Who the hell let an 8 year old play GTA IV?

Yes it is.

Well here it is illegal for parents to give a kid an age restricted game to play. So it's likely in this scenario that the parents (assuming it's them who let him have the game) would be prosecuted for letting him play the game. And it's a legal requirement to keep firearms locked away and unloaded, so whoever's gun that was would have been prosecuted, and most likely lose their gun licence and thus have all their guns taken away.

But in the USA there is no legally enforceable age rating for games, and it's legal to keep a loaded gun under your pillow, there's no law under which the parents / gun owner can in anyway be held to account for creating the conditions for that allowed this kid to carry out this fantasy. It's situations like this that make me question my view that parents should be the final arbiter of what they let their kids watch and play (if I let my boys play games that are in a higher category of age restriction then I am acting unlawfully. I fully agree with having laws that make age ratings on games legally enforceable on retailers meaning they can't knowingly sell a game to someone who is under age. But I mostly don't agree with laws that say parents can't let their kids play games that are age restricted. In situations like this though there should be some sort of legal accountability on the people who gave this kid the game to play.

Terrible tragedy, but 100% preventable if certain adults were a bit more responsible.

And yet GTA will be the object of all the parent and family groups' ire.

as for the video game. no there is no law against giving your kid the game. as it should be.

and there is no law regarding how you store your firearm. as it should be.

but there is a law, for example reckless endangerment, that the parents can, should, and likely will be charged with for leaving a gun out, within reach of a child.

it is illegal to have a easily accessable firearm for a child.

Highly debateable. There is nothing universally sacrosanct about gun ownership. The USA has a somewhat unique, and for most of the rest of us in western civilisation, unfathomable fixation on guns and what rights attach to guns.

If it's illegal for kids to have easy access to guns then for an 8-year old that pretty much means being kept under lock and key and the key being in the possession of a responsible adult. Is there any other storage place that an 8-year old can't easily access? No because when I was 8 there was no place in the house I couldn't get to. So while there might not be a law specifically requiring guns be kept under lock and key, there is really no other way to comply with a law that requires parents to make it difficult for a chikld to access guns.

I am glad that it's possible to hold the parents to account, but do you really think the authorities will? Because there's no legal accountability on the supply of games side, and the gun thing will come very close to setting a legal precident on how parents must store their guns will the prosecutors have the balls to bring those parents to account?

Yes it must be the game. It couldn't be the person that let him play the game or the person who put a gun out where he could get to it.
The game must have done it all by itself. It must have snuck into his home and placed itself in his console then got into the closet and retrieved the gun for him and taught him how to load it and shoot it.

we have M ratings for a reason.
How anyone can suggest its the games fault it beyond me.

I don't agree with that.  I don't think making a law on how you store your firearm would harm people as much as not having one.  I am quite sure that the law would only go into effect when a case like this happens.  Or if someone sees it and reports it.  I think that's fair and the only argument against it I can think of is when people say they need their weapon "right away" in case they are in danger.  Honestly, I don't think there are even close to a handful of cases where you wont have enough time to get it ready in time to "protect yourself."  

Also, the whole "reckless endangerment" and "easily accessable firearm" things are not really quantifiable.  

yes, i do. it happens fairly often when i kid kills or is killed by a firearm laying around the house. 

if its found to be that the kid had easy access to that firearm from his parents not securing it properly in their home. then yes most likely they will be charged.

what i mean by that is the is no federal law stating you have to secure your firearm under lock and key. but there are laws on how you have to store it if minors can get easy access to it. but there is no set law, "you have to secure your firearm this designated way or youre in violation of the law"

Here's the thing.  Psychologically speaking... young children are MORE prone to committing murder.  They just don't because

A) They're weak ass kids

B) They're always being watched

C) Parents are practically unto gods and punishment avoidence

That's generally why Psycologists refuse to diagnose anti-social disorder until adulthood.  Children's brains just haven't fully developed yet.

An 8 year old being in Preconventional Stage 2 isn't that uncommon... it generally ends around 7, but still.  Him shooting her if he thought the alternative was more benficial actually isn't that farfetched.

In otherwords, tons of kids are that fucked up.  Young children are essentially all sociopaths.