL would have done it!!! He would have found some excuse to do it, he believes there is evil codes hidden in the english language! the guy was nuts! By making excuses for the little perverted freak, all you do is encourage copy cats who feel that they too are victims because no one will give them any p*ssy!!!

[wingman32x]

Doesn't matter either way IMO. It's not like any of the crap they say sticks anyway. Let them make ignorant statements.

This crap has happened with other forms of media, too. It's the older generation picking on a new form of media they know nothing about.

[MARKUS_MAX1MUS]

Id hazard a guess that he became a misanthrope in his own isolation and cutting off from society since he obviously didnt like what was going on around him.

Everybody goes to dark places sometimes. For some reason wether it be work, relationships, money some people cant seem to pull themselves out of these places and then well you get things like this.

Thing that annoys me is the arrogance and ignorance of people in general when it comes to these situations. No one person can turn around and say yeah it was definetely games or it was a movie he watched or music he listened to which unfortunetly is always the case.

[thebudgetgamer]

people don't play video games then go crazy. crazy people play video games and do crazy sh!# because their crazy.

[hazelamy]

it's funny, you don't hear people blaming religion when they discover the killer has a bible and went to church regularly, yet if they find a single game, it's gaming is suddenly evil.

well i tell you, a lot more people have been killed because crazy people have been obsessed with religion than crazy people obsessed with games.

and i'm not talking about throughout history, just since video games have been around.

[cheetorb]

Of course it was video games. This has nothing to do with people tired of the thieves and liars that are running our country into the dirt. It's video games, media, music, movies and EVERYTHING ELSE.

Now go back to sleep young sheep. There is nothing to see here and nothing to question.

IGNORANCE IS BLISS JUST LIKE SLAVERY