Games causing violence?

In Japan, criminals generally DON'T carry guns because the penalties for possession are so high:

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Under current laws, if a low-level yakuza is caught with a gun and bullets that match, he’ll be charged with aggravated possession of firearms and will then face an average seven-year prison term. Simply firing a gun carries a penalty of three years to life.

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https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/20.../#.Wpc4CHxukUQ

Average of 7 years in prison for just having a gun... and up to life in prison for firing one! This is the main reason why a country of 130 million typically has fewer than 10 firearm deaths per year.

And you also cannot carry a knife with a blade more than 8 cm (3 in). There was a famous case several years back of an American tourist in his 70s who was held by the police for more than a week because he had a 9 cm pocket knife on him.

Well it seems that in the wake of the latest school shooting incident in America, President Trump is worried about the things that "...are forming and shaping our young people's minds." and, with that in mind, wants to meet with the heads of several video games companies to discuss violence in games. (shakes head) Haven't we been down this road before? President Trump is being very badly advised by somebody if he believes that video games are to blame for the social problems facing America. For a kick off there are plenty of other countries with access to guns, and who also play violent video games, who aren't shooting their classmates to death every other week so their argument is dead before it's even started.

Games are a worldwide thing. We have the same violent games in my country too. Yet, i don't see too many mass shootings in schools here. It's only the US where they have this problem for some reason. They are also the only ones who can get guns with such ease. So i wonder what the real problem is...

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Originally Posted by Mega Drive Bowlsey

Well it seems that in the wake of the latest school shooting incident in America, President Trump is worried about the things that "...are forming and shaping our young people's minds." and, with that in mind, wants to meet with the heads of several video games companies to discuss violence in games. (shakes head) Haven't we been down this road before? President Trump is being very badly advised by somebody if he believes that video games are to blame for the social problems facing America. For a kick off there are plenty of other countries with access to guns, and who also play violent video games, who aren't shooting their classmates to death every other week so their argument is dead before it's even started.

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I wonder what this year Night Trap will be. What was funny about that is at the Senate hearing that is now so infamous for Senator Lieberman vs SEGA and Nintendo...Nintendo and SEGA were NOT united for a common goal. Nope, Nintendo was playing kiss ass and SEGA was saying they had a rating system. Worst of all Howard Lincoln shoed Night Trap as a case against SEGA but the best part Nintendo didn't tell anyone IT WAS THEIR VERSION lol, on the unreleased Nintendo PlayStation.

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Originally Posted by Soulis

Games are a worldwide thing. We have the same violent games in my country too. Yet, i don't see too many mass shootings in schools here. It's only the US where they have this problem for some reason. They are also the only ones who can get guns with such ease. So i wonder what the real problem is...

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Guns are not the problem. Canada owns about as many guns as the US. The problem is people are not offered nor given proper mental help. I have a few mental problems and thankfully I'm lucky enough to get help last several years and it's greatly helped my once violent anger problems from a troubled past at home and at school. Mental Illness is rarely violent but for the few who can be it's not taken seriously enough and funding is cut so cunts like Trump can fill their pockets more. If making something illegal stopped something from happening then drugs would never be on the streets. If a kid wants to shoot up a school legality will not stop him from getting a gun. Getting someone to help them and for them to trust and listen and hopefully help them before it got to that point is the better option. I personally dislike guns because I nearly made the mistake of my life once with a 357 Magnum in my hand squeezing a trigger until I was stopped mere microseconds before something seriously bad happened to more than 1 person. The gun was owned illegally and not by me. Even if that wasn't there kitchen knives were available. Now 20 years later I'm a much more relaxed person out of a toxic environment and the only real trouble I get into is a misunderstanding online. I hate guns but it's not the correct thing to target to prevent this type of thing happening much less.

Doom and Marlyn Manson were blamed by politicians for Columbine and in a documentary, he was asked a question.

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Michael Moore: If you were to talk directly to the kids at Columbine or the people in that community, what would you say to them if they were here right now?

Marilyn Manson: I wouldn't say a single word to them. I would listen to what they have to say, and that's what no one did.

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Originally Posted by SegataS

Guns are not the problem. Canada owns about as many guns as the US. The problem is people are not offered nor given proper mental help. I have a few mental problems and thankfully I'm lucky enough to get help last several years and it's greatly helped my once violent anger problems from a troubled past at home and at school. Mental Illness is rarely violent but for the few who can be it's not taken seriously enough and funding is cut so cunts like Trump can fill their pockets more. If making something illegal stopped something from happening then drugs would never be on the streets. If a kid wants to shoot up a school legality will not stop him from getting a gun. Getting someone to help them and for them to trust and listen and hopefully help them before it got to that point is the better option. I personally dislike guns because I nearly made the mistake of my life once with a 357 Magnum in my hand squeezing a trigger until I was stopped mere microseconds before something seriously bad happened to more than 1 person. The gun was owned illegally and not by me. Even if that wasn't there kitchen knives were available. Now 20 years later I'm a much more relaxed person out of a toxic environment and the only real trouble I get into is a misunderstanding online. I hate guns but it's not the correct thing to target to prevent this type of thing happening much less.

Doom and Marlyn Manson were blamed by politicians for Columbine and in a documentary, he was asked a question.

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Excellent post and I'm happy that you had the support you needed and that you had people around you to listen. God knows, we could all do with that. You're right that at the root of a hell of a lot of societies problems lies the inability or unwillingness of people to listen to others who desperately need help.

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Originally Posted by Soulis

Games are a worldwide thing. We have the same violent games in my country too. Yet, i don't see too many mass shootings in schools here. It's only the US where they have this problem for some reason. They are also the only ones who can get guns with such ease. So i wonder what the real problem is...

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Expand on defining the situation as a problem.

36% of all deadly shootings (60% were suicides) were homicides and murder was only 1.4% of all violent crime in 2016. Taking into account how many people own firearms, I don't think it is a problem per se.

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Originally Posted by SegataS

Guns are not the problem. Canada owns about as many guns as the US. The problem is people are not offered nor given proper mental help. I have a few mental problems and thankfully I'm lucky enough to get help last several years and it's greatly helped my once violent anger problems from a troubled past at home and at school. Mental Illness is rarely violent but for the few who can be it's not taken seriously enough and funding is cut so cunts like Trump can fill their pockets more. If making something illegal stopped something from happening then drugs would never be on the streets. If a kid wants to shoot up a school legality will not stop him from getting a gun. Getting someone to help them and for them to trust and listen and hopefully help them before it got to that point is the better option. I personally dislike guns because I nearly made the mistake of my life once with a 357 Magnum in my hand squeezing a trigger until I was stopped mere microseconds before something seriously bad happened to more than 1 person. The gun was owned illegally and not by me. Even if that wasn't there kitchen knives were available. Now 20 years later I'm a much more relaxed person out of a toxic environment and the only real trouble I get into is a misunderstanding online. I hate guns but it's not the correct thing to target to prevent this type of thing happening much less.

Doom and Marlyn Manson were blamed by politicians for Columbine and in a documentary, he was asked a question.

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Great post. Is mental health care really emphasized so much more in other countries? In the US I often feel our country is kind of isolated from being compared with other developed countries, which it should be. I never heard statistics but I wouldn't be at all surprised that other places focus more on mental health. It can only be a good thing for a country to focus on. (Especially the last couple years, our country seems to be going crazy and becoming more stupid, day by day.)

I also dislike guns personally, though I support people to own them, if they want to. For me, I can't imagine a good use of a gun, though. Maybe I'd feel different if I lived in a different situation or something.

Violence is glorified here. Movies and games might be the scapegoat of the minute but I believe the real culprit (beyond the individual) is the media since it plasters these people all over the news and gives them some sort of relevance. The media has a hard-on for shootings.

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Originally Posted by JCU

Violence is glorified here. Movies and games might be the scapegoat of the minute but I believe the real culprit (beyond the individual) is the media since it plasters these people all over the news and gives them some sort of relevance. The media has a hard-on for shootings.

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I agree that the media overemphasizes violence, especially local news, which is why I usually never watch local news.

Global news is completely different because it's educational to learn what is happening in the world. Local news is pointless, it's an endless stream of meaningless stories about people shooting each other, or stabbing, or robbing a convenient store, etc. There's almost never anything worth knowing, like I could tell you that everyday someone steals a car or gets shot, without looking at local news at all. Local news creates paranoia and fear and misery, just for the shock value of selling more papers or getting more viewers.

I don't watch the news because all it is is just some guy saying good evening and them listing a bunch of reasons why it's not.

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Originally Posted by JCU

Expand on defining the situation as a problem.

36% of all deadly shootings (60% were suicides) were homicides and murder was only 1.4% of all violent crime in 2016. Taking into account how many people own firearms, I don't think it is a problem per se.

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I can't find it now but I had read before that certain crimes (mass casualty or terrorism) are not figured into the yearly murder/death numbers. It has come up in the past where events of 9/11 or Newtown CT are not figured into their respective yearly figures. I tried to search it on google but all I kept getting were propaganda results.

This has been talked for so long, I'm surprise there's still interest for a debate on it.

How about 'Does getting into speedrunning turn you to a drag queen?'

https://kiwifarms.net/attachments/15...68-jpg.354696/

I think those are Trans women, not drag queens.

I remember this being a hotly debated topic but by now it's pretty much debunked and not an issue. There are multiple contributing factors to violent crime but games aren't a significant one.

Many US politicians who have opposed gun control measures are also social conservatives, and the two were often woven together. They looked to various scapegoats including violent video games, music, declining church attendance, abortion, "violent subcultures", or "the breakdown of the traditional family". After the Jonesboro massacre and shortly before Columbine, Mike Huckabee wrote a book called Kids Who Kill in which he blames our "culture of violence" on various demons including increased secularism, television, the gays, Planned Parenthood, teachers' unions, premarital sex, no-fault divorce, pornography, and even environmentalists. These sort of arguments once held sway with a significant part of the population, but they've become more and more marginalized to the point where it's rare to even hear them brought up in recent years. Video games were just another entry on that list for the most part.

Mental health is pretty much a red herring as well IMO. Most of our public officials who cry "mental health" every time there's a mass shooting have not actually advocated for anything to expand/improve mental health care in this country, and they have also opposed any effort to restrict the mentally ill from acquiring guns. In any event, the available evidence on violent crime and mental illness is far from solid.