Thread: America has another random shooting in Aurora, CO...

Originally Posted by Rudy Tamasz

And a couple years ago a nutter attacked a kindergarten in Belgium dressed as Joker. That makes me think that graphic evil makes it from the screen to the real life. I start thinking that violent games and movies do incite violence.

Hmmmm another kneejerk reaction.

Batman being one of the biggest Hollywood franchises seen by 10s of millions around the world yet apparently 2 guys dressed up in Batman costumes and attacked people. As a causal link that has to be one of the weakest I've heard.

How about video games? FPS games like Call of Duty are the biggest gaming franchises around and earn more per game than a mere Hollywood blockbuster, yet somehow the 10's of millions of kids and young adults around the world who play them manage to resist the temptation to go out and shoot or hack someone to death...

I thought this whole 'games and films make killers' theory had been utterly demolished. It had legs when video games and comics were the preserve of geeks and the press could build up a nice campaign against them. Those days are over.

Originally Posted by Rudy Tamasz

And a couple years ago a nutter attacked a kindergarten in Belgium dressed as Joker. That makes me think that graphic evil makes it from the screen to the real life. I start thinking that violent games and movies do incite violence.

You believe in individuals taking responsibility for their own actions, do you not? How can you reconcile these two standpoints? Furthermore, what about the many millions of people who watch such films and play such games who are completely unaffected by so doing? As stated above, yours as expressed here is a knee-jerk view.

Originally Posted by Malbec

I thought this whole 'games and films make killers' theory had been utterly demolished. It had legs when video games and comics were the preserve of geeks and the press could build up a nice campaign against them. Those days are over.

It hadn't. It hasn't been proven, either, to be honest and I do not present it as a proven thing. It is just a hypothesis. It takes a really objective research on a large scale to make a certain conclusion. I do not even think such is possible in a highly partisan and agenda driven modern world. However, nothing can stop me from supposing that people tend to replicate certain patterns of behavior publisized by media and arts in their real lives. For instance, I think, that was one of the reasons why we no longer see movie characters smoking, at least not in the mainstream movies.

Originally Posted by BDunnell

You believe in individuals taking responsibility for their own actions, do you not? How can you reconcile these two standpoints? Furthermore, what about the many millions of people who watch such films and play such games who are completely unaffected by so doing? As stated above, yours as expressed here is a knee-jerk view.

Hey, you do like playing with concepts a bit, don't you? I though it was common knowledge that incitement is legally different from direct action and it is next to impossible to prove the former.

Speaking of unaffected millions of people, how do you know? Maniacs do not necessarily don costumes to indicate their cultural influences when they are going to massacre innocent victims.

Originally Posted by capal beag

What I am seeing and it saddens me, even with the photo of a little girl six years old is that there ws a huge defense and accusations thrown at the parents and no sympathy. What about the guns?

What surprises me is that you appear to believe that sympathy for the parents precludes astonishment that such a young child was at a late night screening of a violent film.

What doesn't surprise me is your writing style and the particular topic you chose to jump in on. Been here before?

Originally Posted by capal beag

You are, as you say astonished that the parents are receiving sympathy for the death of their daughter is in some way misplaced and the

question should be asked, why were they bringing their daughter to a movie at 12AM? Is that what you are asking?

No.

Its a very simple point.

It is possible to feel sympathy for all those hurt and killed in the shooting AND wonder why a six year old girl was there so late at night. You seem to find this extremely difficult to understand.

As for your identity I think its up to the mods to decide, but the fact is that you only post on one topic and have a particular grammatical style extremely similar to a previous poster/s with an agenda is likely more than coincidence.

Originally Posted by capal beag

Makes one understand a little more everytime these events occur that their frequency is due to the many lunatic elements pervasive in their need to defend the mighty gun and illicit scorn on the children of a dead child for having the temerity to bring her to a movie at 12AM.

The crux of this debate is what people value more... a so-called freedom to own certain instruments or human life.

Quite frankly, we've seen it proven quite vociferously that people value the former over the latter; hence the reason why we're going to see this sort of thing over and over again ad nauseum.