Jack Thompson

We can only hope that SPOnG's given Jack enough rope by now and that his recent beneath-contempt behaviour will lead mainstream US media outlets to stop taking him seriously.

Though if he continues to get mainstream media coverage in the US, then SPOnG should report on it. Despite most of Jack's claims and many of his ideas on games being hopelessly off the mark, the fact that he communicates them to millions is an ongoing concern to any right-thinking gamer (or to any right-thinking PERSON full stop!).

We've run over the same old arguments time and time and time again - movies, rock music, comics, videogames - blaming 'a medium' for society's ills is fundamentally missing the point that most of these problems stem from poverty and/or psychological illness. I was going to add 'drugs' to that list, but that's a whole different kettle of fish...

Also, somewhere, deep down, hidden beneath Jack's ranting and hyperbole, we have to be aware that there is a message which seems to hit home with older conservatives/Republicans and with concerned American parents alike ('the moral majority' call it what you like) which is that under-age kids in the US can get their hands on very violent games very easily. It's a very complex issue, which Jack knows how to milk to get himself and his anti-games rhetoric airtime/column inches.

No-one cares, he's just annoying. You should remove this poll too.

lol!

The problem is that millions DO care. They may not share your thoughts or opinions on games and they may well be wrong /basing their opinions on invalid evidence.

But they see Jack Thompson on the telly and they believe him and they vote and they buy things and they tell their children what to think.

As I said in the most recent SPOnG newsletter, I don't feel that the man needs more publicity.

However, I'm also concerned that with the US elections fast approaching, voices such a JT's will grow louder and have more impact. I'm sure that no one thought that Senator McCarthy would cause the trouble he caused in the 1950s so he was largely ignored until the hearings...

Therefore, while I was happy to not carry the VT massacre-related outpourings, I'm interested to know if our readers are interested on keeping a watchful eye on the man and what he represents.

Buying things is the new voting. Governments do what corporations tell them. The most powerful corporations are the ones that sell most. Buying = voting.

Buying L'Oreal, Nestlé, Perrier, Libby’s, Dreyer's, Buitoni, Purina, Maggi etc is a vote for killing babies.

I wonder if Jack Thompson is assiduous in his avoidance of these products, which kill FAR FAR FAR more people per year than video games.

The first thing americans should do first and foremost is get a a strickter gun law, a lot strickter.
The only thing games, books, pictures, movies and music provide is a way for mental and distorded people to express their mentaliness, not the source of it. More restricting gunlaws prevents them from having the means to express that mentaliness.

Also, saying "son't wait for people to get killed" is a tad too late isn't it.

"Mentaliness". Classic!

Mentalism is now consigned to the recycle bin of anachronistical parlance.

instead of guns they'd take to the streets with kitchen knives - like theye do in england

what then? "stickter" knife controls? mybe we should ouutlaw cutlery and eat with our fingers!

jack tompson is doing what all high up people are doing in the usa what i meen by this is thay put the scare on the genaral public if you whant a good film to wach that puts info on it you need to wach bowling for columbine by michael moore
uther thing that Jack Thompson should think is the fact that humans have all ways looked for violence right the way thorw history even now people do it in many diffrent ways eg kick boxing , karaty , boxing, paintball fighting videogames
to name a some but there are many more that i can think of

Ballocks.

Gun laws affect the law abiding. Criminals and mental defectives ignore them. Furthermore universal federal gun laws in a large and diverse country like the United States are not universally acceptable. What is entirely appropriate in the correct rural environment is horribly irresponsible in an urban environment. Restrictions that are eminently sensible in an urban setting are ridiculously draconian, unpopular, and unneccessary in many less developed areas.

What is needed, in the words of Amy Holmes, a recent panel member on HBO's Real Time with Bill Maher, is better 'Nut Control'.

If the United States were some other country, perhaps an effective scheme of gun control micht be implemented, but the reasons why such is not a realistic solution here are legion. Too large and diverse for a one-size-fits-all answer...the supply of guns in circulation too great for supply restrictions to affect any but the law abiding...we love our guns too much to give them up completely and without giving them up completely, controls become a mere obstacle to the deteremined or criminal.

I mean really, we can't even stop the flow into the United States of cocaine and other substances from without, which would save more lives and eliminate some gun crime right there.

There is no perfect solution to gun crime in the United States, but I think the most good can be accomplished by realistic and appropriate gun laws coupled with a more proactive interdiction of disturbed individuals, loath as I am to advocate a position atop a greased bobsled run toward '1984'.

only butter knives and round ended scissors allowed.

Which of course begs the eternal question of Self Defense:

What if he comes at me with a pointed stick?

And in this case, it appears that so do gun shop owners. Apparently the shooter should have been disqualified from owning a handgun by the mental health restrictions on ownership.

However, he was allowed to own a gun by the shop owner; the similarity to games shop owners allowing "little Timmy" to walk out with a copy of GTA is rather tragic given the accusations levelled by JT and his club.