It’s only a game?
On June 25, 2004 William and Joshua Buckner were playing the video game “Grand Theft Auto: Vice City”. In the game they were two characters wandering through the streets randomly killing people.
After a number of hours playing fantasy became reality as the stepbrothers decided to take two 24-calibre rifles from their home in Newport, Tennessee and walk down to the Interstate and shoot at any car passing by, while crouching behind a bush.
The 14 and 16 year old wounded one person and killed another, shooting Aaron Hamel in the head. The boys claimed the video game made them do it and at trial, they pleaded guilty to reckless homicide, aggravated assault and endangerment.
For the same reason we don’t allow kids to buy pornography, cigarettes or alcohol, we shouldn’t allow them to go to stores and buy video games.
Democratic Assemblyman Leland Yee
Why does it seem too easy for parents and children alike involved in instances like this to blame video games, music or movies for the behaviour of their child? Why do we have to play pass the buck on things like this? Should the worrying thing about this not be that a 14 and 16 year old cannot see the difference between fantasy and reality?
It seems crazy to me that we automatically look to blame another influence on tragedies such as this. The Virginia Tech disaster was the same, a young man wandering around with a gun around a campus killing people so automatically it means that it’s because of a video game.
It has since turned out that Seung-Hui Cho; a 23-year-old English major went on his killing spree after his girlfriend dumped him.
If these kids are playing video games, where they’re on a mass killing spree in a video game, it’s glamorized on the big screen, it’s become part of the fibre of our society. You take that and mix it with a psychopath, a sociopath or someone suffering from mental illness and add in a dose of rage, the suggestibility is too high.
Doctor Phil McGraw
When are we going to stand up and take responsibility for our own actions? Parents can always say no, but maybe that’s part of the problem they do not want to. Maybe it is because of guilt, who knows? If a teenager or young adult cannot fathom that even considering shooting people is not right then that says something about their living situation.
Yes I realise there are exceptions and that there are some parents who have tried everything to make sure that their child stays on the right path, but unfortunately there are far too many times where that is not the case.
Monday, October 8th, 2007 and is filed under Thoughts & Questions.
You can leave a comment.
