desensitizing

[inthemoss]

The VT incident is a very grave one, but i do have a bone to pick. Why is it that when something of this caliber happens, every blames the media? Such things like violent video games and gorry movies. Why haven't people realized that its all on the parents. I wasn't allowed to play violent video games until my parents knew i could tell the differece between "real" and "fake". To me, this just sends a message to parents that you dont really have to take the blame for your childrens mistakes. You can just blame it on DOOM and 300. This can also be applied to gun control. if parents actually teach their children then maybe we can avoid these incidents more often.

 

[SoCalShooter]

I do agree with you, but for now we can only speculate about what is the cause for this horrific episode, honestly it just could have been something that tweaked him one day and he did not know how to deal with it, dunno probably never really will. I do not believe that banning anything will have solved this problem or prevented it or will stop it in the future. Human beings have been violent since we first came out of the primordial goo, we do one thing very damn well and that is destroy things. I do think however that the media has done an ok job on not speculating to much until they have some more facts.

 

[NukemJim]

Why is it that when something of this caliber happens, every blames the media?

"They" do not always blame the media sometimes they blame the gun makers,distributors,retailers etc... But some times "they" are correct.Read up on clustering involving teenage suicides and school shootings.

Such things like violent video games and gorry movies.

Read Grossmans "On Killing" or many of his other works, also read up on the studies showing young children exhibit more aggresive behavoir after watching "violent" video.

I am not saying that either of these viewpoints is 100% correct but I think a viable argument can be made for either of the above viewpoints.

And please note I am not advocating banning any games. But we as a society have chosen to make certain things (Alcohol, Nicotine, Gambling, Porn etc...) available only to those who have reached a certain age and those laws have teeth (prosecutions and jail sentances) and tend to be enforced.

Kevlar/Nomex/Forcefields/Shields ON

NukemJim

 

[ConfuseUs]

For the two years or so prior to Columbine there was a school shooting on a pretty regular basis and media circus followed each one. With Columbine the media absolutely drooled in all of their coverage to an extent not seen before. However, immediately after Columbine people began to focus blame on the media, and I for one think the media deserves (but will not accept) a large share of the blame for "encouraging" Columbine and many of the school shootings prior to Columbine. The kids who committed the worst mass murders before Columbine all got heavy coverage in Time, Newsweek, etc as did Harris and Klebold after Columbine.

Now, I'm not saying that the VT massacre is the same, but it is not unreasonable to see the media as a factor in this. The shooter at VT locked the exits and thereby trapped most of his victims in the building so it is a fair conjecture that he was aware of other school shootings. Whether he did this with the intent to outdo previous shool shootings is unknown but at this point it is a reasonable conjecture which brings the influence of the media into question.