Gun violence in video games: Donald Trump meets with video game execs

General Discussions
#1

Violence in video games, brought up again after that terrible Florida school attack.

I like playing battlefield and other FPS’s, but some are a bit graphic and horrible so maybe they need to restrict those games to stop kids playing them.

To outsiders, it does seem ridiculous how Americans will blame anything as the cause of gun violence except the widespread availability of guns. I couldn’t believe it when I heard that they proposed arming teachers! I’m a teacher and couldn’t imagine carrying a weapon into class. Absolute crazyness.

#2

I read a funny meme about this (not really funny per say, but accurate) about how teachers dont get paid much, are stressed most of the time, have no budget to buy shit for their class and have to pay out of their own pocket, etc. and now they should have guns. My mom worked in public high school for 30 years as a learning disability/behavior disorder english teacher, and taught a lot of kids that had been in/have since went to jail. You know what would happen the second my mom left her classroom? That gun would be stolen. Dumbest idea ever lol

#3

That’s interesting. Sad that people with learning disabilities can end up resorting to crime.

I saw this recently, quite funny:


#4

To be fair I dont think the learning disability students would steal it, but the behavior disorder ones would. Her learning disability students were mostly people that needed extra time to complete a test and stuff like that. At the same time, she got slammed up against a brick wall while trying to break up a gang fight that ended up in her classroom…and that fucked her arm up for life cuz the guy that slammed her was like 300 pounds

#5

Pretty sure at least one politician is legally REQUIRED to freak out about “VIDEO GAMES CORRUPTING THE YOUTH” every time one of these tragedies happens. Hell, they freaked out about DOOM back in the 90s after one of the Columbine shooters made a few WADs and had a few of the novels. It’ll be interesting to see if this actually goes anywhere.

#6

Sooner or later also Usa will catch up with the rest of the world in terms of gun control, penal death, metric system, ecc

Being able for anyone to buy an assault rifle at a cheap price in a couple of minutes is simply silly and the fact that there are people discussing this, it’s even more crazy

Look what happens to Europe and look what happens to Australia, since they banned guns

Some facts: https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/2/21/17028930/gun-violence-us-statistics-charts

The gun violence in videogames is what we call, in italian, a “white rabbit”, something you throw at the people to catch to keep them busy and avoid them thinking about what’s the real problem is here

#7

[quote]assault rifle
[/quote]
Good old assault rifle meme brought out again.

You would need to regulate all kinds of firearms, “scary” looking guns aren’t more dangerous.

But maybe you should start with fixing everything around the education system first ::slight_smile:

[quote]penal death, metric system
[/quote]
100% agree

[quote]maybe they need to restrict those games
[/quote]
Aren’t they already age rated? Also parents are still a thing that exists, it’s their responsibility first.

#8

What’s the real problem?

#9

Gun nuts won’t like that meme…get all pedantic about “assault rifles” don’t exist…it’s “assault weapon” you chums.

If you want to do something about guns in the states, then the first couple steps are:

  1. Limit power of lobbies by restricting contributions by any entity.
  2. Reduce the need for money by changing how advertising for political office works.
#10

Then you also need to realise that feeding the gun lobby is gun culture. Gun culture absolutely, totally pervades every aspect of American life. The cops have guns and they tend to shoot first and ask questions later. There are guns in virtually every programme on TV. Nearly every single film coming out of Hollywood literally glorifies guns. Poster art is covered in guns. “Rap music”* orbits gun culture. Guns guns guns. Guns everywhere. Even the most trivially benign cartoons have guns in them!

Big ticket video games are still predominantly what we like to derisively describe as manshooters. Everyone has guns. The aim is to kill virtual people. Increasingly these look like real people and the guns behave and look like real guns and the situations look like real situations. The graphical, visceral, immersive nature of videogames is horrifying. (Just imagine it in VR now). It makes the passive consumption film gun imagery look like the inane scribblings of a 3 year old. Guns guns guns.

Guns ooze out of every foetid, rancid pore of American society. Every aspect of gun culture plays a small but crucial part. Bricks on their own don’t make a wall but put enough of them together.

The worst part is that is, that is is being exported wholesale to every other country in the world. We have it particularly badly here in the UK because we share some common language. 40 years ago you would rarely ever see guns used in television dramas - which largely mirrored actual real life in the UK - they were a real event. Now they’re as common as they are in the US media. We old folk don’t like it at all, because the young 'uns are growing up thinking it is normal. This is how gun culture works. Surrounded by it, swimming in it, it pervades every aspect of normal until it is normal, despite being insane.

You might have noticed a lack of guns in our games. It’s all virtual violence, using imaginary zap weapons, against monsters and robots. I really don’t like guns in games any more. I used to, but I don’t now. I see it for what it is: the subtle erosion of civilised values from our lives through constant imagery to normalise the genuine horror that guns bring.

Cas :slight_smile:

  • Yeah there’s no better way to sound like an old fogey by saying “rap music” is there?
#11

You’re all talking as if restricting civilian access to guns will solve the problem. Without actually defining, stating or talking about the actual problem that you’re supposedly trying to solve.

#12

Gun should be allowed only to police and special forces. Exceptions to civil throw a deep, long and expensive iter, including a psycho analysis.

#13

Is not the actual problem that actual people keep using actual guns to kill actual children en masse all the time?

Cas :slight_smile:

#14

You didn’t answer the question.

#15

I’m not a fan of that sort of thing, to say the least.

But what makes you so sure that restricting civilian access to guns will solve the problem?

Have you made a detailed analysis? What will be the pro’s and con’s of attempting such a feat?

Will it be a net positive in the short term and in the long term?

Good intentions alone does not result into a positive outcome. It’s much easier to break things than it is to fix things.

#16

Because it’s worked in every other country that’s done it. Apart from being common sense - if there are no guns, nobody can get shot.
The reason why Americans argue about this till they go blue in the face is because they are so immersed in it it is normal. Every other person in the world sees it as a no-brainer. Americans come up with insanely irrational ways to keep having more guns. It really makes us (the rest of the civilised world) facepalm just watching it unfold.

Cas :slight_smile:

#17

Actually I did, and it was clear from my very first post

The fact that you keep denying even just to recognize it, it’s pretty self-explanatory

#18

Could you please try and re-articulate it in such a way that even a person like me would be able to understand it?

#19

Gun control.

Don’t hide behind ignorance or my bad english

#20

To me that sounds like a Utopian fairy tale. If there is no cancer, nobody get’s cancer. Do you see what I’m trying to say?

I think we can both agree that making all guns disappear from the entire world is practically impossible.

However, I see your point is perhaps that we could try and restrict access through legislative power, yes?

Perhaps make them illegal, even?

But couldn’t that create an imbalance between criminals and civilians? Criminals would still be able to access guns.

I’d also like to bring up the American second amendment. Why do you think such a thing exist over there? What do you think the reasoning behind that amendment was? Is there any point to it at all? Or is it completely bogus? Or was it only relevant during that time? If so why was it relevant then? And why isn’t it relevant now?