New report claims assailant chose elementary school because it was easiest way to score "points."
The Sandy Hook shooter, who killed 20 children and six adults during a schoolhouse massacre in Connecticut three months ago, was a "deranged" gamer who specifically targeted the elementary school so as to "outscore" past mass murderers. That's according to a new report from the New York Daily News, which spoke with a law enforcement source.
The report claims the shooter had a spreadsheet detailing the names and number of people killed and the weapons used--including their make and model--in past attacks. This source reportedly attended the International Association of Police Chiefs and Colonels last week and heard testimony about the Sandy Hook shooting from CT state police colonel Danny Stebbins.
"They don't believe this was just a spreadsheet. They believe it was a score sheet," the source said. "This was the work of a video gamer, and that it was his intent to put his own name at the very top of that list. They believe that he picked an elementary school because he felt it was a point of least resistance, where he could rack up the greatest number of kills. That's what (the Connecticut police) believe."
The source further noted that the shooter killed himself during the attack so as not to give away these "points."
"They believe that (the shooter) believed that it was the way to pick up the easiest points. It's why he didn't want to be killed by law enforcement. In the code of a gamer, even a deranged gamer like this little bastard, if somebody else kills you, they get your points. They believe that's why he killed himself."
In the months following the Sandy Hook massacre, there has been increased political discussion about the relationship between virtual violence and real-world violence. In addition, a recent Harris Poll found that 58 percent of parents believe games contribute to violent tendencies in teenagers.
Eddie Makuch (Mack-ooh) is a News Editor at GameSpot. He works out of the company's Boston office in Somerville, Mass., and loves extra chunky peanut butter.
I dont know what it is in America but in the UK I think its something like 1 billion pound a year from games sales maybe over , so no matter what they say they wont be doing anything bout violent games or games in general coz it makes up most of a country's profit these days and they know this so if they did do something drastic about this well the country will just fuck themselves over lol
2 Like "They don't believe this was just a spreadsheet. They believe it was a score sheet,"
And millions of children believe in Santa and the Easter Bunny...just because you believe don't necessarily make it true. How about some cold hard evidence instead of trying to guess what the killer was really thinking before making a statement that does nothing but inflame a touchy subject even more?
1 Like I don't want to hear that BS that the shooter was a "deranged gamer". Millions upon millions of people play video games. You can't attribute one event to someone who plays video games. That's just an excuse to blame something other than the attacker himself. What about all the criminals who DON'T play games. Why don't we ever hear reports on that? He wanted to be a notorious killer - that's because he was fucked up, not because he plays video games. The likes of Ted Bundy, Jeff Dahmer or the Zodiac killer didn't need them... They make it sound like these mass murders are something new since they became popular.
1 Like 58% of parents need to take their kid's video games away if they feel they are making them violent. That is why they are the parents. I have played COD a time or two and I can NEVER remember a mission where you are supposed to go out and kill children. CT police and politicians got this one wrong as well. Then again look at CT gun control laws The weapons the idiot used were illegal by CT law anyway. If he was looking for body count he would have done a university, community college, movie theater or a mall. All places are heavily populated with soft targets and reasonably low L presence. People need to stop attributing violence to everything but the person who committed the heinous acts.
3 Like In the violent video game of Counterstrike, you actually level down when you kill yourself.
1 Like What this article fails to mention is that this "report" was released back in February, and was dismissed by the Newtown police as "inaccurate speculation". So either this 'source' knows something that the police don't or are not telling us, or they are lying about where they got their information. For those of you who are curious here is the story:
http://www.cnn.com/2013/02/19/justice/connecticut-newtown-shooting
These people just don't get it. Their deep misunderstanding of video games can show very astute gamers that understand the medium really well the fallacious thinking of these leaders. IF they get video games so very wrong, what else are they completely ignorant about?
The source further noted that the shooter killed himself during the attack so as not to give away these "points."
dude if u commit sucide you lose points, and he technically gave away assisted sucide to the cops. all gamers should know this so i think this is total BS.
1 Like pfft! Of course everyone knows that by killing yourself you deny XP and gold for your enemies.
He was obviously a DOTA player.
1 Like The ties to gaming are completely speculative, and blindly bias. It is not surprising that a mentally unstable person would seek a "legacy" through a horrible source of infamy. Outdoing others to achieve recognition has exist for...well all of recorded history. Their inferences to gaming are entirely empty of that...oh what's the word?...evidence, that's right!
2 Like If they found out a murdered was a hockey player, would the ban hockey since it involves violence?
1 Like I wasn't aware that video games were the only form of game with scores. Apparently, no other forms of competition use a point system. I will have to inform the NFL of their error at once. Thank you for enlightening me, COL Stebbens.
" The source further noted that the shooter killed himself during the attack so as not to give away these "points." All gamers know.. when you die. YOU LOSE POINTS!!
2 Like Wow, a serial murderer who counts his kills, I've never heard of that before. It's not like there are deranged, psychotic people who lack empathy and simply see people as target practice. Oh, wait, I just remembered, that this sort of thing happened all the time in, wait for it, all of human fucking history. After all, why do you think so much effort is put into casualty reports in wars: sure there is sentimental value to knowing how many countryman died for the cause of their nation, but even then, for others, it is a kill count.
Case in point, numbers, charts, and statistics exist, and are used to keep records. There are assholes who enjoy murder, and who find records of their kills to be valuable (after all, its what they care about most). Therefore, I don't think people keeping numerical records of their kills has anything to do with videogames, other than the fact that videogames, like pretty much everything else in the world, use numbers and math.
Also, I'm pretty sure he killed himself because anyone would rather die than be questioned by a bunch of self-righteous, hypocritical retards and then rot in a prison.
1 Like @Overkillhazard his victims were aged 6-7, he hardly had a grudge against them maybe he was just trying to maximise his k/d
I've never read so much blatant ignorance in one article. They CLEARLY know nothing of game culture.
If he was after points then he is a noob compared to breiviks 77 kills and breivik used wow to plan his attacks that's gotta be worth double at least
2 Like "Code of the gamer"!? WE HAVE A CODE?!? HOLY S***! Tell me about this code. Please, enlighten me! -_-
1 Like they just found out that he watches violent movies!!
so it must be the movies then....
come on...
3 Like 1st amendment protects our rights. This is a huge waste of time and money for everyone fret over this.
He is a crazy bastard end of story. Turns out he got a game over and now burns in hell.
Newsflash to baboons running office just Sandy Hook shooter was screw up doesn't mean million of us gamers are and yes it sad but jeez you politicians ignore that sandy hook shooter was unstable to begin with that has nothing to do with him playing game or not playing games the point his mother refused to get her son mental help before it was to late and not mention she took him to shooting range with her and left her guns easy access to her unstable son so please get clue realize it isn't game developers and us gamer fault that there few people out who need mental help but you politicians refused to help them and tsame go to the parents who don't care about how trouble unstable their grown son/daughters are and I'm pointing out to only the lazy parents who don't care about mental health of their grown son who was unstable and not to the parents who would do anything to help their grown child get better
1 Like Truth is that things like "points" are not what it used to be. I rememeber the good old days with "high-score" initials and "game over".
I wonder where these experts got that "code of gamer"
Wow..."In the code of a gamer..." Jesus, these people really have no clue what they're talking about.
Fake these shootings
Remove all guns preventing a potential American civilian uprising
Steal all US resources and run
Profit
?????
I don't even play shooter games and I know that if you get killed, the killer doesn't get ALL of your points...
Idiots...
'deranged' gamer......that was a good laugh. Now where is the serious stuff that they get paid to do?
13 Like This isn't a problem of games--this is a problem of the media glorifying such killings.
Want to be famous? Shoot up a school and be immortalized in modern culture! This isn't an issue of a high score or gamer logic...it's the result of a broken society that places too much value on entertainment and being a celebrity. It's pathetic. Stop feeding the fire and start worrying about issues that matter...you know, like helping the mentally ill and rebuilding the foundation of our society.
@-Saigo- It's too bad people would rather find someone or something to blame their problems on rather than solving them. When it comes to the mentally ill, it's even worse: many people would rather deny they exist or kill them rather than help them out or understand them. Today's school systems are not structured for children with mental disorders, they are built for "normal" children. That, and the fact, unlike differing ethnicities or races (I know 'race' is pretty much meaningless, I'm just using it as a reference word), there is no societal precedent or rule which effectively prevents discrimination against children with mental disorders; to the 'normal' kids, these children are just 'retards'.
The worst part is that this sort of damage never really goes away: it lasts an entire lifetime. Even if you manage to cope with the bullshit those 'normals' spew, you will always be aware that something is off, unless you have already gone over the deep end.
4 Like I just finished the book "Columbine" by Dave Cullen. Along with everything else, he looked at the video game angle and found that, while they played video games and created mods to "train", they were a very small part of their lives. Eric had already developed his plan and all of his actions fed into that plan. Along with that, Eric was very meticulous in tracking everything: ammo, guns, bombs, money, and anticipated kills. He was inspired by Timothy McVeigh's act of terrorism and wanted to top it. Many of the shooters after Columbine were inspired to try and top their death toll. That's what I think is happening in this case. Whoever this "credible source" is has anti-video game tendencies and is simply project their beliefs onto the shooter. I have yet to see anything that says he did play video games.
1 Like New report claims assailant chose elementary school because it was easiest way to score "points."
I literally LOLed when I read that.
3 Like "That?s what (the Connecticut police) believe." wow, so if you think it, it has to mean its true? wtf has happened to the US of A????????
So if I believe I can fly, I can?
OUCH!!!!.................no I cant.......
1 Like "They're sheep mere sheep, easily dispersed if you strike the shepherd."- King Edward Longshanks
3 Like Emphasis on "deranged".
I think it says a lot about the politicians that are ready to lockdown video games, but they are more than willing to allow unrestricted access to weapons.
2 Like @Justforfun44 There's no such thing as "unrestricted access" to weapons. At least not in 'Murica.
7 Like That would be pretty horrifying, but it's difficult to take Mr. Credible Source's claims at face value, considering the amount of inaccuracies in this argument. If we're going down THIS route, how about I just turn it around and say 'Oh look, all these politicians are trying to SCORE POINTS with the masses. This way does seem like the path of least resistance.'
Obviously I wasn't affected by this incident, but if I had, I would be furious by now. People keep hyping this up, milking it to further their own ambitions, and that sickens me. People are using the death of children to make their point stick. What happened to this being a tragedy instead of a political tool?
Of course, I'd be a lot less critical if I actually believed that a majority of these figures (who have a responsibility to the public mind you) ACTUALLY believed the things they said. But this seems more like a game to me than anything. And all of the people playing it should be ashamed of themselves.
2 Like @TirOrah I agree with you wholeheartedly, this topic is nothing more than a political stepping stone for those that have spoken out thus far though some have steeped up speaking out against the ones who have used this tragedy for their own gain problem is those with common sense are less in number than those that are blatantly ignorant.
1 Like @MaverickHunter8 Well, it's good to see that, at least, there are people with common sense in this situation. That gives me a small amount of hope. I suppose the voice of reason is easily lost in this cacophony of absolute nonsense. Besides, 'common sense' doesn't scream front page news, we all know that.
2 Like Tell me more about this "code of a gamer." Been gaming for a few decades and I some how missed this "code."
Buckle up...here we go again! Blame video games for one sicko with a predisposition to violence anyway...
Well he does seem like a deranged gamer to me. I wouldn't use the term deranged personally I would instead say that he had an easily treatable mental condition. But he was indeed a gamer, he played games. But the term is used in the same way as "deranged gunman" suggesting that the gun is the tool, or in our case the game is the tool I shouldn't have to explain any further really.
2 Like New York Daily...gamespot please stop reporting crap. If you're gonna report something at least outsource it from a respectable source.
Harris Poll finds nearly three in five American adults believe games contribute to violent tendencies in teenagers; 38 percent know nothing about ESRB.
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