The Atlantic - How the Video-Game Industry Already Lost Out in the Gun-Control Debate.
As it happens, that's just what happened to games (and popular media more generally) in the NRA's good guy with a gun response to the Newtown shooting. Guns aren't a factor in gun violence for the NRA—rather, games, media, and law enforcement failures must take the blame. Once the terms of the debate are set like this (and set they very much were thanks to the over-the-top bravado in this press conference) then it's very hard to extract oneself from the debate without shifting the frame, without changing the terms of the debate.
I certainly believe that the White House would like nothing more than to see an end to mass gun murders in America's elementary schools. But the fact remains that gun violence takes place every day, all across this country, at a rate of dozens of deaths a day, and as the leading cause of death among African-American youth. But when the vice president establishes a task force on gun control and violence that includes the media industries that the NRA has once again chosen as their patsies after a particularly heinous and public example of gun violence, all it can do is shift attention away from guns.IGN - Let's Talk About Violent Video Games.
Distinctions between games for adults and those for kids are fairly clear these days, thanks to the Entertainment Software Ratings Board (ESRB). Formed in 1994, the ESRB rates all video games as a guide for parents similar to the way movies are rated by the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA). Games are rated ranging from E for Everyone and T for Teen to M for Mature, 17+.
There is a fundamental misunderstanding that games are only for children. This needs to change for the 'violence in games' dialogue to advance.
Chairman Kaga wrote on Jan 11, 2013, 14:58:RollinThundr wrote on Jan 11, 2013, 14:36:
300 million armed US citizens vs a corrupt political agency or takeover, I put my money on the US citizens
Assuming every man, woman, and child will enlist is perhaps a bit of a stretch. But maybe I'm just too cynical about a populace that can't even achieve 50% voter turnout in most years.RollinThundr wrote on Jan 11, 2013, 14:36:
People like to ignore the mental health aspect of it when it's a major reason these incidents are happening and solely blaming the NRA, videogames, the GOP, or guns themselves, that's both dishonest and illogical.
Agreed. I play videogames (including "violent" ones). I take Prozac for depression. And there's a gun in my house. In the 15 years those elements have coincided, I have yet to encounter any sort of desire to shoot up a school and/or movie theater, or kill random people I see.
Of course, treating unstable people like Lanza and Holmes as exceptions to the rule doesn't make for good ratings or sound bites.