Video games, not guns, to blame for school shooting, says Kentucky gov.

Article about a dipshit.

Machinegunning people with videogame discs .... is such thing possible ?

Didn't they claim this when Jack Thompson used to be relevant 200 years ago?

They blame video games. Before that, violent movies and tv. Before that, music. Before THAT, comic books.

I never understood the line of thinking that if we get rid of pretend violence, the real life violence will go away.

@hallenbeck77: No no, there was no violence before violent media such as comics, movies and games. The world was completely peaceful and blissful. Please read that with the most sarcastic voice possible.

Well I for one blame the parents. And hippies!

In all seriousness, what a load of nonsense. But who knows? Jack Thompson was disbarred, maybe this guy will get thrown out of office.

Maybe some sort of disc or blade gun, a la Unreal Tournament?

Do you guys press plastic square buttons to reload your guns too?

I thought we moved passed this

Of course it's the fault of video games. Nothing to do with the fact that he was a Trump-supporting white-supremacist extremist using guns.

@Jag85: What you just said is as stupid as the governor saying video games are the culprit.

@vfighter:

Facts:

Social media paints picture of racist 'professional school shooter'

He hurled slurs at blacks and Muslims, and according to the Anti-Defamation League, had ties to white supremacists. He said he would shoot people with his AR-15 and singled out police and anti-fascist protesters as deserving of his vengeance.

A law enforcement source said authorities are aware of Cruz's extremist views on social media. The investigation is in early stages and so they are gathering information.

Never mind whether he's right or wrong (he's wrong), but from a political standpoint isn't this a pretty stupid stance to be taking? It's one thing to be scapegoating video games back in the 80's or early 90's, but hasn't it been long enough for most CURRENT VOTERS to be marginally aware enough of video games to know that this argument is full of crap?

People are allowed to vote at 18. 2018-18=2000. And since most people don't start playing videogames heavily at birth, let's subtract 5 years and make it 1995.

Someone born in 1995 is now 23 years old. They've been old enough to vote for YEARS, and many of them are getting to the point where they're entering actual serious careers.

And that's just with the younger voters. I'm sure a few older voters would have been all aboard the "f*** video games" bandwagon decades ago, but now video games have become mainstream enough that even old-ass grannies are playing video games.

Point being: this strategy has worked in the past, but I feel like it mostly worked when it invloved relatively new media that hadn't yet caught on beyond kids and weirdos. By contrast, video games are now mainstream as hell an this anti-game pandering seems like it's pandering to a dying f***ing audience. Many of the people who were against video games in 1990 are now dead and NOT VOTING. Many of the dumb-ass kids who were playing video games in 1990 are now respectable adults WHO PLAY VIDEO GAMES. I feel like this guy missed the boat by about 20 years.

@mrbojangles25 said:

Well I for one blame the parents. And hippies!

In all seriousness, what a load of nonsense. But who knows? Jack Thompson was disbarred, maybe this guy will get thrown out of office.

@raugutcon said:

Machinegunning people with videogame discs .... is such thing possible ?

Maybe some sort of disc or blade gun, a la Unreal Tournament?

Lol also the Disc Launcher in Horizon zero dawn

Yea, definitely not the guns.

Every western country in the world plays the same games we do, and yet?

"Guns don't kill people, mental illness kills people! Or maybe videogames kill people! Hold on, we'll get a good scapegoat one of these days!" NRA logic.

Well, my response is this, in the manner of Phoenix Wright: So? Cuphead a run-and-gun platforming video game based on 1930s cartoons. Are you saying that Cuphead is suspicious because it's a run-and-gun platforming game based on 1930s cartoons?!

@angeldeb82: but Cuphead shoots with his fingers .....

This has been proven false.

ADL got their information from 4chan LARPers and retracted it. The possible motive as of now is that he was mad that his ex-GF left him for some other guy. Literally cucked and this angered him.

https://www.politico.com/story/2018/02/16/florida-shooting-white-nationalists-415672

@Gaming-Planet: The article is only disproving the claim he was part of an extremist white-supremacist organization that claimed him as one of their own. All this means is that he was a lone-wolf, rather than part of a group. It does nothing to disprove the fact that he was a white-supremacist extremist. On the contrary, more evidence has emerged of him advocating violent white-supremacist extremism:

Exclusive: Group chat messages show school shooter obsessed with race, violence and guns

"I hate jews, ni**ers, immigrants"

Racism was a constant theme in the chat group, which was called "Murica (American flag emoji) (eagle emoji) great" -- a name it was given by Cruz.

The hatred he and others in the group espoused met little resistance from its active members. In one part of the group chat, Cruz wrote that he hated, "jews, ni**ers, immigrants.

"He talked about killing Mexicans, keeping black people in chains and cutting their necks.

There are hundreds of racist messages, racist memes and racist Instagram videos posted in the group.

One member even joked about Cruz's particular venomousness, saying that although he hated black people, too, he didn't "to a point I wanna kill the (sic) like nick.

"Cruz said he hated black people simply because they were black; Cruz hated Jews because he believed they wanted to destroy the world.

After one member expressed hatred for gay people, Cruz agreed, saying, "Shoot them in the back of head.

"White women drew Cruz's hatred as well, specifically those in interracial relationships, whom he referred to repeatedly as traitors.

There are no indications in the group chat that any member, including Cruz, is or was part of a white nationalist or white supremacist group.

The argument is as equally dumb as it was in the 90s.

I thought it was the opposite. Since I play to release my stress and some little anger.

It's like saying MS Flight Simulator is a weapon because the 9-11 hijackers used it to practice their route.

The flight software that 'trains the terrorists'

Rather than speak towards an issue or cause, he decides to shift blame.

Rather than cast judgement based based on facts, he seeks to discover an escape goat.

Reminds me of a scene from Bowling for Columbine:

It's sad that stores actually removed the game from store shelves.

Next thing you know, someone might use Google Earth flight sim for terrorist training and blame Google for it.

@93BlackHawk93: Sadly the problems are much bigger than just the guns. It's the whole usa system. The usa won't forbid guns because you'll need them to protect yourselves, and why would you need to protect yourselves? In europe people don't have this kind of urge to protect themselves. That's what a socialist system does for you. People don't want to go rob you because they get money from the state.

I'm not saying it's a better system overall but with the current system in the usa, you'll never get rid of the guns, people need to be able to protect their property.

@93BlackHawk93: How do these deroes (****tards) manage to get into office?
I know the US has a big population but how has the US become so polarised with all the gun and religious nuts compared with all other developed nations?

There's only 1 person to blame and that's the shooter himself. Not video games, not guns, not Republicans, not your mom. No just the shooter, point your fingers and blame the shooter.

@93BlackHawk93:

It's typical crap. When shit goes down, it's always everyone's fault but your own. I'm finding that notion becoming extremely popular among Republicans. He's Republican, isn't he? ?

Saying that has never worked before it certainly won't now...

This is why America is failing.

Regardless, if you're going to try to find scapegoats in order to pursue your political career, then you'd do a whole lot better to find a marginalized/underground/minority scapegoat. Like, you're not going to solve the gun problem in the USA by attacking guns when so many voters are responsible gun owners. Find a different strategy.

In that same way, I'd have to imagine that video games are a LOT more popular than guns. They're mainstream as f***. Using games as a scapegoat for a political issue may have worked in the fairly recent past because video games are a fairly recent thing. But now they're popular as hell. It's a lot harder to use that stuff as a scapegoat when your voters play that shit all the time.

USA should do what Australia did.

Not happening though.

Donald Trump also blames video games, not guns, for school shootings:

Trump Blames Violent Video Games For School Shootings

I'm surprised that he hasn't blamed schools and call for their ban.

Trump's solution:

1. Ban video games

2. Arm teachers in schools

Hey, GamerGaters. Remember that you backed this guy and slammed Anita Sarkeesian (who last I checked, did not pursue political power) for the shit she said.

The hypocrites have gone silent.

I don't remember GG backing Trump? Was that after the whole mess started with feminists vs GG and such? Trump doesn't seem to care much for ethics, to me that sounds like an odd pair up.

Trump agrees by the way

So, it's more dangerous to kill a person in a game than with a gun? Oh, I bet those boys at the NRA are just shakin' in their boots at the thought of lousy geeks like me. They should ph3ar me, I did save the Universe a time or two.

Yeah, we tried banning alcohol in the 30s and that didn't end well. Can you imagine trying to ban guns?