I know it has been a little while since the school shooting in Illinois has passed, and I know that most of the hot forum debates here have also moved on to other topics, but the debate is still livening up my college campus. More people are crying out about how video games should be banned, and how they make unfit parents forget their own children in a car for a week, etc. So, while I am sorry for bringing it back up again, I just have to interject two more thoughts in:

I want to present two examples to all the Video Game naysayers and one of these even addresses the people that think guns should be banned.


The Tower Sniper: August 1st, 1966.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Whitman

Despite a lack of video games (save for maybe Pong) during this time, Charles Whitman still got the idea in his head to go shoot 14 people and wound 30 others before being killed himself by the Austin Police. Pong is annoying, but not that annoying.

Is a 1966 school shooting not enough to convince you that video games are not the reason people go off the deep end? How about this one, this one doesn't even have guns.

The Bath School Disaster: May 18th, 1927.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Kehoe

Although not a school "Shooting," it is still related. This guy still killed 45 people and injured 58. That's even more then the guy who had the gun! Also, there was no Doom 2 or Grand Theft Auto 3 around in 1927 to take the blame for his actions either. So of course, everybody conveniently leaves this one out when a school massacre is mentioned. Why is that? Because he didn't have a rifle? Because we could not easily rationalize him on some absurd little variable?

"... (Kehoe) conducted himself sanely and so concealed his operations that there was no cause to suspect any of his actions;
Proof that if someone is going to commit a massacre, they are going to do it, with or without guns; with or without video games.

It's SAD that these happen... but there's no way to stop it except for communication.

Vigilance, awareness, and possibly empathy are the only tools.