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Yet Another Video Game Responsible for violence.....
I dont know if anyone had seen this so I figured I'd post it.
Quote:
Videogames are on trial yet again in the USA, as the family of a man killed by teenagers who shot at passing cars on a freeway file a lawsuit against Grand Theft Auto publisher Take-Two.
The two teenagers - William and Joshua Buckner, 16 and 14 years old respectively - opened fire on vehicles on the Interstate 40 highway in Tennessee with a .22 calibre rifle, killing one person and injuring another severely.
They told the police who arrested them that they were bored, and decided to mimick their favourite videogame - Grand Theft Auto. The family of the victim, 45 year old nurse Aaron Hamel, have now filed suit against Take-Two Interactive, claiming that the company should take responsibility for his death.
"The industry needs to cough up money so victims and their families can be compensated for their pain," the family's attorney, Jack Thompson, told ABC News in the USA. "The shareholders need to know what their games are doing to kids and their families. They need to stop pushing adult rated products to kids. These products are deadly."
This isn't the first time that videogames have been in the dock over youth violence in the USA. Following the tragic school shootings in Littleton several years ago, the parents of several of the victims attempted to sue a host of games companies - including id Software, creators of Doom, and Nintendo - creators of such blood filled orgies of violence as Mario and Pokemon...
In fact, it's not even the first time that Grand Theft Auto has been connected with a crime - the game, whose first incarnation was launched into the UK with a finely tuned campaign of media outrage orchestrated by relentless publicist Max Clifford, was named as a key influence on a group of teenagers who plotted carjackings and murder in California, and also on another group who are facing charges for dozens of robberies and five killings.
Of course, in the rush to blame GTA for the killing and sue a cash-rich media company, certain aspects of this case seem to have been forgotten. For a start, Grand Theft Auto games are rated M (similar to our 18 rating here) in the United States, and while the country has no legislation to prevent M-rated games from being sold to children (in fact, legislation attempting to do just this was recently overturned in Washington state), the assumption is that parents will control access to content unsuitable for their children.
In this case, this clearly not did not happen. Perhaps even more worryingly, the parents of these teenagers not only failed to control their children's access to violent, adult media, they also failed to control their access to firearms - enabling them to take a fully loaded rifle on the night of June 25, and end an innocent man's life for no other reason than that they were "bored". Naturally, though, nobody seems prepared to question the access to a rifle in this case - this being something of a touchy subject in American politics - but instead the blame is being laid at the door of the games industry.
Compare and contrast with the situation here in the UK, where despite massive sales of Grand Theft Auto and Vice City (over a million copies each in a country of only 60 million people), we've yet to see a single case like this emerge. With games on trial for causing juvenile violence in the USA, and the family of Mr Hamel calling for Grand Theft Auto to be removed from sale, that's something to consider very seriously.
Or perhaps the answer to the perennial problem of delinquent teenagers dropping bricks from motorway and railway bridges is to sue the creators of Tetris?
edit: i put this in off topic to discuss the issue, please do not move it to games.
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Last edited by blk2k2civic; 10-30-2003 at 06:04 PM.
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It's sad that it happened and the kids were obviously stupid as shit, but at least the author makes light of the situation and puts a shade of reality on it. Good find!
1.) GTA3 is rated M for Mature. The parents have to be retarted to buy a game named Grand Theft Auto and not expect it to deal with criminal activity. Parents are to blame.
2.) [i]The children got the firearms from their own household. [/i ] The guns were not properly stored, and the ammunition must have been right next to the gun. Parent are to blame.
3.)How the hell did they walk outside with a .22 calibre rifle and not have their parents see them?
Unfortunately the media loves using videogames as a scape goat and are eating this story up yet again. At sixteen years of age you should have enough common sense to know that taking a life is illegal. As is shooting a firearm in public. I personally have no sympathy at all for the family of the children. As far as the family of the man, Sue the parents, not take 2.
Oour country pisses me off sometimes, NOBODY wants to be responsible for their own actions so they blame something else(oh and u can't forget the $$ u can get in a lawsuit).
This story is old, but stuff like this just pisses me off.
Like the fatasses that eat McDonald's and one day they realize "Damn I'm pretty fat" as they lift their triple cheeseburger to their quadruple-chinned face, "I should sue this company for selling me food"
Or the cigarette smokers..........like u don't already know they are bad, can kill, and are super addictive.
Nodody in this country(for the most part), wants to take responsibility for anything they do that is wrong.
Those parents don't know what they are talking about. They are just looking for money while trying to get their kids out of trouble. Why don't they blame the gun maker for making guns? How about the bullet maker? They should also sue the people that were driving on the highway...
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Exactly, the game is rated for mature audience only. Hell it says it right on the freaking box!!
blk2k2civic is correct. Where are the kids going to get the guns? From their home of course. Parents fault there too. Plus there has to be something wrong with the kids to think that it was ok to go out and fire a gun at people and moving cars. Hell my 10 year old brother know that it wrong to do. I guess that is a blame on the parents too for not teaching their kids the rights from the wrongs. For all we know the parents of the two kids that did the shooting are more than like all ways in trouble with the law themselves. I agree. Blame the kids and parents. The kids are almost old enough to be concidered as adults.
yeah... and more importantly, sue the PARENTS! WTF? I lived in a healthy fear of my parents until I was out of the house, and let me tell you that kept me pretty much on the straight and narrow... WTF was it like in their house... "Hey mom, can I borrow the keys to the car and dad's gun locker?"
i heard a story of something similar, where some kids got ahold of weapons, and decided to wreak havok around their city/town GTA style.. when they got arrested, they said they were just reenacting GTA... kids these days... they cant separate fictatious(sp?) from reality...
mmmm, i agree that its not the video games fault ... addicting as the game is . children need parents not friends ...whats wrong with giving your kids rules and enforcing them , as well as how the fizzile did 2 kids walk down the street with a rilfe and no one said anyhting ? come on people (talkin to the moron parents) use your brains my heart goes to the family of the lost memeber.. but use your brains as well its not the video games fault ... parents need to wake the heck up and realize its rated M or R or x or xxx for a friggin reason ya know what i mean
Yet Another Video Game Responsible for violence..... 
