News US parents blame games for violence as much as guns

If everyone in the UK had handguns we'd have a lot more teenage kids mucking about with them (They'll find a way). We'd have sad emo kids venting their hatred at the world using their parents guns rather than through their fashion choices and innate ability to look moody beneath a long fringe.

Computer games have got little to do with it. It's EVERYTHING to do with guns that's the problem. You have one method to prevent gun rampages.

1. Don't let anyone have a gun.

Any attempt to limit exposure to gun media won't go very far, especially not in the USA where the right to have the right to shoot things is embedded in their entire social DNA.

You can try and limit games and violent movies but you'll always get some families that ignore these rules no matter what.

I'm not saying it should be open season on gun toting media, quite the opposite in fact. I think we need to tighten up on age restrictions, by educating people and enforcing the rules a little better.

I don't think it's right that 18 / R rated movies get toys. I don't think it's right that 18 rated games get given to little kids as Christmas presents.

Example. I have a 5yo twins (One of each) and they occasionally play games such as Star Wars Lego and Angry Birds. I don't let them play any FPS. They still get to shoot things, or get Lego Leia to slap Lego Han upside the head, and they still get to pop the heads of pigs, but they're not blasting away with a 3D photo-realistic semi-automatic as a rampaging enemy runs towards them.

 

I'm the same as you mate. Been gaming for as long as I've been walking and I've never felt the urge to go on a rampage killing people. Blaming games is daft. If a person snaps and goes on a rampage it is down to their own issues and could have been triggered by absolutely anything.

There is a case for putting some of the blame on society as a whole, but largely it is down to the parents to bring their kids up right. Making guns harder to obtain would also help.

 

We already have knife control.

You have to be 18+ to purchase, and you're not allowed to carry without 'good reason' anything but small folding knives.

https://www.gov.uk/find-out-if-i-can-buy-or-carry-a-knife

I'm fine with these rules, and I always carry a 'knife' at the bottom of my bag (A tiny multi-tool).

I have a few knives that would be illegal to carry in public, but as someone who's entire family was heavily involved in the guide / scout movement I've always had knives for bushcraft, and that's what they get used for. I also have lots of other dangerous tools for kitchen, DIY & garden work.

It's good that 'status symbol' knives such as flick knives are banned as it makes them harder to access. When I was about 10 I went to France for the day with the school and a handful of lads all came back with flick knives as they were 'cool'. Of course they all got confiscated, and I'm glad I live in a country that doesn't allow children to spend their pocket money on bladed weapons.

 

It is hard actually, thats why you get news like " fired 100 rounds and hit two people".
If you hear someone killed more than they wounded, you know they've practised. Live not virtual.

...

that's pretty much the dutch law. Weapon, ammo and bolt locked away seperately

Tried to buy a kitchen knife in a UK supermarket last year...forget it

 

I believe gun control is a nice steady squeeze on the trigger.


But before you get to that point you need to have a proper respect for guns, and training from a responsible adult or training facility. I learned to shoot at age 7 from my grandfather. He had a collection of about 20 long guns (shot guns and rifles) and 6 or 7 hand guns, none of them were locked up and the ammo was accessible, BUT I knew I didn't mess with a gun with out an adult, I knew proper gun safety and I knew he would have done God knows what to me (insert childs respect/healthy fear if you did wrong of grandfather here) if he ever caught me playing with them!

GUN SAFETY and TRAINING are the key.

 

Funny how the UK has a higher violent crime rate than the US. Maybe it's not the guns after all?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...ry-Europe-Britain-worse-South-Africa-U-S.html

 

At least they're not getting shot...depends on what you count as a "Violent crime"

 

One of the devs of Dishonored recently talked about violence in games on rockpapershotgun:

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2013/01/14/dishonored-designer-joe-houston-on-violence-in-games/

 

I love how games are the first to get this, never mind about songs of gangs,(Run This Town Tonight) and films, games seem always end up with the bad name.....

 

Wow. I did mean my Knife Control thing as rhetorical, but thanks for setting me straight.


Still, any piece of (hard) metal can be sharpened and turned into a knife.

 

But in a way, it IS partially responsible. All things are. Exposure to them does modify behavior. That said, how we are exposed plays a different part. And that's the crux of it. We are just pathetic at educating people.

That said, it's a scary prospect in any sense because things could be very...well controlling, but it's a wash as far as a proposed solution.

 

NOT this crap again!

 

Yes it is. That is how we gained our independence from Great Britain.

The issue at hand goes much deeper though. Lack of adequate parenting and their quick to blame anything but themselves mentality. These idiots have been blaming books, games, and movies for decades. In reality it is an extremely small percentage of these psychopaths that commit these mass murders. Banning guns, magazine sizes, or certain types of firearms will not prevent the violence of those extreme few that are hell-bent on killing. These degenerates will find a way. In the meantime, disarming or curtailing the rights of us legal gun owners only weakens our ability to protect ourselves from these sickos.

 

I don't need to read this article to say that American parents are the blame, for not being parents, and teaching their kids right from wrong.

 

Back in my day we used Mortal Kombat to settle arguments without violence. I'm fully serious, when I was around 10 or 11 and the kids in my neighborhood would get in arguments and it looked like a fight would break out, we would stop the fight and bring it inside and settle the argument with Mortal Kombat instead.
Violent video games=outlet to prevent actual violence

It's even more applicable now. The world is messed up and kids know it. Kids are frustrated and hurt and angry about the world they've been forced into and they need an outlet. Mortal Kombat or Call of Duty or whatever the kids are into these days are healthy ways of dealing with that, just as much as sports or karate is considered healthy.

 

You're assuming all countries record incidents of 'violent crime' in the same manner and this was assumed by the Tories when collating the data used by the Daily Mail (that data collated just before the last General Election, not that of course there would have been any suggestion of painting stastics in the colour they wanted...)

Anyway, that aside.

For example, in the UK, violence against the person without injury also gets recorded under the banner of 'violent crimes' - that includes threats to kill, assault without injury, harassment and so on. I'm not sure if this is the case in other countries.

There is no conclusive evidence to suggest violent games cause violent behaviour, violent people may be attracted to those types of games but that does not infer a causal relationship in anyway.

Yes people can use other weapons but guns enable the unstable wielder to kill more and with greater speed.