And the NRA continues to amuse us by implying they do not know how pornography works. This would be funny if it weren't so sad.

Besides.

If Mortal Kombat taught me anything, it taught me the importance of friendship <3

Guns don't kill people, imaginary guns kill people!

All those shooters whose mental health deteriorated to a point they considered mass murder and suicide as the best thing they could live for, then got easy access to real firearms, and were able to carry them into areas full of vulnerable people.
Clearly the problem is videogames.

Also I just noticed the Mayan apocalypse banner, very nice!

MikeWehner:

"And here's another dirty little truth that the media try their best to conceal: There exists in this country a callous, corrupt and corrupting shadow industry that sells, and sows, violence against its own people," the organization claims. "and it's called the NRA."

Fixed their quote for them.

Ha this gave me another good laugh. Only in Amurrica!

Video games share as much responsibility as guns do.

little to none.

Insane idiots will find a way to kill people no matter what you do.

But as for the NRAs stance... Time to break out my favorite meme (So rare I get to use it around here thanks to overzelous mods)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5uwAo8lcAC4

I think this video sums up all these crap news reports of people attacking videogames (again) in a great injustice to the actual tragedy.

Come on man. We vouched for you, and you let us down.

The NRA would appear to be very silly people indeed.
...but then I'm English and, as far as I've been told, am utterly unqualified to talk about guns whatsoever.

Well yeah it can be the filthiest form of pornography sometimes, why do you think we love it so much?

How many of the Newtown victims chased each other around the playground yelling "bang, bang, you're dead" at some point? That's porn? So, what was that dodgeball thing we used to play in PE? I remember the moral panic about D&D that peaked in the mid-1980s in the US. This is really reminiscent of that. Blame an entertainment medium, deny symptoms of serious social problems.

kyogen:
I remember the moral panic about D&D that peaked in the mid-1980s in the US.

but that panic was entirely justified, of course! I mean, we're quite literally plagued with dragons now. Personally I can't drive down the road without some lazy scaly bastard having decided the middle of the street is the best place for a 100-year nap.
Insensitive bastards, I say!

... what? That didn't happen?
Who the hell have I been shouting at for the past five years then?

Morten Skiftesvik:
There's just one thing to say:

Oh dear.

That's two things.

So this is that oh so powerful organisation I've heard so much about?

Talk about blindfire.

The hypocrisy...
It's too much!

Well, pornography never killed anyone. But someone owning too many guns just got a bunch of people killed. I still blame the guy who did it, not the games he played or the guns that were readily available to him.

Loop Stricken:

kyogen:
I remember the moral panic about D&D that peaked in the mid-1980s in the US.

but that panic was entirely justified, of course! I mean, we're quite literally plagued with dragons now. Personally I can't drive down the road without some lazy scaly bastard having decided the middle of the street is the best place for a 100-year nap.
Insensitive bastards, I say!

... what? That didn't happen?
Who the hell have I been shouting at for the past five years then?

Morten Skiftesvik:
There's just one thing to say:

Oh dear.

That's two things.

Its one thing, but two words! Get it right! :P

And it did happen, you just napped through it, the gamers put the dragons back in their place.

I warned you about sleeping too much, and didnt Yahtzee mention something about dragons being made of fruit bread being over the huills somewhere in england or some such?

And the rest of the world sits back and eats popcorn as America continues to argue with itself, blame everyone else, create no solutions, and someone shoots someone else again. Repeat.

Remember guys, gun ownership is a "right" ;)

I'm not entirely sure how this even gets to this stage. You can't shoot someone without a gun. How difficult is that? Most countries have the hang of it by now, and the ones that don't have shootings instead.

.....Has no one in the entire media called out the NRA, backed by Gun Makers, for wanting lots of HEAVILY armed guards with EXPENSIVE Guns all over the USA?....
I see a conflict of interest there, is it just me?

Captcha: Geez louise

So glorifying violence = porn
Well, fuck, best stop remembering The Alamo, getting all teary-eyed over Custer's Last Stand and learning history in general, since they're all based around remembering horrible massacres/brutal wars! Let's not forget the horribly violent war images caused by the 1812 Overture, not to mention all those Shakespeare plays based around murder!

I know that's hyperbole, but it's the logical end-point of such trains of thought. Why not clamp down on a society that rates swearing and nudity as more harmful to children than violence?

I just watched his statment on the news, the BBC, who are (mostly) unbiased were taking the piss out of this guy and shaking their head at the all the stupid coming from him. How can anyone buy this crap? Seriously please tell me that most Americans do not buy this. Most of the Americans I have talked to on The Escapist have been cool, you guys don't buy this right?

Says the gun nuts who actually had a hand in causing this tragedy while video games are 100% not responsible. I don't think "ban teh gunz" will solve the problem of shootings by any means, but on the other side of the coin, it doesn't help that clowns like these try to keep it so you can walk into Walmart and get guns in the same building where you do your Christmas shopping for your kids. (And yeah, I'm sure Walmart follows all the laws and whatnot, but come on why does Walmart have a gun section of all things?)

Now if you'll excuse me I'm going to go play Killzone 3 as promised a few days ago because fuck not playing shooter games and letting idiots like the NRA blame games for a shooting that games had nothing to do with.

Proof once again that moralistic idiots will believe ANYTHING if it makes them feel superior. Most especially if they can blatantly dismiss something they obviously know nothing about while they're at it.

And more importantly- Mortal Kombat? Mortal Kombat hasn't been relevant to mainstream gaming since the LATE NINETIES for Christ Sakes. They might as well have picked on violent films and then brought up "The Matrix".

Oh, and games are not even CLOSE to the filthiest form of pornography. I've *seen* the filthiest form of pornography, and trust me, its much worse than point and click interfaces and exploding heads. Spoiler: it involves a morbidly obese man with tiny genitals, 4 jars of peanut butter, an innocent looking arab girl and the creative use of every orifice and appendage imaginable by both parties.

(Why did I put that image in your head? Because I'm as bothered by petty semi coherent jackasses whining from atop a high horse as you are by that image. Misery loves company.)

Loop Stricken:
The NRA would appear to be very silly people indeed.
...but then I'm English and, as far as I've been told, am utterly unqualified to talk about guns whatsoever.

Less about guns, and more about anything involving crime whatsoever. There's a problem when people are regularly charged with a crime when defending themselves in their own home, no matter the implement used. That happens quite a lot in the UK.

As for LaPierre's statement, it's no more nonsensical than all the calls for more gun control.

Emiscary:

And more importantly- Mortal Kombat? Mortal Kombat hasn't been relevant to mainstream gaming since the LATE NINETIES for Christ Sakes. They might as well have picked on violent films and then brought up "The Matrix".

They brought up Natural Born Killers, which came out an incredibly relevant 18 years ago.

FargoDog:
So instead of advocating exposing children to guns and violence in a controlled, rational virtual space, the NRA would rather expose them to real guns and potentially real violence every single day they walk into school?

Well ofcourse!

You see, by giving all those children guns, they can protect themselves when a kid snaps and goes on a shooting spree.

Totally logical, isn't it?

Nobody was ever killed with a nonexistent gun, man.

Ah yes, the good old "let's find a scapegoat so no one will hate us".

There are multiple facets as to why someone would do such a horrible thing and I don't claim to understand all of them but it sure as hell isn't as easy as pointing fingers to only a certain group.
This also means that there are multiple things we have to do to try and prevent such things from happening and yes, in my opinion stricter gun laws are part of that. It's not all of course, just one of many things. For example, stop fucking glorifying those killers.
One thing I don't understand in between all this finger-pointing, is why so few people seem to question the mental health part of this whole story, as was mentioned above. That seems like one of the most important parts to me.

But hey, what do I know. I'm just some random guy on the internet.

This is why people think most Americans don't have all their nuts in one basket, or in his case any nuts at all.

The amount of stupidity that one man can utter truly astounds me.

I love it. A group that has been the butt off tons upon tons of hyperbolic reactionary arguments over the years, some legitimate some otherwise, turning around and trying to deflect the criticism to video games. I don't know if they understand how many of their counter arguments are invalidated by in turn making a hyperbolic and reactionary argument aimed at another group of people.

Couldn't we all just say... crazy people do what crazy people do and that this grasping at straws for someone to blame in the wake of a tragedy is just a witch hunt that solves none of the problems which ultimately caused it.

No... too much... gotta blame someone other then the creep that actually perpetrated the crime. Le sigh

Oooh unambiguous target of mockery and disdain! We realy need this here, to collectively hate on something thats just wrong in every way possible.

Im very glad I dont live on the same continent as this lot. Then again, I do live on the same continent as the pope... which im sure would get along quite fine with the folks from NRA.

So heres the deal, you ship yours to the northpole and we ship ours there, make the world a much less hypocritic, bigoted and hateful place in one go.

Loop Stricken:
The NRA would appear to be very silly people indeed.
...but then I'm English and, as far as I've been told, am utterly unqualified to talk about guns whatsoever.

I think you are qualified to have an opinion but i think also you have to concede the fact that the USA is a massive county with a enormous border, vs most countries in europe. Probihition has never worked here, making it more restrictive the more money pours into the illegal gun trade, or insert drugs, tobbacco, fast food.....

That and you have to recognize that fact that the founding fathers that framed the nation just threw off an oppressive government, having seen over and over again having come from europe how government corrupts, their intent of providing the common man the right to bear arms was directly related to the fact the british banned that right when they tried to crack down on the colonies.

Have you seen how our federal government acts? Any wonder why some of us take that 2nd amendment right fairly seriously.

Seriously, NRA, here's a reminder: porno is a transmission device for other people to watch, hear, read about, etc., porn stars having sex without actually having to go through the relatively dangerous and likely expensive trouble of having sex with a porn star/prostitute yourself. Video games are about entertaining people. Guns, yes, can hold down papers, be used to pry open doors and decorate walls. But mostly they're designed to murder the fuck out of anybody you point them at. That's why they're the only thing on this list that comes with a place to put ammunition, a trigger, a rifled barrel and sights.

For a group of people whose sole reason to congregate is to protect their right to shove shards of lead traveling faster than the speed of sound through the brains of whatever random animals, strangers and children they feel like whenever they feel like, the NRA sure doesn't seem to understand how killing works.

I'm not even going to read the comments as this debate never goes pleasantly and this site's violent (if justified) reaction to accusations like this against video games isn't going to help, but I do want to give credit to the Escapist reporter on this one for taking a neutral stance and remembering that not everyone who owns a gun is a hard liner that automatically eats up everything the NRA says.