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Forums - Politics Discussion - House minority leader trying to blame video games for mass shootings. Update: Walmart pulls violent video game ads for 2 weeks

Azzanation on 08 August 2019
curl-6 said:

So what, only the US has mentally ill people? Mental illness is prevalent in every country on Earth, why do countries like Japan or Australia or Canada not have this problem?

I understand your point however, its not the fact USA has guns which is why they have these killings. Ask any US citizen and they will say there educational system is bad, they dont invest enough resources into schooling etc. 

Also we cannot compare countries with 40m people to a country with 400m. Its alot easier to control crime with a lower number of citizens and in this case, Australia or Canada make up 1 entire US city. Thats how big the USA is to those countries. Also Canada and Australia have a better educational system or at least invest more into it than the States. 

Crime is crime, if they wont kill you with a gun, they will kill you with something else. Its why in my opinion taking away something from people to stop crime is just a quick patch up to an issue that wont last long. If a killer wants a gun, they will get one regardless of the laws.



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Chrkeller on 08 August 2019

I'm bailing out as well. God as my witness I would rather argue with a flat earther than a gun lunatic. The former is more rational.

Last edited by Chrkeller - on 08 August 2019

VAMatt on 08 August 2019
curl-6 said:
VAMatt said:

Gun massacres are not epidemic in the US either, unless you have a really wide definition of massacre.  

Well, using the definition of 3 or more people shot (not including the perpetrator) in one incident, excluding organized crime, there's been 248 so far this year. (So in the last 220 days)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mass_shootings_in_the_United_States_in_2019

You may not call that epidemic, as that's a descriptive and hence subjective term, but it certainly strikes me as an accurate description.

Granted, I'm not American, but if this was happening to my country I would consider it an extremely severe problem.

I am American, and my level of concern, on a scale of 1-10 (with 1 being not at all concerned), is probably about a 2. And, my level of concern is elevated not because I think we have a mass shooting problem, but because I see a risk of overreaction based on media hype.  This thread really is evidence of the damage that media hype does.  There truly just isn't a significant problem.  Literally nobody in the US is scared of getting shot in a random-ish violence incident, but there are a bunch of people here with wild and crazy thoughts about gun violence in the US based purely on the outrageous stuff they've heard on the news and in Facebook posts.  

In any case, the statistic that you used is being thrown around a lot.  I obviously haven't studied every case.  But, as near as I can tell, they left out Italian Mafia-like organized crime, but included the less sophisticated corner street gang crime.  My sense is that there have been about 5 events, maybe 7 or 8, that actually fit the definition that people have in their heads when they think of "mass shooting". 



VAMatt on 08 August 2019
Zoombael said:
A testament to how little progress video games have made in the past four decades as to how they are publicly perceived. It is still easy and common to make the medium a scapegoat.

No one blames TV Shows and Movies, all the violence and death depicted, e.g. The Walking Dead and Game of Thrones, how stylishly entertaining people are beaten up, maimed and killed. Not desensitizing...

I can't agree with this.  Twenty years ago, this was widespread thinking.  Today, some old grandmas take it seriously, while most everyone else laughs it off.  



Barkley on 08 August 2019
Zoombael said:
A testament to how little progress video games have made in the past four decades as to how they are publicly perceived. It is still easy and common to make the medium a scapegoat.

I disagree. I think video games as a medium have made great progress. It used to be something mainly viewed as for children. I believe it is far more accepted now as a hobby among adults than it was even just a decade ago. It's also not perceived as much as something for just "nerds" as it was before, it's more mainstream.



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GoOnKid on 08 August 2019
VAMatt said:
curl-6 said:

Well, using the definition of 3 or more people shot (not including the perpetrator) in one incident, excluding organized crime, there's been 248 so far this year. (So in the last 220 days)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mass_shootings_in_the_United_States_in_2019

You may not call that epidemic, as that's a descriptive and hence subjective term, but it certainly strikes me as an accurate description.

Granted, I'm not American, but if this was happening to my country I would consider it an extremely severe problem.

I am American, and my level of concern, on a scale of 1-10 (with 1 being not at all concerned), is probably about a 2. And, my level of concern is elevated not because I think we have a mass shooting problem, but because I see a risk of overreaction based on media hype.  This thread really is evidence of the damage that media hype does.  There truly just isn't a significant problem.  Literally nobody in the US is scared of getting shot in a random-ish violence incident, but there are a bunch of people here with wild and crazy thoughts about gun violence in the US based purely on the outrageous stuff they've heard on the news and in Facebook posts.  

In any case, the statistic that you used is being thrown around a lot.  I obviously haven't studied every case.  But, as near as I can tell, they left out Italian Mafia-like organized crime, but included the less sophisticated corner street gang crime.  My sense is that there have been about 5 events, maybe 7 or 8, that actually fit the definition that people have in their heads when they think of "mass shooting". 

I guess this is exactly why nothing is ever going to change: you guys just don't care at all. I am honestly shocked about this behavior and I deeply hope that this mindset is only shared by a tiny minority.

Out if curiosity: how would you feel if someone close to you was shot in a situation like this, maybe your father. Would that change your perception?



Conina on 08 August 2019
Azzanation said:

Also we cannot compare countries with 40m people to a country with 400m. Its alot easier to control crime with a lower number of citizens and in this case, Australia or Canada make up 1 entire US city. Thats how big the USA is to those countries.

Why? The USA also has a much bigger police force.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_and_dependencies_by_number_of_police_officers

Australia has 202 police officers each 100,000 people. Canada has 188 police officers each 100,000 people. The USA has 284 police officers each 100,000 people.



VAMatt on 08 August 2019
GoOnKid said:
VAMatt said:

I am American, and my level of concern, on a scale of 1-10 (with 1 being not at all concerned), is probably about a 2. And, my level of concern is elevated not because I think we have a mass shooting problem, but because I see a risk of overreaction based on media hype.  This thread really is evidence of the damage that media hype does.  There truly just isn't a significant problem.  Literally nobody in the US is scared of getting shot in a random-ish violence incident, but there are a bunch of people here with wild and crazy thoughts about gun violence in the US based purely on the outrageous stuff they've heard on the news and in Facebook posts.  

In any case, the statistic that you used is being thrown around a lot.  I obviously haven't studied every case.  But, as near as I can tell, they left out Italian Mafia-like organized crime, but included the less sophisticated corner street gang crime.  My sense is that there have been about 5 events, maybe 7 or 8, that actually fit the definition that people have in their heads when they think of "mass shooting". 

I guess this is exactly why nothing is ever going to change: you guys just don't care at all. I am honestly shocked about this behavior and I deeply hope that this mindset is only shared by a tiny minority.

Out if curiosity: how would you feel if someone close to you was shot in a situation like this, maybe your father. Would that change your perception?

I am as confident as I can be that my thinking would not change.  If my father got shot, I'd hope there was an armed person nearby to stop the shooter from getting to his next victim.  

Anyway, your comment, like so many others here, serves to demonstrate the innaccurate perceptions about the US that people seem to have.  

There simply is no mass shooting epidemic, if you use a realistic definition for mass shooting.  There's no problem to fix.  



VAMatt on 08 August 2019
SpokenTruth said:
Azzanation said:

Death is death, doesnt matter what form a killer uses to kill someone. Take the guns away, they will hijack a Bus and ram it into a shopping centre and kill even more people.

The issue is not from the items they use as its been proven that people can have guns and video games and still be sane. Russia has guns yet there school shootings are kept to a low.

The real issue is having mental people who want to kill on there mind walk the streets. This has been a human issue since the beginning of man not just since we created guns. 

End of the day, take guns away from killers, they will find other means to kill. Its what they want to do, its not something they wake up in the morning asking themselves.. "hmm i have guns, lets go kill people" or "hmm i have no guns i cannot kill people" thinking. Its quite simply a disorder that needs to be addressed and monitored.

So how does Russia keep them so low?  What does Russia do that we do not?

VAMatt said:

I am American, and my level of concern, on a scale of 1-10 (with 1 being not at all concerned), is probably about a 2. And, my level of concern is elevated not because I think we have a mass shooting problem, but because I see a risk of overreaction based on media hype.  This thread really is evidence of the damage that media hype does.  There truly just isn't a significant problem.  Literally nobody in the US is scared of getting shot in a random-ish violence incident, but there are a bunch of people here with wild and crazy thoughts about gun violence in the US based purely on the outrageous stuff they've heard on the news and in Facebook posts.  

In any case, the statistic that you used is being thrown around a lot.  I obviously haven't studied every case.  But, as near as I can tell, they left out Italian Mafia-like organized crime, but included the less sophisticated corner street gang crime.  My sense is that there have been about 5 events, maybe 7 or 8, that actually fit the definition that people have in their heads when they think of "mass shooting". 

And what is your definition?  What do you believe is the average person's definition?  Is it 10+?  That's 3 just this year.  4 last year.  2 in 2017. 1 in 2016. 2 in 2015. None in 2014. 1 in 2013. 2 in 2012. 7 in the 2000s. 4 in the 1990s.   See a trend?  It's getting worse by the decade.  The 70s had 2 and the 60s had just 1. 15 this decade. That's already twice your figure of 7-8 and 3 times your initial guess of 5.

Or do you need a body count higher than 10 to qualify?

It's not about body count so much as it's something where the victims were chosen basically at random.  The vast majority of these things that the media is calling mass shooting are related to other criminal activity.  

But, I will say that most people are thinking of something with at least a handful dead.  That stat everyone is quoting includes events with zero deaths.  That certainly is not what most people think of when they hear "mass shooting".



Pemalite on 08 August 2019
Azzanation said:
Might as well ban Cars, they also cause a mass amount of deaths per year.
How about fix the solution by educating rather than taking something away via the blame game.

Gun Control doesn't mean the banning of guns.

Your argument is a bit of a fallacy anyway... It's like saying unless we can stop all drug use, we shouldn't have any drug-related laws.

Azzanation said:

Death is death, doesnt matter what form a killer uses to kill someone. Take the guns away, they will hijack a Bus and ram it into a shopping centre and kill even more people.

Doesn't happen.

Azzanation said:

The real issue is having mental people who want to kill on there mind walk the streets. This has been a human issue since the beginning of man not just since we created guns. 

And yet in the US... Those same individuals can walk around carrying a gun. - Do you know what Gun Control even does? It prevents those individuals from easily accruing such weapons.

Azzanation said:

End of the day, take guns away from killers, they will find other means to kill. Its what they want to do, its not something they wake up in the morning asking themselves.. "hmm i have guns, lets go kill people" or "hmm i have no guns i cannot kill people" thinking. Its quite simply a disorder that needs to be addressed and monitored.



Azzanation said:

Also we cannot compare countries with 40m people to a country with 400m. Its alot easier to control crime with a lower number of citizens and in this case, Australia or Canada make up 1 entire US city. Thats how big the USA is to those countries. Also Canada and Australia have a better educational system or at least invest more into it than the States.

False. You can extrapolate data mathematically to make a comparison of countries with 40~ million people to a country with 400~ million people accurately... Which is partly why terms like "Per Capita" actually exist.



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