US Vice President Joe Biden is set to meet with representatives from the video game industry to discuss the role of violent video games as part of a wider task force.
US Vice President Joe Biden is set to meet with video game industry leaders this week to discuss the link between violent video games and gun violence as part of a wider task force into gun control measures.
The task force, formed by President Barack Obama in response to last month's mass shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, is aimed at coming with solutions for curbing gun violence in the United States.
According to Reuters, the White House has confirmed that Biden will also meet with representatives from the National Rifle Association (NRA), victims' groups, hunting groups, and gun owners to discuss possible policy changes to reduce gun violence, including proposed legislation to ban assault rifles.
Biden will reportedly meet with representatives of both the entertainment and video game industries to specifically investigate the role of violent media--including films and video games--in mass shootings. The task force is also set to look at access to mental health and disability services, and meet with parent, teacher, and education groups.
Obama has ordered the task force to report back by the end of January, ahead of the annual State of the Union address.
An NRA spokesman confirmed to Reuters that the group's top lobbyist, James J Baker, will attend Biden's task force meeting on Thursday this week.
Last month, NRA executive vice president Wayne LaPierre stated that violent video games are partially to blame for the Newtown shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary, which left 20 children and six adults dead.
West Virginia Senator Jay Rockefeller also entered the discussion when he introduced a Bill to Congress that would direct the National Academy of Sciences to investigate how violent games and other such programming affect children.
Laura Parker is the Associate Editor of GameSpot Australia. She loves adventure games, sparkly stuff, Trivial Pursuit, cake, Master Chief, earthworms, and rhetorical questions. She once stole a sandwich from Peter Molyneux.
with so many billions of dollars in the game industry, the goverment want a bite, they don't care about violence in the american society, they don't want a cure, because cures don't pay back. they money, they want tax money from that 60$ game you pay for. and they are desperate for it.
at least he is talking with the industry and not trying to say pass a bill with o% knowledge about the subject , republicans "wink" "wink"
For freaks sake, people, enough with the "revolution" and "civil war" bullcrap. Like that would solve anything--yeah, Congressional stupidity countered by armed violence because of Congress trying to prevent further gun violence. You guys are flipping geniuses.
Blaming the government or politicians for this is like blaming video games for the shooting--pardon the phrasing, but your shooting at the wrong target.
NRA's gonna get pissed when they learn that Joe Biden's gonna come knocking on their door asking for yet another discussion on gun-control... Guess they better prepare their M82 and M60E4 machine gun nests to take out any limosines that could possibly be holding the Vice-President. That tactic would probably be as effective as any other tactic they've tried to get people to actually take them seriously for once. In other words, the NRA's just ignorant and stubborn. They'll just try to find a way to keep Biden off their front porch.
1 Like this seems like a move to get the nra and other misguided people to shut up about violent games. It's a token gesture that will let obama claim that he has discussed this, so that we can all move on to solving the real problem, by implementing stricter gun control laws.
2 Like The economy is in the crapper and they're wasting their time with this? They need to get their priorities straight.
@scaperat1 This is not wasting time, this is a way to prove to the american people that video games are not to blame..
1 Like What the fuck?? This isn't even america anymore. Sigh. Fuck you obama and biden, fuck everyone in DC. Everything is fucked. couple more years, I smell revolution if this shit keeps going on. Everyone is fucked either way.
Hey, Biden! Put this pointy cap on, sit in a corner and shut the hell up. Don't move until 2017.
You guys needs to calm down. This is token at best. The appeal was to talk about violence in gaming not talk about reducing the violence in gaming.
Terrific, leave to an outdated generation to decide the fate of the new one. Thats like having a horse carriage repairman try and fix a supercharged v8 diesel....uhhhhhh....
@DreamsofGreen Another reason why politican need an maximum age requirement... 40... that would take about.. 90% of congress out of the equation and 90% of that have no idea what they are talking about...
1 Like @TheCornal @DreamsofGreen Yeah, we need a change in our Congress. A majority Democrat in the Senate and a majority Republican in the House; I don't even want to know what the hell they're even saying to each other (it's probably like a lot of the Resident Evil 6 boards; bipartisan with most of them with their heads up their asses; I don't know if that's funny or sad).
1 Like SO how about also calling on parents to better the parenting skills and tell them to stop choosing the least possible resistance route so much... I can't stress how much i see it on a regular basis... Kids ranting at parents to bye "X" for them, parents get annoyed of the ranting so instead of disciplining the child parent choose the buy X for the child stopping the ranting for a day... Children aren't dumb, if they succeed at getting something while ranting they wont change there tactic just try to improve on it..
Parenting isn't easy, i get it seriously as my bro was a hard headed growing up... but choosing the path of least resistance might net you the result you desire now but in the mid to long term can backfire..
"Do you not know, my son, with what little wisdom the world is ruled?"
-- Pope Julius III, 1487-1555 (as quoted in Civ V)
1 Like http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warren_v._District_of_Columbia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DeShaney_v._Winnebago_County
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castle_Rock_v._Gonzales
Tell Biden to read these first. If the Government has no duty to protect me then i intend to keep MY guns. After this show this idiot the FBI statistics about how many times American's have saved themeselves from criminals that adhere to no law. I am not even American but i hope there is another civil war if these idiots try to take away the things that make America Unique.
@nousernamee I must be missing something. What is it about guns that makes America unique? The inability to read the second amendment?
What a load of rubbish -- video games allow the purging of anger in non-violent ways. If you ban them, then what? If anything, they permit a healthy channel for violent tendencies, of which we are all susceptible. Play on.
@Rambolike Not to mention that aggresion if pent up for too long will explode into violence.. everyone has there breaking point.
Madness! The whole world is coming apart at the seams. Every part of the world is in chaos and people are killing killing killing. At this rate the so called civilized countries of the world will fall apart in a few decades. How can people kill one another so easily, I mean thousands of people die every day from other people. Guns, video games, movies and tv shows don't kill people. The human mind is the driving force behind the use of a gun or weapon, why do people enjoy murder so much? We can blame it on our tools and weapons but a gun doesn't shoot it's self, someone has to aim and pull the trigger. Violent games don't make themselves, people create them and that idea comes from the mind. We need to stop blaming objects for these killings, people kill people.
@digitaltigerOh no! The whole world is killing each other! Let's go to Great Britain, where there's a much lower violent crime rate than in the U.S., and little to no violence.
@digitaltiger People use guns to kill people... People can't kill with out a weapon... And this is the least violent time the world has ever known.. The Media just propogates this idea and old men believe it.
@TheCornal The mind thats controlling the body decides to pull the triger or not to pull the trigger. I have hear that this is the least violent time the world has ever known and I don't baleave that propogata at all. Reports are changing from one finding to another all the time so I don't baleave that BS. Things are worse now compaired to 3 or 4 years ago and I don't need other people to tell me what my own eyes can see is happening.
1 Like @digitaltiger Don't believe the hype or the media trying to push more control. We actually are becoming less violent http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/crime-in-the-u.s/2011/crime-in-the-u.s.-2011/tables/table-1
Biden would come from an age when other games took life needlessly... Chcicken.
As Bertrand Russell is qouted "Since the nuclear stalemate became apparent, the Governments of East and West have adopted the policy which Mr. Dulles calls 'brinkmanship'. This is a policy adapted from a sport which, I am told, is practiced by some youthful degenerates. This sport is called 'Chicken!'. It is played by choosing a long straight road with a white line down the middle and starting two very fast cars towards each other from opposite ends. Each car is expected to keep the wheels of one side on the white line. As they approach each other, mutual destruction becomes more and more imminent. If one of them swerves from the white line before the other, the other, as he passes, shouts 'Chicken!', and the one who has swerved becomes an object of contempt. As played by irresponsible boys, this game is considered decadent and immoral, though only the lives of the players are risked. But when the game is played by eminent statesmen, who risk not only their own lives but those of many hundreds of millions of human beings, it is thought on both sides that the statesmen on one side are displaying a high degree of wisdom and courage, and only the statesmen on the other side are reprehensible. This, of course, is absurd. Both are to blame for playing such an incredibly dangerous game. The game may be played without misfortune a few times, but sooner or later it will come to be felt that loss of face is more dreadful than nuclear annihilation. The moment will come when neither side can face the derisive cry of 'Chicken!' from the other side. When that moment is come, the statesmen of both sides will plunge the world into destruction."
How many of our "leaders" opperate on this basis? Listen to the parties speak, see how they act. To where are we being lead if one chooses to be party to the heard? Let a team of psychoanalysts observe and report on how the negative reinforcement spawned on either side will only serve to deepen the rift. Think about the children... as we are all "somebodies" child.
Well, this isn't idiotic at all is it...?
But you can't really expect anything less from the country that wanted to give us S.O.P.A., P.I.P.A., A.C.T.A., can you? Let's just power through it like we did with the other crap they keep trying to fling towards the entertainment industry, it'll be over soon. And it really isn't going to stop me from picking up a sword and going on a rampage in a game.
Its ok to do an investigation into violent games since people had such a ridiculous reaction. I'm sure they'll conclude games are ok. Maybe some Sillent Hill game can disturb the weaker minds and Manhunt, no, Manhunt was fine actually. Now a sweet mommy keeping 5 guns in the familiar environment...... Ah! Home sweet home, i would feel so safe :)
So the man who led calls for air strikes against a sovereign country who was defending itself is now running his mouth off again suggesting his own country's citizens shouldn't be able to defend themselves and as usual lobs the video game scapegoat in for good measure zzzzzzzzz
I've not forgotten the part this cretin played in the process that resulted in numerous illegal bombings of Serbia, a Christian country that was at war with Islamic fundamentalists twice in the 1990's. You could go as far as to say it was in fact 'little' Serbia that started the war on terror but dear Uncle Joe and his perverted boss President Bill saw it rather differently.
The vast majority of people who visit this site are from America and thus a load of you would have re-elected the hypocrite Democrats recently so you've only got yourselves to blame if he convinces Osama sorry I meant Obama to scrap the fourth amendment and implement all sorts of restrictions on the gaming industry.
This is a bit long winded granted, but the crux of the matter of what I'm stating here is that if you voted Democrat you have no right to moan n bleet about anything they do in their second term of office.
You made your bed so now lie in it!
@chasloyal You certainly live in a place with a different perspective of mine. In this case i would blame the republicans actually.
@Mamamf @chasloyal
Well spotted Batman I do live in a total different place to you, I live in little old Britain, you know that place you always call to back you up whenever you decide to start a new war?
That wee group of islands that has been the target of Roman Catholic terrorism for half a century, that Irish Republican brand of Catholic terrorism that has been openly supported and bankrolled by prominent Democrats from places like Boston for decades now.
George Bush for all his mistakes at least managed to ban Adams and McGuinness from attending the White House on his first St Patrick's day in office because he knew what they were all about, never seen the Democrats do that have we?..........they just preferred to convince the West to bomb Serbia in support of Bosniak n Albanian Mujahideen fighters instead eh?
@TheCornal @NonEdibleCheese @Mamamf @chasloyal 'average' Americans like the black panthers, nation of islam and terrorist fund raisers in Boston you mean?
@NonEdibleCheese @Mamamf @chasloyal In america.. republicans go after video games because they want to appeal to there Hard core redneck base instead of the average american...
@Mamamf @chasloyal Actually, democrats are more notorious for going after videogames and media. Just look at Tipper Gore and her stance on games. Don't get me wrong though, both sides are horrible. Republicans and Democrats are two sides of the same coin. They just want more power, more control, and more money. Not all of them, but most.
@chasloyal Oh... Sorry thought you were from russia or something. I always thought republicans were those guys that were blindly christians, racists and had always an excuse to start wars, mostly saying it was gods will and stuff like that. I thought Republicans were the kind of people that live with fear of everything and must repress everything and everyone so they can feel safe. Stuff like blaming videogames looks more like a republican atitude. But hey, i am not from the USA, I don't watch much the politics other than the embarassing ones of my own country.
I don't think games kill people, if you threw a game case at someone's head they might get a cut and be slightly p""d off. Or it might cause slight injury if you used the games cd as a frisbee.
If you aimed a gun at someone though and pulled the trigger the results are far worse!
@firebrand777 Well prohibition doesn't work and it helps the criminal market... A ban on automactic weapons is need, not all.
2 Like @firebrand777 BURRRRN THE WITCH!!! Throw her into the pond! The pond! What also floats in water?: Bread! Apples! : Very small rocks! Churches -- churches! ARTHUR: A duck. CROWD: Oooh. BEDEMIR: Exactly! So, logically...,
Oh come on!!! Really... I bet Joe Biden haven't been able to pass any game. Let the people choose this is a free market, please gtfoff!!!!! Go and solve your own problems.
3 Like How about better enforcement and policing of existing laws and leaving video games alone? Wait, that would mean politicians and bureaucrats have to work harder at their jobs without pay raise. If anything comes out of this then I got a beachfront property in Alaska for cheap.
2 Like when did video games control people, what ever happened to people being responsible for there own damn action
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