Should mentally ill people be kept from buying violent video games?

[fried eggs]

The Sandy Hooks shooter spent hours upon hours playing violent video games in his mother's basement. Other mass killers, including Norway's Anders Breivik, spent hours honing their skills on Call of Duty.

'The violence in the entertainment culture – particularly, with the extraordinary realism to video games, movies now, et cetera – does cause vulnerable young men to be more violent,' Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., said.

Gov. John Hickenlooper of Colorado, where gunman James Holmes killed 12 people in a screening of the latest Batman film in July, said such realistic games may tip the mentally ill over the edge.

'There might well be some direct connection between people who have some mental instability and when they go over the edge – they transport themselves, they become part of one of those video games,' he said.

Others took to Twitter, with White House adviser David Axelrod tweeting: 'But shouldn't we also quit marketing murder as a game?' and Donald Trump weighing in with: 'Video game violence & glorification must be stopped – it is creating monsters!'

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2250811/Sandy-Hook-shooting-reignites-debate-violent-video-games.html

[dballance]

1. No, And How Would You Police That?

There is no conceivable way to make that work. Considering how many video games are gifts for birthdays and holidays it seems unlikely to be possible. Not to mention online rentals that can simply be registered in someone else's name.

Were you planning on a national registry of the mentally ill for background checks? Just how "mentally ill" would one have to be to be prevented from buying a game? Would their doctors' be responsible for reporting them? How about all the untreated mentally ill? Many of whom just can't afford to get treated because of no insurance.

Makes no sense at all.

[fried eggs]

20. If a family member or doctor filed a formal petition to get someone screened for mental illness

and the person failed multiple psych screenings, a code could be added to the person's license that indicates that the person can't become a cop, purchase guns, video games, ammunition, knives...

[dballance]

39. Knives? Would that include kitchen knives? /eom

[reverend_tim]

42. Kind of hard to chop a salad without a knife

[ck4829]

59. I guess the plan is for them to call a social worker to cut their food for them

Because you know the Republicans and the Tea Party's plans of 'cut the spending' has left us with sooo many social workers who have nothing to do.

[fried eggs]

65. Did you miss the part about multiple failed psych screenings?

If someone is mentally ill and is determined by an expert to be potentially violent, then no, they shouldn't have access to sharp knives.

[Neoma]

73. I have a collection of knives and I'm under the classification of mentally ill.

Are you seriously saying that I'm going to stab someone? People manage and live their lives normally with these conditions. They get help, then they get well, and then they go back to work, pay taxes, listen to music, read books, watch TV, and protest the bigoted stereotype that all of the mentally ill are violent. You can count me among them.

[Rex]

79. You won't get an answer.

Not from the OP. This was just a 'drive by' hit thread meant to do nothing but disrupt imo.

[Neoma]

81. So much drama all the sudden.

[Rex]

83. The NRA Trolls are mad

at us and signing up in force or bringing out sleeper accounts to tell us how wrong we are for wanting gun control. Also, I noticed a huge uptick when we won the election and their pony lost.

[Lionessa]

2. Problem would be in the definition of "mentally ill" thse days.

Since nearly everyone I know takes some sort of psychiatric dosages every day, are we all mentally ill? Prozac nation and all?

And as many have pointed out, sometimes the "cure" causes more harm that the mental illness, again look at nearly any anti-depressant, or anti-psychotic.

So whether it be games or guns, the definition is a tricky and slippery slope.

[BainsBane]

3. Ever occur to you that the games might be a trigger for illness?

Very few people develop mental illnesses before their early 20s. Most people playing video games start much younger than that. Your point doesn't make sense.

[fried eggs]

10. Yes. I just finished watching a young youtuber's video

He was upset about having to show ID to purchase M games. He seemed completely unhinged. Said he had been playing since 11 years old!

[white_wolf]

68. So? It's internet He was probably just exaggerating for effect.

Besides everyone gets annoyed at being IDed when they are past the age. My parents get annoyed when they can't get a drink at a restaurant if they left their ID in the car.

[HappyMe]

76. Because everything you see on YouTube

is god's own truth!

Nobody makes YouTube stuff just to get attention and as many hits as possible.

[ZM90]

4. No. Video Games are NOT the problem.

If video games were the problem then Japan would have a much higher rate of gun violence. What you think they don't have Call of Duty, Halo, ZombiU, ect. over there or something?

[KittyWampus]

6. Japan has a very high level of social cohesion. There the violence is turned more inwards= suicide.

So they don't have the high level of gun violence but they do have a very high level of self-inflicted violence in the form of suicide.

[Confusious]

28. Canada?

what's wrong with them?

Same everything, they don't shoot people up.

[fried eggs]

40. No assault weapons. Universal healthcare...

[Confusious]

41. Nope they're available

http://www.thestar.com/opinion/editorialopinion/article/1303618--assault-style-weapons-easily-available-in-canada

They just screen people first.

[KittyWampus]

5. I'd rather they be encouraged to play games that encourage empathy. Gaming Can Have Positive Effects

And neuroscientists are just now beginning to team up with Devs to design games that enhance pro-social behavior and which help foster peaceful reactions in players.

What is really screwed up is how so many gamers on DU say "I play video games and don't kill people" but what they don't come out and say is "I play violent video games and spend hours on end pretending I'm blowing people away".

There is a universe of games out there that goes far beyond the extreme violence and tribal warfare crap so many are addicted to.

Heck, even within some of the violent games there are players who take the challenge of going through the levels as Pacifists. It's not easy but some have done it.

[fried eggs]

24. I'd like to see that too

[Confusious]

30. Sounds exciting

I can't wait.

All

PS.

PPS. You can't "teach" empathy. You either have it or you don't.

[KittyWampus]

35. You most certainly can teach empathy. It's a higher brain function that needs development.

And it's possible to effect that development one way or other using repetitive behavior like gaming.

[Confusious]

37. Still sounds boring as shit

I say it'll be a big hit among the woo crowd and they'll never make another one.

O BTW,

No link between kids aggression and video games.

http://news.illinois.edu/news/05/0809videogames.html

[siouxsiecreamcheese]

78. I've played plenty of games like that

The objective is to sneak and not kill as many, or at all. Like in the Assassins Creed series, you basically have to keep sneaking everywhere, or else you will be found out and the mission is over. Plenty of games allow you to decide if you want to be a good person or an evil person. Two I can think of off the top of my head are the Fable series, where you can go down either a good or evil path and Star Wars the Old Republic where you can make decisions on if you side more with the republic or the imperials. Not all games have to be violent and bloody to be fun. Games that require critical thinking skills aren't usually played by the "kill em all" types. They tend to stick with the Call of Duty type games.

[jeff47]

84. That's not a binary choice

In the Gears of War series, you're a soldier in an post-apocalyptic wasteland. Yes, you shoot a lot of things.

But you're also desperately searching for one character's lost wife, and another character's lost father, while several other characters have various romantic entanglements. There's plenty of empathy.

Just like real life, this isn't an either-or situation.

What is really screwed up is how so many gamers on DU say "I play video games and don't kill people" but what they don't come out and say is "I play violent video games and spend hours on end pretending I'm blowing people away".

Probably should actually find out what's in those games first. That Gears of War series? It's anti-global-warming too. And anti-WMD.

The average gamer is 36 years old. Games are not just for kids. And the stories told by those games are far better, and far more liberal, than anything on TV or in movies.

[Agnosticsherbet]

7. Jesus Pizza No!

I mean really. I suppose if you hit someone hard enough with a cd, you could hurt them bad. Most video games now are just downloaded, and you can pummel people virtually all day and they just get annoyed.

The victims at Sandy Hooks were not murdered by a video game. They were blown away with bullets. Let's keep the discussion real.

[fried eggs]

21. The renewal of the assault weapons ban goes without saying

I really like Japan's gun laws. You have to go through mental evaluations and take courses every few years.

But there are also other things that are leading to violent behavior and those things must be addressed as well.

[Agnosticsherbet]

80. Where I could see a better rating system for games, I would not support banning them...but

But if you do, shouldn't we then put a stop to violent movies and television shows. Once they are gone, pastimes such as paint ball would have to go. (You use a gun to shoot paint balls.) Then, it would just make sense to ban water guns. (they are toy guns after all.) What about football. (Football is a violent sport that simulates war by having two armies fight over a ball.) We would have to ban the Society for Creative Anachronism. They make armor, use weapons made of Rattan, and re-enact the middle ages that they think it should be. Civil War re-enactments would have to go. They are fighting wars.

Children in my neighborhood whose parents won't let them play with toy guns will pick up sticks and pretend they are guns. That is nothing more than simulating senseless violence. Those children need Psychoanalysis and, perhaps, powerful drugs to stop that behavior.

I could go on, but I think I got silly enough. No, do not ban violent video games. Hundreds of millions of people play these games and never pick up a gun to shoot up a school. They are, in their real lives, gentle, non-violent people.

What we do is pass strict controls on guns. If they are harder to get hold of, these types of incidents will grow very rare.

[nadinbrzezinski]

8. Here...long editorial I wrote for local paper

The Violence Behind the Violence
by STAFF on DECEMBER 19, 2012 · 21 COMMENTS
in CULTURE, ECONOMY


America cannot truly address gun violence unless it is prepared to address the root causes of gun violence.

by Nadin Abbott

Since the Sandy Hook Elementary shooting in Connecticut, we have had many discussions on the sources of gun violence in our country. We were all shocked. Many fingers are pointing at both Hollywood and the video game industry. If we are to believe them, all this would go away if we removed the glorification of violence from the media.

I will be the first to admit this: Call of Duty is violent. It simulates war. We would be surprised if it wasn’t. It is also rated M by the ESRB, that would be for seventeen year olds and older. It’s not meant for kids. Ratings work, only if we use them as a guide.

I will also admit that a James Bond movie is pure schlock with quite a bit of violence. There are many other titles out there that include explosions, gun play, and bloody gore. Need I mention the Die Hard series? Argue all you want about how video games and movies encourage violent acts. But that’s merely scratching the surface and doesn’t get to the root of the real problem.

Fingers, in other words, are being pointed at popular culture, as if pop culture is the root of all of our problems.

Yesterday the Unions gave Christmas fixings and toys to five hundred families at Qualcomm Stadium. These people are suffering from chronic food insecurity. They are unemployed, or under employed. You see them often. They drive our transit buses and cannot get enough hours to make ends meet. They are low paid workers, many making under $20,000 a year. Some are quite bluntly unemployed. They are suffering from great stress. Oftentimes they don’t know where their next meal will come from.

The other day I covered another story of great violence: People making $17,000 a year who are being asked to pay $2,000 in health insurance for the year. They are the heads of their families and work at a hospital. You might as well ask them to travel to the other side of the moon. The health insurance is just as reachable.

This is crushing poverty, and this too, is violence. This is the kind of violence that at times leads to suicide–sometimes murder-suicide–often via the use of a gun.

When an inner city school comes out of lockdown after a shooting just outside the school grounds and the body remains on the other side of the fence, that is a form of scarring violence. When a kid is shot in the arm, and the police have to fight EMS to get that kid taken to the ER because they don’t have insurance, that is violence.

When the kids have to know to drop when they hear popping sounds because it happens so often in their low income neighborhood, that is violence.

Here is more real violence: A young teen, runaway, taken to the other side of the country–rarely across international borders–where he is used for sex and forced to have sex upwards of fifty times a day. When the authorities finally rescued him, he was a shell. That is violence.

The younger man, begging for money on the corner, while still very much “in country” with no treatment for the PTSD caused from being sent over there, that is violence. The older woman standing on the corner begging for money, that is real violence.

When you cannot get mental health care and you are treated like a disposable entity that is somehow less than human–that is violence. When an adult is next to impossible to commit if need be, that is violence. The almost non-existent mental health system in this country is simply not acceptable.

So tell me, when are we doing something real to stop that violence? Perhaps a good first step would be the enactment of strong living wage laws. Notice I did not say minimum wage. I said living wage. People who are not on the edge are less likely to commit violence themselves, with or without guns.

Prattling about popular culture is a nice distraction coming from the comfortable middle class. And it happens after every mass shooting. Not merely every shooting, but every mass shooting. The reality is that 34 Americans die by gun fire every day, and 34 thousand every year. Those are the grim statistics. So we need to also deal with the culture of violence and fear that encourages despair and violence.

Do we need to talk of what to do about the guns? Yes, but we also need a more global approach to what ails us as a culture.

[KittyWampus]

12. LOL! You want a "global approach" but don't want to talk about culture. LOL!

[nadinbrzezinski]

14. Lol yourself, you are that latte drinking liberal

I am talking about.

So, while you point at the mirror, I point at the source.

[KittyWampus]

16. I don't drink coffee of any kind. I drink Mugicha.

[nadinbrzezinski]

18. Whatever, you are exactly who I am talking about

So while you prattle about video games, I talk of real structural violence all around you.

Hide all you want and point at the mirror to this structural violence, and hide behind studies done by a small group of researchers that the larger group has been critical for bad methodology, and non reproducible results.

For the record SSRI use is a far more promising line of research...but hey, kids are still starving right now, and some of those parents are committing suicide out of complete despair.

Some of us prefer to deal with that thing we call real life and the structural violence all around us.

So go on, tell me how much playing duck hunt damaged me...please go ahead.

I really want to know how bad minecraft is damaging me right now...the damage I am doing to pixels by building buildings, like Lego...

I really want to know how badly has angry birds affected me? I am waiting professor Freud.

[KittyWampus]

22. Nice attempt w/your pseudo-intellectual prattle. The fact remains, unnecessary violence underlies

much of human behavior. People turn a blind eye to it. It isn't just mass shootings, or rape culture or institutional violence like poverty or organized state sanctioned violence like war.

It's uncomfortable for people to examine their own behavior. It's like trying to discuss eating habits.

Clearly you feel a need to dictate the discussion. It's really boring.

[nadinbrzezinski]

27. The fact remains those studies are not reproducible.

A small group of people have been chasing this for close to thirty years, they got exactly one murder that might be tied to one video game...

You understand statistics? One out of 34,000 a year is not correlation.

Now SSRI, that one is actually strong enough that SSRI medications are no longer recommended for anybody under 18 years of age, due to triggering psychotic episodes.

So your pseudo intellectual charge s raised by facts.

So once again, how exactly did F-16 falcon affect me? How about playing paper and pencil games? The previous bogeyman? And reading comics, which were destroying American youth during the 1950s of course.

We got a name for people like you.

I invite you to join us in this thing we call reality.

[Care Acutely]

46. You're wrong about SSRI's as a class being contraindicated <18 yrs of age.

Some are, some are not. And I would know.

[nadinbrzezinski]

48. Thank you for letting me know

That it is not the whole class of SSRIs. That is good to know.

Still, the class has a more direct correlation on this class of mass shootings than the evil mirror to a very violent sociey.

I read somewhere that Adam Lanza, our latest shooter, was on meds.

The motive though, take it with a grain of salt, but would make sense...he got wind mom was taking steps for commitment. I have yet to find more than one source on this.

But seriously, I am tired f the mirror is the problem. We change the cause, like being a war for fifty years, perhaps Call of Duty will lose it's appeal. And this person refuses to even consider the very real violence committed on our society every day.

Yeah, Quentin Tarantino is very disturbing... (I don't watch that), but a child that knows to drop and seek cover when popping sounds come from the outside of her room, 'cause gang wars are on, that is more disturbing to me.

[zappaman]

72. +1

[JVS]

38. Mugicha is even higher on the scale than latte.

It's like this:
Coffee<latte<mugicha<water gathered from condensed Tibetan monk exhalations

[white_wolf]

71. So where does mocha fall? n/t

[fried eggs]

23. It's really all of the above

Easy access to guns, assault weapons, poverty, prescription drugs, education, opportunities, health care, violent movies, and video games.

[nadinbrzezinski]

29. If violent games were truly part of it

Korea would be knee deep in blood. You ever seen any of their tittles? I am serious as a heart attack. In the US some of them would be classified adult only.

[loyalsister]

56. Does S. Korea have an NRA?

Easy access to guns and\or an entertainment industry and culture that glorifies violence? When people suggest that video games and violent films might contribute to the problem, the response is ridiculously defensive and accusatory.
"If we are to believe them, all this would go away if we removed the glorification of violence from the media." I have not heard anyone with credibility suggest that there is a single factor that can be identified as a cause. Why is it that people keep posting lies suggesting that is the case?

[nadinbrzezinski]

62. It is that it is ridiculous to suggest a mirror to the structural

Violence problems are at the root of it...it saves us from actually doing something about that actual structural violence problem.

They are part of a media environment that reflects a very violent culture. Remove the mirror, let's forget all legal issues.

Take video games away, all of them, not just the obvious violent ones.

Control what Hollywood can produce. No more Lord of the Rings, just the Hallmark Channel. Our nooz media has to further sanitize the news, and no longer do what they are known for doing...

You think that will make us all f a sudden a peaceful society? I personally don't. But it's a hell of a premise for a dystopia. Thanks...I'll keep it in my short story ideas collection.

[zappaman]

90. "You ever seen any of their tittles?"

I've seen plenty of tittles.
Big, small, young, old...you name it.
Not sure who's tittles you are talking about here though...

[Skittles]

9. WTF

video games are NOT the problem and mentally ill people are NOT the problem

[former-republican]

11. How about we take a hard look at all the meds we are giving children

Instead of video games.

[KittyWampus]

13. I started researching that yesterday after a psychologist on a panel said 8 million kids are on

psychotropic drugs now. I believe she said 58%. And that's mostly drugs without any kind of behavioral therapy. And off-label use of drugs at that.

[former-republican]

17. wow

I had no idea it was that high.

[Rex]

15. How do you propose we do that?

Just curious.

[cliffordu]

19. Fuck NO!!!!1111 Gimme them VIOLENT VIDEO GAMES!!!!!

I wanna see bones in my hand and veins in my teeth!! I wanna KILL, KILL , KILL!!!!!!!!

I'm teh ZOMBIE WOOF!!!!!

I'M KINDA MENTAL AND GOTS THE VIDEO GAMES, MUTHERFUCKERS!!!!!!!

I'll suck the marrow from your mother's femur.

Oh, never mind, I did that last week. She says howdy and you can keep your dad.

[BarackTheVote]

25. "spent hours honing their skills on Call of Duty"

"spent hours honing their skills on Call of Duty"

"spent hours honing their skills on Call of Duty"



Tell me again how being able to twitch thumb-sticks and hit the shoulder buttons at the right time are a good way of "honing your skills" for a real world scenario.

Take a look at these factors, in this order of importance:

1) Absent parents.
2) Kids on psychoactive drugs.
3) Kids being raised by their peers

Address these and maybe we'll put a dent in the numbers of these kinds of attacks.

[KittyWampus]

32. 4) Kids desensitized to violence. But I absolutely think you have the issues rated spot on. #1

#1 Absent parents (or detached parents).

And desensitization to violence comes from so many directions. The messages we all get daily that violence is appropriate… I'm not singling out media/entertainment. There's state sanctioned violence (war/drones) and institutional violence (poverty).

[BarackTheVote]

43. The thing is, I feel that we overestimate

much desensitization comes from media. I mean, I've played Mortal Kombat 1, 2, 3, Armageddon, and the latest generation interation (yes, I've either seen or performed all of the fatalities in those games); Blood Rayne and Blood Rayne 2 were my favorite games of the last generation (buckets of gore and dismemberments); GTA Vice City; all of the Assassin's Creed games; and Modern Warfare 2... all extremely violent games, and obviously becoming more "realistic" and visceral with each subsequent generation and title. And yes, I find it very satisfying when I have Ezio bury a frikkin' claymore in some unsuspecting guard's head, or impale a guard with a spear, Vlad Tepes-style.

BUT--HUGE BUT--If I see any real crime scene photos (which I've had to do for research in a theatrical make-up class I did in college), my stomach goes all wonky. I see a drop of real blood in real life and I'm practically on the ground (could never be a doctor, I guess). Granted, this is me and my own experiences, but uber violent video games have obviously not desensitized me a bit.

That said, give me a time in history when kids haven't played violent games? If just in their imaginations. Or a time when kids weren't exposed to the violence inherent in culture, particularly the two you brought up in war and poverty. So what has changed? 1) higher density schools; 2) longer school days; 3) a much higher instance of both parents working outside the house; and, of course, 4) more powerful and, dare I say, user-friendly weaponry.

Video games are just a scapegoat for a culture that doesn't want to take responsibility. As with rock n' roll and comic books before them, this is just the older generation trying to pass the blame to youth culture to escape its own culpability. Now, am I saying that these shooters have no responsibility? No, of course not. They made a choice. But there's an aspect of nurture here--or rather, lack of nurturing. As well as nature... some people are just disturbed... BUT, then we give these disturbed kids drugs that have, among their stated side-effects, increased suicidal tendencies and increased violent tendencies? Why? So they'll sit down and shut up as they're conveyed through the system and so that parents can avoid the toughness of raising and disciplining unruly kids, and so that our culture can wash its hands of actually providing psychological services to these kids, maybe?

Some of these drugs are just chemical lobotomies.

[Puzzledtraveller]

50. Well said, every bit.

[nadinbrzezinski]

85. One point to add to all you said

Video games and media as the source...is an NRA talking point. I an't giving a pass to NRA parrots.

[Confusious]

34. Yea, that's kinda like saying

I'm honing my sex skills by wacking off.

?? Unless you're doing some gymnastic wacking, it ain't the same.

[Bonobo]

26. Should people that look at porn be prevented from entering relationships? nt

[cliffordu]

33. My right hand thinks so. About me, I mean.

[intaglio]

31. Dan and Dan have some information for you

[Confusious]

36. We complain about the media day in day out

and then, something comes along, and people just lap it up. We should listen to the media because they agree with me!
This writer has never played a video game in her life. Shot a gun? I doubt it.

I play video games. I've shot a gun.

Saying a video game "hones" your skills at shooting a gun is like saying making rice-a-roni "hones" your skills at being a master chef.

[Zoeisright]

44. No.

Ban all guns.

[Jamastiene]

45. Violent video games don't kill people.

Guns in the hands of the wrong people kill people. Mandatory mental health exams with professionals monthly for all gun owners, plus an initial intake for new gun owners. Problem solved.

The blame game has gotten ridiculous. Some right wing jerk has blamed Obama now, said it was a ploy to take everyone's guns way. I have even see people trying to blame people with autism. Preposterous!

"Mentally ill" is a broad brush, an extremely broad brush. Officially, no one has confirmed the shooter was mentally ill.

And before yet another armchair pop psychologist pipes in saying a person HAS to be mentally ill to shoot a bunch of people, they had best be coming in with credentials proving they are a qualified mental health professional to make such a statement, or they completely are full of shit.

Also, I am beginning to wonder who the mentally "unstable" people really are. Most of the mentally ill people I have talked to on DU since this happened have been the most level headed and reasonable. The supposedly "sane" people making sweeping, bogus, broad brush statements as if they were facts sound like crackpots.

[gollygee]

49. So many problems with this

First of all, how would you define "mentally ill?" A great number of people have periods of depression, or minor mental illness. Should they not be able to play these video games?

Second, how would you know who is mentally ill? Would someone have to have a screening? How much would that cost and who would pay for it?

Really, I think that it's much less likely that video games make people (mentally ill and otherwise) violent than that people who are already violent are drawn to violent video games.

[theKed]

70. I think the idea

is to screen for them, and put all their names in a big database to bar them from buying guns/games/cars/whatever. Which, you know would work, I guess...just seems it would be more efficient to bus them all to one place, you know? Keep em all together so we dont have to check a database when anyone buys a game. We can put it near the one for the homosexuals.

/sarcasm.

[get the red out]

51. "the mentally ill"

How would that be defined? Would it be people disabled by mental illness or anyone who has ever had anti-depressant or anti-anxiety medication prescribed in their life?

[HereSince1628]

53. Well at least it wasn't some worse vulgar term

...I've turned to looking for silver linings and counting small blessings

[fried eggs]

66. Psychopaths, people who would take delight in killing a human or stringing up an animal

due to an impaired reasoning center or due to voices. Those people are easy to spot with the right type of testing. I know a lot of depressed and bipolar people and none of them would hurt a fly.

[grahamhgreen]

52. Ask their doctor, duh.

[HappyMe]

54. Good fucking grief!

Are you kidding me?

First this jackass
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1240189623#post70

...and now this.

[ck4829]

55. What else should they be kept from doing?

Should they also be kept from seeing violence on the streets? Should they be kept from being yelled or laughed at? Should they kept from being isolated? Should they be kept from feeling stress or insurmountable pressure?

"Video game violence & glorification must be stopped"

The thing is we are glorifying more than video game violence, we glorify violence in sports and in warfare. And we know Adam Lanza had an interest in the latter. When are we going to do something about that?

[downandoutnow]

57. Yes! No violent videogames for the mentally ill. And no pit bulls either!

But seriously, actually doesn't sound like a bad idea EXCEPT that I really don't see how this could be accomplished. You'd have to put together a national mental illness registry, and THEN make it accessible to ever vendor of violent video games out there. Or issue a "this person is not crazy" national ID card to be presented at the game store. Can you imagine the bureaucracy and expense involved? Plus, everyone would have to go in every few years to be re-evaluated. A whole new DMV - the Department of Mental Viability - would have to be created.

[treestar]

58. Whoever is in charge of them and their finances

should certainly keep them away from them.

I have an issue with the government doing that - too close to the First Amendment.

However, I do think it is possible the games desensitize some people and they don't get the difference between reality and fantasy - that is what mental illness is.

[thucythucy]

60. It would make more sense to keep gun owners from buying them;

but really, the whole idea is absurd.

How about we ban assault weapons first?

Oh no! THAT would be a violation of our civil rights!

[Ohio Joe]

61. Anything... Just don't look at the actual guns...

Fucking gun nuts.

[Fire Walk With Me]

63. There wouldn't even be violent video games if our culture weren't SICK in the first place.

Don't blame the mentally ill. I agree that "we should quit marketing murder as a game". A sick culture addicted to violence and negativity only exacerbates the problems of its people. Judge a culture by how it treats its weak.

[dembotoz]

64. need a new scapgoat--Jews must be out of fashion

i get nervous when folks start taking away the wholesale rights of other folks


has led to really bad stuff in the past

[Neoma]

77. Don't be too quick for that assessment, I was on a jury with someone blaming Jews.

[arthritisR_US]

67. Of course,

and while we are at it why not legislate that they can only eat with plastic utensils

[backscatter712]

69. Given the history of abuse and ostracism towards the mentally ill...

Taking away their civil rights is hard, and should be hard.

[white_wolf]

74. Anything but the guns right?

Blame video games, TV, movies, comics, DND, but just don't blame your precious guns right?

[HereSince1628]

75. Yes, lets make a national database of the mentally ill available to EVERYONE

even the teenager working the videogame kiosk at the mall.

After all it's for their own good, r.i.g.h.t.

[nadinbrzezinski]

82. Enjoy your time with Wayne LaPierre and the NRA

That you posted IS AN NRA TALKING POINT.

[Taverner]

86. No - video games have killed exactly 0 people

Guns, however....

[XRubicon]

87. I suppose they could cause a bad bruise

if they hit someone with the game controller.

[Tommy_Carcetti]

88. How about we focus on things that are actual weapons first?

Last I know, a video game by itself has never been used to kill anyone. But plenty of guns have.

[Crunchy Frog]

89. Why not just keep people who buy violent video games

from purchasing firearms. The two don't mix well apparently.

[Fire Walk With Me]

91. The unmindful lumping of all afflicted under the single label "mental illness" is bigoted.

It is prejudice. It is not okay. It is divisive when we need education, understanding, and support instead of Scarlet Letters. It is also privilege and is revolting.

Consider that this extremely sick society is instead a worse influence upon the ill than guns, etc. Fix the problem at its root, which is not that there are ill persons at any sort of risk (but that does bring up that such things are situational and may thus be addressed) but that our culture is based upon domination, destruction, killing, chaos, and murder. And all of the attitudes and implements thereof. For ever ten dozen cop murder/rape dramas on TV, is there even a single show specifically educating us on how to love, support, include, heal, tolerate, and create?

[SomethingFishy]

92. Honing their skills on Call OF Duty..

Holy fucking shit are you serious with this crap?

What in the fuck makes you think sitting on your couch with a fucking controller in your hands helps you "hone skills" to be a mass murderer?

Are you saying that anyone who plays the Sims or Minecraft should be hired as an architect?
Would you hire someone who is good at Diner Dash to run your restaurant?
Should I be considered for Mayor as I am great at Sim City?
Maybe I should look for a job as a musician as I jam out on Guitar Hero...

Gimme a break.