Media links Montreal mass shooting to games

A 25-year-old Montreal man went on a shooting rampage at one of the city's colleges Wednesday, killing one and wounding 19 others before being killed by police, various media outlets reported yesterday. Today the same outlets are piecing together a picture of who the alleged shooter, named Kimveer Gill, was and are focusing on the fact that he played violent games, among other things.

The BBC News is reporting that the shooter apparently posted numerous times on a gothic lifestyle site, indicating that he liked to play Postal as well as a Web-based game called Super Columbine Massacre RPG.

The gunman also posted scores of photos of himself posing with a rifle, a hunting knife, and a black trench coat. A journal entry from the morning prior to the shooting said he was drinking whiskey and had been "crazy" and "postal" the night before. In one post, he wrote, "Life is like a video game, you gotta die sometime."

A similar sentiment was expressed by convicted killer Devin Moore when he was arrested for the murders of two police officers and a police dispatcher. Moore, who was ultimately convicted, told the arresting officers: "Life's like a video game. You've got to die sometime."

The creator of the Super Columbine Massacre RPG has since posted a statement on his Web site, which reads, "I am, like most, saddened by the news of the recent shooting at Dawson College. I extend my condolences to those affected by this painful event."

Florida lawyer Jack Thompson wasted little time in linking the tragedy to his ongoing attempts to have violent games curbed. In an e-mail sent to various press outlets with the subject heading "Jack Thompson Right Again," the lawyer said the shooter "literally trained on his two favorite murder simulation video games to go on his college shooting spree..."

"The massacre in Montreal is simply the latest tragedy of mass killing linked to violent virtual reality murder simulators," Thompson wrote. "The worst is yet to come. Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc., is set to release on October 17 the game Bully, which in every sense is a Columbine simulator."

Ironically, the Entertainment Software Ratings Board gave Bully a relatively tame rating of T for Teen earlier in the day.