I have had it with this.

[Twilight_guy]

I'm sorry did you miss the part when politicians started talking about improving gun control laws? I remember that on the news. Don't remember any video game related laws being mentioned though. As for mental health. My god that's just a big cess pool, I can see why people aren't to willing to put there foot in it, but it'd be nice if it could be addressed.

 

[Johnny Impact]

Y'know, I got a particular problem with that classic literature thing.

Let's see, what are we all forced to study...Romeo And Juliet.

In which Romeo murders and indirectly causes the deaths of tons of people because he's got a boner.

Check. Goddamn. Mate.

We have a winner!

I used to watch Tom & Jerry cartoons when I was little. They don't show those any more, because somebody decided they were too violent. I can't argue they weren't violent, because they most definitely were -- Tom took WAY more hideous beatings than anything Wile E Coyote ever suffered, and more often. I watched him get murdered over and over, in a thousand ingeniously fiendish ways, and I laughed about it. Yet I don't have to argue that despite my whole generation watching those cartoons every Saturday morning we grew up as stable as our parents, because that's simple fact.

Blaming the media is easier than acknowledging that people aren't perfect, or taking responsibility for ourselves and those in our care.

There's also sensationalism. Ever watch your buddy go for the high score on a video game? Same idea. "He killed HOW many people? Oh, wow!" We just want a story, even if it's one we've heard a thousand times before. Consume, decry, and move on to the next one.

 

[TorqueConverter]

Why are we shifting the blame onto inanimate objects again?

I'm a bit confused. A firearm is as much an accomplice to a murder as a car is to a speeding ticket.

Solution to speeding problem = ban all cars?

Not this shit again.

The difference there is that a gun is specially designed for killing, a car is not.

Yet cars are so much more effective at it on a day to day basis!

as for the OP:

Of course a car is not designed to kill. Who says that? Certainly not I.

A firearm is no more designed for mass shootings than a car is designed to obtain speeding tickets.

They're inanimate objects. Inanimate objects can be misused. The misuse of a inanimate object is not the inanimate object's fault.

 

[Reyold]

Yeah, I share your feelings OP. This is but another example showing the incompetence of our government and its system.

As a political aside: Almost everyone in the US is willing to criticize the govt, but nearly NO ONE is willing to criticize the system that continuously puts them in year after year after year. F**k the constitution.

I"m not sure it's the Constitution's fault... we keep voting the morons in. Granted, it's seemed to have come to a point where there ARE not good candidates... The Constitution's not perfect, by any means, but I like to think it's better than most systems of gov't.

OT: Yeah, I'm pretty sick of this too. Can't SOMEONE actually be sane/competent these days?

Oh right, that would mean compromising your precious agenda. God forbid THAT happen.

 

[zehydra]

Yeah, I share your feelings OP. This is but another example showing the incompetence of our government and its system.

As a political aside: Almost everyone in the US is willing to criticize the govt, but nearly NO ONE is willing to criticize the system that continuously puts them in year after year after year. F**k the constitution.

I"m not sure it's the Constitution's fault... we keep voting the morons in. Granted, it's seemed to have come to a point where there ARE not good candidates... The Constitution's not perfect, by any means, but I like to think it's better than most systems of gov't.

OT: Yeah, I'm pretty sick of this too. Can't SOMEONE actually be sane/competent these days?

Oh right, that would mean compromising your precious agenda.

Our system is far from best. We americans need to get it through our thick skulls that nothing is going to change until the constitution is either scrapped or amended. Voting doesn't do shit anymore.

 

[Nimzabaat]

Snip

They ignore these because there's nothing they can do about it. If somebody wanted a gun, they would find a way to get it with enough effort. It'd be like how Prohibition went along, only with more dangerous people and less awesome gangsters. There's nothing they can do about video games either, unless they can ban internet as well, but it's new and it's following isn't as crazy, despite how they want us to look.

Actually, every country that has restricted firearms has found that that... works. Somehow the United States is that one magical country where a tried and true method will somehow automatically fail.

More on topic: What games did Charles Manson play? Jeffrey Dahmer? Son of Sam? Were text-based adventures the root of all evil? Seriously they just blame whatever media is relevant at the time as a stalling tactic until people forget all about it.

 

[Mr Binary]

I've been getting tired of blaming video games or comics or whatever for quite some time.

I live in Canada and it seems we don't have an issue with playing Video Games and then not shooting each other. Not saying it's because he was in the US or anything, but I'm merely using that to show that Video Games obviously have nothing to do with it. Crazy is crazy.

 

[Maze1125]

Why are we shifting the blame onto inanimate objects again?

I'm a bit confused. A firearm is as much an accomplice to a murder as a car is to a speeding ticket.

Solution to speeding problem = ban all cars?

Would that not solve the problem? I'm fairly sure it would. If you get rid of cars then you do get rid of speeding.
The issue, however, is that cars are a vital part of millions of people's lives.

Guns, on the other hand, are not a vital part of millions of lives, and so can be banned without the same issues as banning cars.

 

[Maze1125]

Then again, you can look at switzerland to know less guns = less crime argument is bull because they have higher gun ownership rates and less crime.

a) No-one says that less guns = less crime. They say that less guns = less mass killings of 6-year-old children. Which is true.
b) What are the gun control laws of Switzerland? Do they only own hand-guns and hunting rifles? Or can they get hold of assault-rifles as easily as America?
c) So Switzerland has a low crime rate, you have absolutely no evidence that the crime rate wouldn't be even lower if they restricted guns further. (Although it probably wouldn't, as pointed out in (a) the point of gun control isn't to reduce crime, but to reduce the effectiveness as which if can be committed. A country with a low crime-rate doesn't need gun control as badly as one with a high-crime rate.)

 

[putowtin]

It's easier to blame something/one else than accept the blame yourself.

Goverments/Health Boards/Parents/Friends/Newspapers/Supposed "Experts" Have been doing it for years and will continue to do so because:

It's easier to blame something/one else than accept the blame yourself.

 

[Durzo_Blint]

I've been trying to ignore the internet, blogs, forums, etc all talking about Sandy Hook since a couple days after it happened. It all comes back to gun regulation, then you get all the idiots and the NRA saying that gun's are not to blame.

Probably because I'm from England and, (thankfully), have never seen a gun outside of military festivals in real life, but I really do not understand the rampant fervour and mania that American's have to cling to their guns and 2nd Amendment. Guns are not legal here. As a result, gun crime and related violence is minimised. It's really that simple.

Also, doesn't the 2nd Amendment say that guns should only be used for the good of a local militia? More to the point, why can't an Amendment ever be amended?

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

I thought you were gonna say "with this #$%& snakes on this "#$%& plane".
No, you're not alone. We've all had it.

 

[Oly J]

Okay, so, connecticut shootings again, we got people blaming everything from videogames to dark clothing.

Am I the only one who thinks this isn't even negotiable? I know, "You are never the only one" but please, reassure me.

Let's think about this. It was already known that the killer was not mentally stable, and nothing was done about this. Not only that, but the killer was allowed access to a gun.

So, let's see two things that leap out there. Mentally unsound and untreated. Given a gun.

Mental problems. Guns.

There is not much need, at least, not yet, to start looking for other reasons this happened. The reasons are right goddamn there.

AND YET. The press, the politicians, even members of the public who should know better, skipped right over the two obvious elements right there, to any other scapegoat they could find.

I just...can't. I just can't. It feels like nobody's even considered it. It feels like everyone in the public eye has glazed right the fuck over those two elements like they weren't even there.

Now we have the possibility of more laws put on videogames while gun laws take a back seat.

Rant over. Topic: Why has everyone ignored these two factors?

You need to pare your list down one more: Untreated mental problems. Guns had nothing to do with it.

I think the problem was that a known mentally unstable person was allowed access to a gun not with guns themselves, whether you agree with owning guns or not I don't think there can be any argument against the fact that guns can, do and in this case, did get into the wrong hands

 

[Bestival]

I think that today's Penny Arcade sums up my feelings on this quite well:
"It is a very odd sort of Patriot that would destroy the First Amendment to protect the Second."

 

[spartan231490]

Okay, so, connecticut shootings again, we got people blaming everything from videogames to dark clothing.

Am I the only one who thinks this isn't even negotiable? I know, "You are never the only one" but please, reassure me.

Let's think about this. It was already known that the killer was not mentally stable, and nothing was done about this. Not only that, but the killer was allowed access to a gun.

So, let's see two things that leap out there. Mentally unsound and untreated. Given a gun.

Mental problems. Guns.

There is not much need, at least, not yet, to start looking for other reasons this happened. The reasons are right goddamn there.

AND YET. The press, the politicians, even members of the public who should know better, skipped right over the two obvious elements right there, to any other scapegoat they could find.

I just...can't. I just can't. It feels like nobody's even considered it. It feels like everyone in the public eye has glazed right the fuck over those two elements like they weren't even there.

Now we have the possibility of more laws put on videogames while gun laws take a back seat.

Rant over. Topic: Why has everyone ignored these two factors?

You need to pare your list down one more: Untreated mental problems. Guns had nothing to do with it.

I think the problem was that a known mentally unstable person was allowed access to a gun not with guns themselves, whether you agree with owning guns or not I don't think there can be any argument against the fact that guns can, do and in this case, did get into the wrong hands

They can, but this wasn't caused by guns. This was caused by the fact that someone who should have been institutionalized and under heavy observation was not. It's even worse because the reason he wasn't was probably due to the abysmal mental health system in this country, it's almost impossible to get someone institutionalized until they have served jail time. How fucked up is that?

 

[Nimzabaat]

Snip

They ignore these because there's nothing they can do about it. If somebody wanted a gun, they would find a way to get it with enough effort. It'd be like how Prohibition went along, only with more dangerous people and less awesome gangsters. There's nothing they can do about video games either, unless they can ban internet as well, but it's new and it's following isn't as crazy, despite how they want us to look.

Actually, every country that has restricted firearms has found that that... works. Somehow the United States is that one magical country where a tried and true method will somehow automatically fail.

More on topic: What games did Charles Manson play? Jeffrey Dahmer? Son of Sam? Were text-based adventures the root of all evil? Seriously they just blame whatever media is relevant at the time as a stalling tactic until people forget all about it.

Except many of those nations, while they have fewer firearm related deaths, have higher violent crime rates.

Then again, you can look at switzerland to know less guns = less crime argument is bull because they have higher gun ownership rates and less crime.

You're absolutely right. Changing the whole culture of the United States and adding universal health care (including mental health care) would go a long way towards solving the problem. Where would you start?

 

[Maze1125]

a) A lot of people say this, guns would lead to an end of violent crime, brutal muggings, murder ect. Which is not true.

Can you point out one single example where someone has done that?

b) Adults are issued assault rifles to keep in their home as they are part of a civil defense force. it is EASIER to get an assault rifle in switzerland than the United States.

Okay, cool. Well, as I said before, gun control is more important in counties with a high crime rate anyway.
If you can trust your entire population to not go and shoot up a school of 6 year-olds, then you can probably trust them with assault-rifles.
If, on the other hand, you can't trust everyone in the population, then you should probably put measures in place to stop the untrustworthy types from getting those guns.