USA Vice President asks Video Game Makers to Talk Gun Control
200+ Million gamers vs 4 million NRA members... why gamers do need to be consulted
This news will probably get up the nose of industry observers such as Kieron Gillen who believe that mentioning video game culture and gun culture together is surrendering a freedom, but US VP Joe Biden is meeting a range of players from Hollywood and gaming and retail to explore the problem of gun crime.
At least Biden's task force looks a tiny bit more constructive than the action taken by residents of Newtown, Connecticut who organised a "Violent Video Games Return Program", rewarding citizens that voluntarily dump their violent games, music and movies with $25 gift vouchers.
An interesting side note is that while representatives from video games, movies and even the (put more guns in schools) National Rifle Association attending Biden's task force, major bullet purveyor Walmart has refused.
Bloomberg reports that, "The NRA, which claims 4 million members and spent $13 million trying to stop President Barack Obama’s re-election, was among the groups invited meet this week with an administration panel led by Biden, White House press secretary Jay Carney said yesterday. Other invitations were made to gun-control advocates, victims of shootings and representatives of the entertainment and video game industries."
From what we can make out then, the NRA has a tiny number of gun totin', freedom lovin' mostly (and we use this term advisedly) male members (4 million) in comparison to the 211,500,000 gamers (per NPD figures for September 2012) in the USA. So gamers should be represented in a debate about law making.
Biden is being smart here. He wants NRA compliance but if the NRA can say, "But you're not talking to X or Y and they glorify guns... why should we be compliant? Why should we even list on semi-auto regulation?" Then he can't move. He is aware that no sensible causal link has been made between movies, books, play, video games, comics and gun murder on the scale seen in the USA but he is also aware of people like this... (not the English moron, the American moron).
At least Biden's task force looks a tiny bit more constructive than the action taken by residents of Newtown, Connecticut who organised a "Violent Video Games Return Program", rewarding citizens that voluntarily dump their violent games, music and movies with $25 gift vouchers.
An interesting side note is that while representatives from video games, movies and even the (put more guns in schools) National Rifle Association attending Biden's task force, major bullet purveyor Walmart has refused.
Bloomberg reports that, "The NRA, which claims 4 million members and spent $13 million trying to stop President Barack Obama’s re-election, was among the groups invited meet this week with an administration panel led by Biden, White House press secretary Jay Carney said yesterday. Other invitations were made to gun-control advocates, victims of shootings and representatives of the entertainment and video game industries."
From what we can make out then, the NRA has a tiny number of gun totin', freedom lovin' mostly (and we use this term advisedly) male members (4 million) in comparison to the 211,500,000 gamers (per NPD figures for September 2012) in the USA. So gamers should be represented in a debate about law making.
Biden is being smart here. He wants NRA compliance but if the NRA can say, "But you're not talking to X or Y and they glorify guns... why should we be compliant? Why should we even list on semi-auto regulation?" Then he can't move. He is aware that no sensible causal link has been made between movies, books, play, video games, comics and gun murder on the scale seen in the USA but he is also aware of people like this... (not the English moron, the American moron).