Guns, guns, guns, guns, knives, swords, more guns, more knives, more swords, blood, gore, war here, war there, more blood, more gore, massacre here, massacre there, etc and so on is what i have to wade thru each and every time i enter Steam to get to what * I * am actually looking for : a new train, locomotive or route for my beloved TS2013. That's what the 'gaming world' is all about these days. Trains ???.... Locomotives ???.... Huh ???? No guns ??? Nothing to kill ??? What's the fun in that !!??....

 

In discussions about a possible impact of computer games ( and not to forget movies ) on the minds of young people i have seen 'experts' stating that it has no impact at all and others stating quite the opposite. By the tremendous popularity of these 'kill everything' games it doesn't take a real expert to acknowledge the fact that, 'if no real harm is done' people actually love the 'act of killing' above anything else.

 

Couldn't it just be that the longer this goes on and these 'games' get more and more realistic with each new iteration, the line between 'virtual' and 'real' gets subsequently thinner and thinner ?...

 

Personally i am quite disgusted by what the 'gaming world' seems to end up in and i know full well that trying to stop it, put a ban on the release of 'killing games', will only make them even more popular, put more money in the devs' pocket ( and that's what it's all about, isn't it. Who cares about the youth's minds ) but i believe that it is the seemingly 'general acceptance' of this sheer endless stream of 'killing games' that might hold a key to some young people's horrific 'real life' actions as we have seen happening again just now.

 

We have a saying here in Holland that goes : " He who sows wind shall reap storm "

 

I long for the days of Pac-Man, Manic Miner, Donkey Kong. Yeah, i'm an old naïve fool who doesn't belong in this world of iPhones, iPads, Social Media, and Killing Games anymore.

 

I cannot express in words how i feel about this horrific event at Newtown but i do feel that prayers won't help the victims and families involved but that it is something real and groundbreaking towards peoples' attitude in this day and age to help prevent something like this happening again in the near future.

 

I know, it's a fat chance...

 

Yea, it's kinda weird when you stop and think that pretty much all of the gaming industry is built on games where the fun is in killing people or other sentient beings. That's why I like having Flight Simulator as a hobby so that i can take a break from all that nonsense and do something that is creative and educational rather than something mimicking destruction.

 

Some of these games do well at bringing a context and moral aspects to your actions in the game (i.e. the Mass Effect series) but by and large they are all about the same thing and some of them are just so disgustingly pointless I don't understand how they can be considered remotely entertaining.

That's why I like having Flight Simulator as a hobby so that i can take a break from all that nonsense and do something that is creative and educational rather than something mimicking destruction.

 

Yes, Flight Simulator takes me away to other places after a day at work. I get to choose from limitless places to fly, lately I have been discovering England with ORBX FTX, a country I have never visited and now learning much more about it. Much better then shooter games.

 

Cheers

Bleah.........

 

It's all well and good to talk about video games (most especially types you may not personally like) but to me its primarily just a convenient red herring. A look at numerous human cultures through history shows that violence and violent play is endemic. Raiding the tribe over the hill, various rites of passage, manhood rituals, warrior cults, blood cults, human sacrifice, gladitorial "games" the crusades, territorial and religious wars..... It goes on and on.

 

Video games are a technological version of what humans have pretty much always done; a reflection and maybe a symptom, but not a cause. The only confirmed way to hurt anybody with one is to unplug it and hit them over the head with it.

 

The same cant be said for a gun.

Bleah.........

 

It's all well and good to talk about video games (most especially types you may not personally like) but to me its primarily just a convenient red herring. A look at numerous human cultures through history shows that violence and violent play is endemic. Raiding the tribe over the hill, various rites of passage, manhood rituals, warrior cults, blood cults, human sacrifice, gladitorial "games" the crusades, territorial and religious wars..... It goes on and on.

 

Video games are a technological version of what humans have pretty much always done; a reflection and maybe a symptom, but not a cause. The only confirmed way to hurt anybody with one is to unplug it and hit them over the head with it.

 

The same cant be said for a gun.

 

LOL when you put it that way....look at what the Romans called "entertainment". Putting a bunch of people into an arena with a few lions just to watch them fight a gory battle to the death. Among other things this was, according to history, something the Roman public craved on a regular basis. Makes our modern equivalents in video games look tame by comparison.

Didn't take long for people's agendas to come roaring out. Unreal.

 

Including yours....

 

 

Including yours....

 

I don't have an agenda. Ill answers people's silliness. The fact that people want to inject politics into tragedy boggles my mind and I think it's disgusting. There plenty of time for that now isn't it. But hey whatever floats your boat.

let's just focus on what happened Friday and find out why it happened. It's 9 days before Christmas and a young man woke up Friday morning killing his mother and around 20 children.

It is sad that politics comes into this: but that's because most of the rest of the world is looking in from the outside and thinking why, oh why, do they persist in refusing to see the perfectly obvious? Every country has their madmen but in the majority of them, the majority of those madmen don't have access to automatic weapons or indeed firearms of any kind.

 

Someone mentioned Dunblane. That massacre rightly triggered a draconian tightening of already strict UK gun laws to the extent that even top-level competition shooters had to go abroad to train.

 

Yes, we have criminals with guns, obtained illegally. If caught in possession, indoors or out, they can be jailed for that alone. Yes, we have tragic shootings, usually involving shotguns which are still available under licence for bird shooting and to farmers for pest control. Shotguns may only be capable of containing a maximum of 3 shells without reloading, not pump action monsters. We do have the occasional incident of ex military personnel who have obtained illegal weapons in their travels.

 

It's true that if gun controls were tightened there would be an immediate problem with the criminal classes who would ignore them. I imagine the police have a pretty good idea who's likely to be armed and as mere possession would become an offence, they could be rounded up at will. But the people who commit massacres aren't criminals in the normal sense....

 

We do of course have a few ordinary citizens festering with some mental illness but they have virtually no means of obtaining firearms. You work out the resulting probabilities compared to the situation where some seem to think the right solution is for every household to have an automatic pistol.

 

The comparison with cars, hammers, axes, whatever is a complete red herring. These have perfectly proper and valuable uses although rarely, all can cause injury accidentally or deliberately. As far as I'm aware, an automatic pistol has only one use, to kill people rapidly.

 

It isn't people who can't help themselves in their shock & horror but to ask how this can be allowed to happen time after time who disrespect the dead. It's those that immediately have the calmness in the face of tragedy to defend unfettered gun ownership..

Last year Handguns Killed: 48 People in Japan, 8 Great Britain, 34 Switzerland, 52 Canada, 58 Israel, 21 Sweden, 10,728 in The United States.

 

That's nearly 11000 too many isn't it?

 

Born in London in 1946 the destruction from WWII was still visible when I'd grown enough to remember it. My family's get togethers for years after always harked back to the Blitz. Today we'd call that therapy for PTSD? I understood how easy and total destruction is. How fragile life and our societies are.

 

The reason I like Simming is because it's about creating and making things. It's about imagination and creativity. It's about sharing.

 

Of course any thinking human being is horrified at these events .... and they will probably always happen, but there's nothing creative about handguns.

 

Your societies and those above are democracies. You do the math. Your calls at your ballot boxes?

As far as I'm aware, an automatic pistol has only one use, to kill people rapidly.

 

I think you are confused about what you are talking about. Automatic pistols can only be held in the U.S. by the military, the police or individuals with a specific license for that weapon. They are going to be very expensive and difficult for the private citizen to obtain.

 

If you are referring to a semi-automatic pistol... then you are ignorant in your "awareness".

 

 

 

but there's nothing creative about handguns.

 

Of course there is Geoff... you make it sound like the plague. Creativity... skill... physical and mental discipline... Just because you do not have access to or do not have any appreciation for a handgun, never used one for hunting... never for target competition... does not mean handguns are "evil". Again... evil applies the to realm of mankind and his actions. The sooner we as a people wake up to this reality and accept responsibility (or lay that responsibility on the individual rather than something else) the better off we will be.

 

You talk about The Blitz... applying your logic - planes are evil and nothing creative about them. Useful for only death and destruction. Should get rid of the lot.

 

You should be looking at murder rates... not singling out a specific statistic. The U.S. is long known as the "melting pot" of cultures. We have extremely violent cultures here and some cultures complete pacifists and everything in between.

 

For individuals, to use force that results in the loss of just one life, unless it occurs within the context of self-defense ("to prevent serious bodily injury") to themselves or another person... I agree, is one loss of life too many. Every life is precious (at least to me) but it is painfully obvious that not everyone in this world holds that point of view.

To quote Morgan Freeman (something I would NOT normally do)

Surprising message from Morgan Freeman. He blames the media for CT shooting.

 

Submitted by conalmc on Sat, 12/15/2012 - 17:19in

• Video, TV & Movies
  

 

MORGAN FREEMAN ON THE SHOOTINGS YESTERDAY:

"You want to know why. This may sound cynical, but here's why.

It's because of the way the media reports it. Flip on the news and watch how we treat the Batman theater shooter and the Oregon mall shooter like celebrities. Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris are household names, but do you know the name of a single victim of Columbine? Disturbed people who would otherwise just off themselves in their basements see the news and want to top it by doing something worse, and going out in a memorable way. Why a grade school? Why children? Because he'll be remembered as a horrible monster, instead of a sad nobody.

CNN's article says that if the body count "holds up", this will rank as the second deadliest shooting behind Virginia Tech, as if statistics somehow make one shooting worse than another. Then they post a video interview of third-graders for all the details of what they saw and heard while the shootings were happening. Fox News has plastered the killer's face on all their reports for hours. Any articles or news stories yet that focus on the victims and ignore the killer's identity? None that I've seen yet. Because they don't sell. So congratulations­, sensationalist media, you've just lit the fire for someone to top this and knock off a day care center or a maternity ward next.

You can help by forgetting you ever read this man's name, and remembering the name of at least one victim. You can help by donating to mental health research instead of pointing to gun control as the problem."

 

 

 

This thread was started as a mark of sympath to the victims of yesterdays incident. It's not the best environment to discuss the wider issue but perhaps the fact that many in Europe have had to defend themselves and as a result today do not support gun ownership as some of you do in the States is worthy of some deliberation over there? It's a debate for you as Americans. Perhaps you need to ask why when people here have faced real threats they've shunned gun ownership? There will be plenty of support for the right to bear arms over there but you must understand that the idea is not going to get support this side of the pond. That's pretty well demonstrated in the posts here. Further more I'd point out that we're aware that not all Americans think differently to ourselves.

 

Geoff

To quote Morgan Freeman (something I would NOT normally do)

 

I agree with him as well.

There will be plenty of support for the right to bear arms over there but you must understand that the idea is not going to get support this side of the pond.

 

To my recollection... we have not asked for English support for "right to bear arms" since oh, what... the 1770s?

 

Further more I'd point out that we're aware that not all Americans think differently to ourselves.

 

Again to my recollection... this has been a ongoing debate in the U.S. since at least most years of the 20th Century.

 

It also my understanding in the UK criminals have better "rights" (preferential treatment) than the victims.

 

What amazes me some bring up gun control in a thread to remember the victims of this tragedy... spout totally inaccurate and/or ignorant information (to what end or purpose I have no idea but the cynic in me says not for our benefit somehow) then you expect others who have a contrary belief to remain mute.

 

And yes I tried to remain silent for the sake of this thread... so all you all with the anti-gun / "I told you so bloody backward americans" goofiness... please drop it.

 

To quote Morgan Freeman (something I would NOT normally do)

 

Common sense from an uncommon source.

Hey guys, Maybe best to take a step back, I know that you folks over there in the UK don't like it when the USA meddles in your affairs. It goes both ways really.

 

A time like this is when people know who their friends are so no point in kicking someone when they are down. This is a thread for prayer or reflection and not debate.