Another shooting, another round of "let's blame video games"

[weedo3]

http://www.infowars.com/media-buries-psychiatric-drug-connection-to-navy-shooter/

[Growled Member]

 

We now know that Alexis ?had been treated since August by the Veterans Administration for his mental problems.?

 

I don't know if he was on drugs or not (I suspect so, though) but this alone is enough to keep him away from any gun forever.

[IgorP]

Everything is about the gun but not the person. We blame every other crime on the person but when it comes to a crime done with a gun people don't look at the person they look at the gun as if the gun had a mind of its own and done the shooting. Perhaps the media should look at the people doing these crimes and not the object. And I think the Obama administration needs to look at the people and not the guns. Every mass shooting that happened recently have all been from mentally ill people..

Isn't the point that it's too easy for these people to get guns? I don't think anyone thinks that there are sentient firearms walking around killing people.

While it's true that people do the killing and guns are merely the instruments, it is also true that a gun allows a person to kill many more people much more quickly than most other readily accessible weapons.

 

[IgorP]

Why not? I mean, if they can't be a contributing factor to later violence, then what's the harm?

 

You can't have it both ways. The very notion that for some people, violence from video games, movies, and/or music, has no effect on the human brain, is ludicrous. The average US child will have viewed over 16,000 simulated murders by the time they are 18.

 

And we wonder why these mass shootings keep happening. There have always been mentally unstable people, but not until the time of TV and video games did these events occur with such regularity. This isn't rocket science.

 

Couple that with a culture of guns and this is what you get. I don't know what the answer is, but as I said, for some folks, video games can be damaging.

Violent video games and movies are prevalent in countries all over the world, but only the US has such a culture of mass shootings.

Here in Australia we haven't had one since we increased gun control measures.

Also there were mass shootings in the US (and elsewhere probably), before video games even existed. One does not follow the other. Just because there are more violent video games now and shootings are more frequent does not make these things related.

 

[TAZMINATOR]

Games are therapy for many people.  It's a lot cheaper than the real thing.

 

Any obsession can be dangerous, but that Fox is still pointing fingers makes me laugh considering their 'experts' have always been obsessed and/or clueless.

 

Games therapy works for stress but I was talking about mental illness, or whatever they have... that they don't take any treatments for....   that people don't care about treatments... they just want to do something to vent/rant...  for example, "fook this", [grabs a gun then take off to the random place to kill random people]... which is why they have sick minds to do that.

[spaceelf]

Games therapy works for stress but I was talking about mental illness, or whatever they have... that they don't take any treatments for....   that people don't care about treatments... they just want to do something to vent/rant...  for example, "fook this", [grabs a gun then take off to the random place to kill random people]... which is why they have sick minds to do that.

Brother I am not the only one on Neowin who's mentally ill and untreated  :woot:

 

Of course I also dislike weapons of all sorts (they're cool in games. not so much iRL.)

[Shiranui]

its a truly a combination of many many things with each having a small (but significant) contribution. Think of the current state of the USA as the perfect storm. Lax gun control, violent upbringing (games, real life etc), huge wealth gaps, racism and anger still behind peoples smiling faces, rampant drug use, failing economy, aging infrastructure, extreme media portals, countless religious sects, etc etc.... how can anything like that NOT have millions of crazies

Apart from starting with "its", the above sums up the situation PERFECTLY.

[DirtyLarry Veteran]

Was going to possibly submit this as a blog post or editorial somewhere, but decided it was not worth it, so here it goes...
 

Please do not get it wrong, any and all shootings are an absolute travesty. Make no mistake at all about this fact. With that said, the whole "they played violent video games and as a result are better killing machines" argument is weak at best. Dangerous at worst. I believe it also shifts the blame and focus from where it actually should be? on how mental health is ignored overall. That however is a whole other discussion. 

 

According to an "expert" I just heard from on CNN, it is in fact violent video games who train these people and make them capable of what most of us view as the ultimate disgusting act towards other living entities. So if video games are indeed capable of making one better at real world things and they do in fact train people to do things they would have not been able to do otherwise, in no particular order I should be... 1) Extremely proficient at flying ACTUAL airplanes (Microsoft Flight Simulator) 2) A starting quarterback in the NFL (the Madden series) 3) The most dominant survivor in a zombie apocalypse (to many games to mention) 4) An expert plumber (Mario) 5) A professional skateboarder (S.K.A.T.E. and Tony Hawk series) 6) A globe trotting archaeologist (Tomb Raider & Uncharted) 7) and finally YES, I should be a true killing machine (Call Of Duty).

 

Now are violent video games perhaps not the healthiest outlet for people who already have deep rooted mental issues? Sure, perhaps they are not. I say that begrudgingly, however I like to think of myself as a man of reason. As such, I can potentially see the side of the argument that says violent video games may in-fact perpetuate violent behavior. Just as my favorite show on television currently (Breaking Bad) may in fact persuade some individuals into believing they too can also become the ruthless, cunning kingpin of a meth empire.

 

With that said, I just cannot agree to the notion that violent video games helped "train" any individuals who choose to live out their sick and twisted plans of revenge and destruction. Believing this is possible is in my humble opinion nothing short of ridiculous. Sure, playing video games no doubt helps the end user strengthen their index fingers and improve their dexterity and reflexes. Which is also something they could have done if they picked their nose incessantly. Just saying.

 

I know people are comforted by answers. They like to know a how to the why. I do recall a point in time that society at large believed all listeners of heavy metal music were satan worshippers capable of atrocities towards others. Anyone familiar with the West Memphis Three knows how dangerous that type of thinking can become. I just think it is truly unfortunate to try and place the blame on what is in fact a people who enjoy it on the actions of the .01% who obviously had much deeper issues than what video games they may or may not have played.

[HellboundIRL]

It's far easier to blame the likes of video games than blame the access to proper and affordable mental health services for these kinds of people, the stress they're facing in their day to day lives and what eventually leads to them cracking and going on a rampage like this.

 

Not defending their actions by any means but it's just not as simple as playing video games and deciding to go out on a shooting frenzy for fun.

[COKid]

HellboundIRL, on 18 Sept 2013 - 20:56, said:

It's far easier to blame the likes of video games than blame the access to proper and affordable mental health services for these kinds of people, the stress they're facing in their day to day lives and what eventually leads to them cracking and going on a rampage like this.

 

Not defending their actions by any means but it's just not as simple as playing video games and deciding to go out on a shooting frenzy for fun.

 

You may know more than I do, so I just can't say if mental health services are any better or worse than other nations. The way I see it, these violent video games are played all over the world, and I don't hear about mass shootings like I do in the USA. The thing is, when you combine how these games affect some peoples' minds with the easy access to guns we have here, that's simply a deadly combination.

[Fourjays Veteran]

As HellboundIRL/COKid said, I have thought for a while that the key component to these shootings isn't video games or guns, but poor mental health care. I'm no expert on the manner, but from what I've understood over the years even countries considered to be "good" at dealing with mental health issues aren't really that good.

 

From my own (rather frightening) experiences with my father, a large part of the problem is that diagnosis and then treatment is based solely on the affected individual. So unless the person affected can see the problem, there is quite literally nothing anybody will do (and of course, the person affected can't see that they have a problem). Without going into details, my father had to attack somebody before he was forced into mental care by the police. And that care was insufficient as he quickly "relapsed", sending us back to square one (nothing anybody could do unless he sought help himself).

 

It is far easier for people, and particularly politicians, to blame video games and/or guns for shootings like this than to tackle the difficult problem of mental health. The former is an easy soundbite for winning votes in a four year period. The latter requires tackling complicated social and welfare issues such as free/cheap/easy healthcare access, giving sensible powers to the police/courts and looking at the root causes of mental issues that can often be tracked to other difficult to tackle problems in society.

[.Ruby]

I think this is an appropriate video for the discussion

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZ7comwLPFY