
Video games kill people? CNN, sensationalism, and how to fix it - rflrob
http://www.penny-arcade.com/report/article/guns-dont-kill-people-video-games-kill-people-cnn-sensationalism-and-how-to
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snarfy
>The media’s treatment of video games has moved from being merely bad to
actively shameful.

I would go further and say libelous. The video game companies really need to
start suing.

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dlhavema
I'm pro-gun, but guns can be very dangerous. They are also very easy to
secure. Buy a gun safe, buy trigger locks, don't leave any of the keys at
home. ( hiding them isn't enough ) an 8 year old doesn't need access to their
own(or any) gun.

The media loves to eat this stuff up for sure...

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cgore
My dad first had me shoot the shotgun around 7 or 8, instead of trying to hide
it or lock it up, which is a horrible idea for kids that age, since they can
and will get keys for anything and be even more motivated to do so because it
isn't allowed. He showed me how to properly hold and aim the shotgun, and then
had me shoot a watermelon if I remember correctly.

He then explained matter-of-factly that it would do the same thing to a human,
and that they would be permamently dead, so unless that is REALLY what needed
to happen, not to use it. He then told me where it was kept, and that it was
kept loaded and was not to be viewed as a toy. I could use it whenever I
wanted, but only with adult supervision.

This actually worked rather well for two reasons. It wasn't forbidden, so I
didn't feel a need to mess with the guns just to break the rules. He also
specifically chose the shotgun, which has some insane kickback even if you are
a fully-grown adult male, and it REALLY HURT when I used it.

I think gun locks are a bad idea for kids over about 5 or 6 because they WILL
be able to find the key and unlock it. Just like they know where the Christmas
presents are hidden and everything else that the parents think they have
hidden from them.

At the age of 8 most kids are capable of understanding things like death,
unless the parents have let them be too sheltered. They should have had a pet
or two die already, perhaps a grandparent or other older relative, and older
people they know through church or the like. I was well aware of the idea of
death and that it is permament by that age.

On the flipside, I do recall my dad not liking Doom, and I was around 12 or so
then, and didn't want me to play it. Games like that can desensitize people to
violence in general, which doesn't go well with an unwillingness in American
middle-class society to openly talk about death or experience it at a personal
level. People try to insulate their kids from it, but they really shouldn't.

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protomyth
We would be a lot better off as a society if we just acknowledged bad people
do bad things and its their fault. Accidents happen and people aren't born
bad[1], but bad people could change their ways.

Sadly, its the nature of politics / media to blame something other than the
person who did it. Searching for reasons is good, but don't let that blind you
to that one person's decisions.

1) ok, I have heard people say this is a might bit untrue, but I'm not sure
how

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reader5000
An 8 year old is not a moral agent.

It's also hard to murder your grandmother without easy access to a firearm.

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protomyth
I said accidents happen[1]. Sadly, no, it is not hard and it happens without a
firearm too. Pools and cars tend to other ways youngsters end up with a
lifetime of regret.

1) yes, I classify this as an accident - the responsible party is the fool who
left it out and loaded

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dvhh
Grand Theft Auto IV is rated "M", and they allowed for a kid to play with a
gun. Even if there is a link between the game and violence there is also some
serious problem of parental responsibility.

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derleth
I think cutting off a key piece of the title counts as editorializing, don't
you?

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rflrob
In this case, I ran up against the 80 character limit. I do confess that when
trimming it down, I went for more the more sensationalist way of editing. I
think the mods changing it from "Guns don’t kill people, video games kill
people" to "Video games kill people? CNN, sensationalism, and how to fix it"
is probably right.

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reader5000
The beautiful thing about gun people is that as adamant as they are that their
fantasy paranoia world exists and that children need to be armed at all times
for 'protection' from 'Obummer', they are equally adamant about removing
themselves from the gene pool.

