Post Sandy Hook Debate: Videogames and Violence - a Fact to Handle
Connecticut politicians calling for ban on "point and click" games are faced with a cold, hard, fact.
Following the murders at Sandy Hook, local politicians have been trying to work out how to stop people from shooting people with guns, while not ensuring that lots and lots of guns remain freely available to the kind of people who shoot people. "Ban video games!" is one idea. But then some facts are produced in a meeting of those politicians...
First though, the 'missing the facts totally' side: Conneticut polies such as Representative Diana Urban, D-North Stonington, "called for the video game and arcade industries to police themselves." No one, it appears, piped up to say, "That already happens, Di". Step up then, David J. McGuire, staff attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union of Connecticut.
According to the local news, Mr McGuire produced an actual fact that the gun lobbyists and "free market libertarians" just do not want to deal with:
"There's not enough research to show a direct causal link that video games give harm to minors," said McGuire, adding: "Another interesting fact is that since the mid-1990s, there's been an increase in the popularity of these video games, yet there's been a decrease in the rate of serious violent crimes by youth perpetrators."
Sadly, this didn't stop Senator Toni N. Harp, a Democrat from New Haven (who is sponsoring a bill to ban minors from playing Time Crisis (and other like titles) in arcades, stating, "To allow access to these life-like simulators is to teach point-and-shoot proficiency -- and with the shock and horror of recent local events still in our minds and the memory of Connecticut victims still held in our hearts -- there is no doubt in my mind that these games can put real people at risk again in the future." No, we don't understand the connection between the "And with the..." and "no doubt in my mind that..." either.
First though, the 'missing the facts totally' side: Conneticut polies such as Representative Diana Urban, D-North Stonington, "called for the video game and arcade industries to police themselves." No one, it appears, piped up to say, "That already happens, Di". Step up then, David J. McGuire, staff attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union of Connecticut.
According to the local news, Mr McGuire produced an actual fact that the gun lobbyists and "free market libertarians" just do not want to deal with:
"There's not enough research to show a direct causal link that video games give harm to minors," said McGuire, adding: "Another interesting fact is that since the mid-1990s, there's been an increase in the popularity of these video games, yet there's been a decrease in the rate of serious violent crimes by youth perpetrators."
Sadly, this didn't stop Senator Toni N. Harp, a Democrat from New Haven (who is sponsoring a bill to ban minors from playing Time Crisis (and other like titles) in arcades, stating, "To allow access to these life-like simulators is to teach point-and-shoot proficiency -- and with the shock and horror of recent local events still in our minds and the memory of Connecticut victims still held in our hearts -- there is no doubt in my mind that these games can put real people at risk again in the future." No, we don't understand the connection between the "And with the..." and "no doubt in my mind that..." either.
