That man is living every father's worst nightmare...

 

I watched his entire interview with the press last night, and you know, he wanted to stand up and talk about his Emilie. He volunteered to do that interview with the press. He wanted the world to know.

 

Tragedy does not need a choreographer.

 

It also does not need a cheerleader. I place at least 50% of the blame for the continuing mass murders in the U.S. squarely at the heels of the media. CNN is doing full 24x7 coverage on this. The whole first string reporting team is in the small town analyzing every gasp, tear, and nuance of this tragedy. Yes, it is a monstrous event. Yes, it is news. But, hovering around the scene and the town's people like vultures is too much. I lose respect that organization and others daily over this type of thing. There is some 16 year old "wannabe" somewhere imagining his "immortalization" through similar acts fed by the attention the media is giving this.

I watched his entire interview with the press last night, and you know, he wanted to stand up and talk about his Emilie. He volunteered to do that interview with the press. He wanted the world to know.

I have no more words, i'm speechless. Such a beautiful little daughter he has, yes he still has her and she will see her dad again and he will see Emilie again.

It also does not need a cheerleader. I place at least 50% of the blame for the continuing mass murders in the U.S. squarely at the heels of the media. CNN is doing full 24x7 coverage on this. The whole first string reporting team is in the small town analyzing every gasp, tear, and nuance of this tragedy. Yes, it is a monstrous event. Yes, it is news. But, hovering around the scene and the town's people like vultures is too much. I lose respect that organization and others daily over this type of thing.

You make a good point there, Tom. I keep CNN on during the day mostly as background 'noise' and have my ear trained to pick out anything "new" that comes up during their regular reporting...

 

Just a few minutes ago, CNN "interrupted" their nearly 24/7 coverage of Newtown to spend two whole minutes reporting on the "Fiscal Cliff" machinations in Congress, and 30 seconds reporting on the guy who fired 50 shots into the air in a parking lot outside a mall in California.

 

Now I realize that Chicago is a pretty large market, but did our local ABC affiliate really need to send two reporters and their camera crews to infest Newtown with yet more of a crowd? I don't know for certain, but I can well imagine that both the CBS and NBC affilates also sent their own reporters and crews as well.

 

@Bob Scott: You sir have so eloquently elucidated precisely my own thoughts on this and similar tragic incidents. Thank you.

And believe it or not, the World is less violent and decent now than it ever was...

@Bob Scott: You sir have so eloquently elucidated precisely my own thoughts on this and similar tragic incidents. Thank you.

 

He tends to do that quite well, doesn't he? Haiti comes to mind... B)

Facts about Security priorities: wearing shoes at the airport(with metal arches, buckles, steel-toes or shanks)...banned. Carrying liquids on planes...banned. Cell phone use on planes...banned. Driving over the speed limit...illegal. Banning semi-automatic weapons...debated, talked about, reflected on, until the next mass shooting occurs. :good:

Facts about Security priorities: wearing shoes at the airport...banned. Carrying liquids on planes...banned. Cell phone use on planes...banned. Driving over the speed limit...illegal. Banning semi-automatic weapons...debated, talked about, reflected on, until the next mass shooting occurs. :good:

 

I carry two semi automatic rifles with me with high capacity magazines every where I go for protection. From what? Boars. Just last week I shot one that charged me while repairing a fence. A single shot, bolt action, lever action wouldn't do the trick. I'm sick of hearing this ridiculous argument.

I carry two semi automatic rifles with me with high capacity magazines every where I go for protection. From what? Boars. Just last week I shot one that charged me while repairing a fence. A single shot, bolt action, lever action wouldn't do the trick. I'm sick of hearing this ridiculous argument.

My cousin posted this on his facebook, so I just copy/pasted it over, I have no issues with guns. I have actually fired some in the past. My cousin took me to a firing range and I shot a: Glock19, Beretta 92fs, an M16 and a shotgun. It was fun and scary but I was a bad shot, I missed the target by a mile, or a km for our Canadian viewers/readers. :lol:

Wonder what we can do to change this...

 

Yes I believe technology has been a game changer, consider humans have been raising kids for centuries, the first game changer has been the automobile.

 

With cars we now work further away from home and more disconnected then we used to be, and dependent on others to assist like day care or school boards.

 

Next come all the other conveniences like you mention, the game consoles, ipods, pc's, internet, cable or satelite tv, etc.

 

Parents working longer hours, increased divorce rates, Both parents working, single parents raising kids are all part of adults just trying to make life work.

 

I can only imagine what it would have been like being a Blacksmith a few centuries ago, I lived where I worked, I knew where my wife was, where my kids were, when my kids got in trouble I would know immediately or the townsfolk would let me know immediately, I ate breakfast, lunch and dinner with my family, worked hard in sight of my family, was a role model to my family and my community, well known, well liked, etc. Many lives where like this at one time.

 

Today you can go to work everyday and work very hard but that sense of community is broken with the distance between work/school and homelife. Parents are constantly trying to make up for lost time working very hard to make ends meet.

 

Remember our modern lives and ways of raising kids today are only a few decades in practice now, We've had centuries of raising kids in much different ways.

Yes I believe technology has been a game changer, consider humans have been raising kids for centuries, the first game changer has been the automobile.

 

With cars we now work further away from home and more disconnected then we used to be, and dependent on others to assist like day care or school boards.

 

Next come all the other conveniences like you mention, the game consoles, ipods, pc's, internet, cable or satelite tv, etc.

 

Parents working longer hours, increased divorce rates, Both parents working, single parents raising kids are all part of adults just trying to make life work.

 

I can only imagine would it would have been like being a Blacksmith a few centuries ago, I lived where I worked, I knew where my wife was, where my kids were, when my kids got in trouble I would know immediately or the townsfolk would let me know immediately, I ate breakfast, lunch and dinner with my family, worked hard in sight of my family, was a role model to my family and my community, well known, well liked, etc. Many lives where like this at one time.

 

Today you can go to work everyday and work very hard but that sense of community is broken with the distance between work/school and homelife. Parents are constantly trying to make up for lost time working very hard to make ends meet.

 

Remember our modern lives and ways of raising kids today are only a few decades in practice now, We've had centuries of raising kids in much different ways.

 

Couldn't have put it better. Society has become so fractured and segmented. I look around at my work place up here in Auckland and realize I don't really know any of my colleagues that I work with every day. I don't really see any community up here - just people too busy with their own lives. I'm the same really. It's a sad aspect of our modern world.

 

If only the days you speak of could return. Sadly I think in this western world they are gone for good.

Couldn't have put it better. Society has become so fractured and segmented. I look around at my work place up here in Auckland and realize I don't really know any of my colleagues that I work with every day. I don't really see any community up here - just people too busy with their own lives. I'm the same really. It's a sad aspect of our modern world.

 

If only the days you speak of could return. Sadly I think in this western world they are gone for good.

 

Another thing to think about, I consider AVSIM a community, We spend X amount of time on here every week, I have friends on here, we share with each other, but I have never met one person on here in my entire life. Pretty unique community we have on here, Try going back in time and explain our forum to the blacksmith, he would probably say 'what do you do that for' :lol:

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.

 

Yes, wonderful, isn't it. And lets rub that into the minds of young people good and tight by making them virtually take part in all this bloodthirsty violence in all gory detail, lest they forget, and make good money with it on the side. Violence sells. ( see also post about the media ) The bloodier the better.

 

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.

 

Sure, but we're not talking about just 'one' . We're talking about millions of young kids/adolescents that play these games day in day out. Some even drop out from school or work. They love violence, can't be without it anymore. It's not hard to understand that the minds of some of these players may well grow numb to violence or atleast the impact that it has on the victim ( because virtually it has non.. ), become desensitized to violence by the constant exposure and taking part in it.

 

Surely these games are not a cause but you cannot seriously convince me that they can't be a catalyst.

 

Why do we play games ? Because it's good fun, makes us feel better, relieves us from stress. Flying my PMDG 737NG from A to B sure is good fun, makes me feel better. And so does driving my BR Duchess along the beautiful Settle to Carlisle track in TS2013, or trying to keep my beloved Lotus 49 race monster on the track in pCars. To each his own, your mileage may vary, and all that, naturally, but i can't help thinking there might be something seriously wrong with the gaming world (and not only with the gaming world... ) when i have to come to the conclusion that millions of people have to virtually kill people by the dozens in a most brutal way, day in and day out, in order to let them have fun, make them feel better and relieve them from stress.

 

And you really want to make me believe that this has nothing whatsoever to do with the increasing number of horrific events all over the world like we have seen happening again just now ?

 

Maybe you are Flying a little bit too Hi ....

Yeah definitely all the violence in both games and television can have an impact, sure playing violent games and watching violent television shows where people get brutally murdered all the time can cause some very bad effects on people who already have mental problems and something very wrong with their life...

 

Personally after gaming all the way from when I was like 9 year old I nowadays find all the games full of brainless killing just boring and somewhat disgusting, I enjoy games that offer some kind of creativity and deep gaming experience and environment instead of just brainless violence. I find it pretty alarming that for example Call of Duty, a game series that is all about brainless shooting of other players in repeating closed style maps keeps being the bestseller every time they release new version of it while some intelligent creative games such as Skyrim and other Elder Scrolls keep selling less. Hell, those COD developers don't even have to try when they can sell same rubbish with just different cover every time to big masses of gamers addicted to brainless shooters.

Yes, wonderful, isn't it. And lets rub that into the minds of young people good and tight by making them virtually take part in all this bloodthirsty violence in all gory detail, lest they forget, and make good money with it on the side. Violence sells. ( see also post about the media ) The bloodier the better.

 

 

 

Sure, but we're not talking about just 'one' . We're talking about millions of young kids/adolescents that play these games day in day out. Some even drop out from school or work. They love violence, can't be without it anymore. It's not hard to understand that the minds of some of these players may well grow numb to violence or atleast the impact that it has on the victim ( because virtually it has non.. ), become desensitized to violence by the constant exposure and taking part in it.

 

Surely these games are not a cause but you cannot seriously convince me that they can't be a catalyst.

 

Why do we play games ? Because it's good fun, makes us feel better, relieves us from stress. Flying my PMDG 737NG from A to B sure is good fun, makes me feel better. And so does driving my BR Duchess along the beautiful Settle to Carlisle track in TS2013, or trying to keep my beloved Lotus 49 race monster on the track in pCars. To each his own, your mileage may vary, and all that, naturally, but i can't help thinking there might be something seriously wrong with the gaming world (and not only with the gaming world... ) when i have to come to the conclusion that millions of people have to virtually kill people by the dozens in a most brutal way, day in and day out, in order to let them have fun, make them feel better and relieve them from stress.

 

And you really want to make me believe that this has nothing whatsoever to do with the increasing number of horrific events all over the world like we have seen happening again just now ?

 

Maybe you are Flying a little bit too Hi ....

 

Your argument is old. Sequentially, first comic books, then television and movies were blamed for peoples bad behavior. Now its video games turn. The arguments usually hinge on the greater immersiveness of the medium. Its been put forward that video games reward-for-violence based structure drives increased aggressiveness; and there is some scientific correlation of that effect. (immediate increases in real world aggressiveness have been noted, etc)

 

But in science, correlation and causation aren't the same. For instance, on the other end of the scale its been pointed out that even as the use of violent video games has risen dramatically, the overall US crime-rate (including the juvenile crime rate) has continued to drop. (This has only recently begun to reverse from a decades-long fall)

 

Cause and effect is muddy and has remained so, especially since there are no studies of long term exposure to video game violence, since its nearly impossible to screen out all the other violent influences in our society to keep track only those related to video games.....

 

I would say that statistically, mental disease and socioeconomic status (among other factors) have proven much more likely predictors of violent behavior than video game use could ever hope to be.

Its disappointing that this thread, like many here on Avsim where a tragedy is concerned, turns from the first handful of people paying their respects to the individuals that lost their lives to agruments and debates over why it happened, not to mention the my country is better than yours because we dont allow this or that.

 

Its a repeating them here that you can see comming as soon as one of these threads start. I remember the Air France crash post went the same way. First few posts condolences were made, then the thread turned into arguments about possible pilot errors, why Boeing is better than Airbus or visa versa, etc., etc.

 

It was a very sad thing that occured the other day and its also very disappointing imho some of the stuff that was posted in this thread instead of just paying respects and leaving it at that. I dont feel this is the right place and/or thread to discuss laws, gun control, who's opinion is right or wrong, how things are done in other countries, or death tolls from similar tragedies.

 

May those souls that lost their lives rest in peace.