Colorado Church Shooter was Denied Videogames by Parents
By Shawn on Thursday, December 13th, 2007 at 3:34 PM PST In Gamer Life, Games
Matthew Murray, who killed five people including himself in two Church shootings in Colorado last weekend, was denied access to videogames and other evil influences.
According the Denver Post, Murray was forbidden to play videogames, watch DvDs or listen to rock music.
On another website, a poster named nghtmrchld26, believed by police to be Murray, said he rebelled against an upbringing that forbade him from buying rock music, video games and popular DVDs.
All Spin Zone has collected the posts Murray wrote under the name nghtmrchld26. The comments paint a pitcure of an abused individual wading through a haze of rage and depression culminating in the shootings. Social isolation seems to have been a big factor in Murray’s upbringing.
When I was a teenager my mother would do a pat down to check for music, DVDs and video games whenever I came out of an electronics store like Best Buy or Circuit City.
I’d still obtain things anyways, it was like getting drugs from a drug dealer, EVERYTHING had to be done in secret. lolI remember getting thrown around the room and hit while getting interrogated about whether or not I had video games and DVDs. Then there were the constant interrogations by the church pastors… I remember having to listen to everything in secret, at very low volume levels or with headphones, whether it was video games, TV, DVDs, or music/radio.
It’s unfortunate that the press would focus in on videogames and other taboo forms of entertainment as the trigger rather than years of sexual, physical, psychological, and emotional abuse in a restrictive environment. However it’s the perfect fuel to feed certain peoples agendas.
No matter what this young man has gone through, nothing excuses his actions.
via GamePolitics
If he wasn’t surrounded by nut jobs and was allowed to play games, watch movies, or listen to music like a normal kid this may not have happened
ya i agree with S.T.A.L.K.E.R. this kid was so supressed against the every day joys most kids have. No wonder why he snapped. He had that agression for entertainment building up inside for many years i think and had no way to release it through video games or DVDs and media.
i would snap too if i had people restricting what i watched, played and listen to. they are the ones who were the nut jobs. even though what he ultimatly did was wrong, i feel bad for him because of the control people had on him.
It reminded me of the movie Detroit Rock city where the kids mom was saying that Kiss music was devil music and not allowed to listen to them and needed forgivness from the minister. This kid had parents like that i beleive, what a shame, poor kid.
Ok kids, parents included, say it out loud with me ready?
“THERES NO RELATION BETWEEN REAL LIFE VIOLENCE AND VIDEOGAMES”
All the studies, cases, trials and fearmongering over videogames is just that fearmongering, 92% of all kids in America play videogames, if some kid commits a crime, theres a pretty good chance he plays videogames because pretty much ALL kids play videogames, thats it. Is like saying “the murderer had 2 eyes” Well Sherlock most people have 2 eyes, thanks or the input.
It is a shame that members of the church take things too far. If this post is true and this is what the kid actually wrote the parents are a big factor in this kids emotional state. Music has been in every cultural since the beginning of mankind. Christian music about praying to God is good music when you want to worship but there is other music out there as well that gives you joy. Kids sometimes rebel against their parents, most of us did, but life goes on. To treat your kid as if he is a prisoner is wrong. Some parents try to do the right thing, but going to the extreme and shoving the right thing down a child’s throat can lead to dangerous activities. If I was this kid I would of felt caged up and very angry. All of this because a church going family doesn’t want there kid to listen to a song that might drop the f bomb or whatever. In this kid’s writing he just wanted to listen to his own music, watch his own dvd’s and for god sakes play a video game. I wondered if the parents kept him from masturbating too because if you didn’t know that’s a sin, and we cannot have sin can we. This is why some church communities make me sick. I went to a wedding last year that the pasture was saying pretty frankly that, “you will go to hell if you get a divorce”. It was very angry that the pastor was pretty much scaring the crap out of this couple to not divorce, but the funny thing is no one but me and a few others even mentioned this outrageous phrase. Maybe some communities are so used to scaring the crap out of people to get them to listen to their word that they do this at home, like what this family was possibly doing. Wow so enough of my randomly, this just makes me angry, but if you have seen the statistics churches are not as popular as they used to be in the older days, so they are really just hurting themselves in the long run.
As much as it’s a tragic waste of life on both ends at the same time i cannot help but feel like this is a win for video game players.
For years video games felt the brunt of blame for children and adults for acting out against society in violent ways…anytime something like this occurs the media and others automatically look at what this person and/or people did in their free time…..the question is what are going to blame it on now?
Obviously it won’t be video games since he was restricted from owning them, to the point of being ‘patted down’ the sad thing is that it took yet another person to go off the deep-end to finally show that the video game/music industry isn’t to blame.
this is ironic.. he kills because he didn’t play games.. that’s an interesting wrench to throw in the “games cause violence” debates.
I’m Christian. There’s nothing wrong with video games. There are limits, for example, Manhunt, that aren’t what a Christian should play, but most games are fine. Heavy metal is o.k. too.
Honestly, I don’t even see a problem with someone playing Manhunt. It’s fictional entertainment after all. I do not think kids should be playing “M” games, but anyone of age should play whatever entertains them. I don’t think the games you play could possibly have a realistic reflection on your moral values or character in the real world.
If you are christian and you’re so stupid that you can’t tell the difference between real life and manhunt, I don’t know what to tell you.
Agreed, being a Christian has nothing to do with what should and should not be played…being able to differentiate between reality and fantasy is the key.
If you read and believe what Murray wrote, his mother believed he was born to be some great orator or pastor and the lead all the evil people to see the way of god. His birth was prophesied to her by the church and so was his rebellion. She was also told he would come back to the church, so she relentlessly pursued him.
I think this could be a good case for that old expression, “The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.”
I was raised without a TV… shocking. My mother, God bless her, got me interested in computers at a very young age(my first machine was an Apple II Plus, now I’m showing my age) and I’ve made it a point to game at every opportunity since then. Had I been denied Computers, TV, Rock’n'Roll (Pops attempted to curtail my Rock’n'Roll diet, saying it was devil music, but that was to no avail… apparently I like “Devil” music) I might well have been considered certifiably capable of a rampage too.
I’m a Christian by my faith, not by a denomination, and I believe if a balanced worldview is instilled at a young age, radical behavior is limited. Isolation bids welcome to radicalism. Radicalism begets Terrorism.
This may seem harsh but i simply don’t buy into his story, as much as i try things don’t add up with the limited information it’s presents.
Let’s say that for the moment what Murray posted is true, if he wasn’t allowed video games, DVD’s and music then it’s highly doubtful he had the items one would need to actually use them.
If he was getting patted down one could also come to the logical conclusion that his room was searched throughly as well, hiding a system would be difficult to say the least unless it was small like a DS or something like that.
With his parents being as strict as he claimed it’s also extremely doubtful that he would have access to a computer when he was at home and that it too would be checked often for games, music, movies and the like.
I’m not saying that what he posted isn’t true, the only ones who know that for sure was Murray and his parents but it seems very hard to swallow, and being from a strict home myself and trying to take my own life as well we tend to embellish what really happened.
I bet if you go and look at all the school shooting that have been blamed on video games, you will find that many of them where treated just as badly as this kid was. Its not the games.
Ok I don’t play war games not because I’m a christian (I’m not I believe in a god however). I choose not to play those kinds of games like Manhunt because it doesn’t sit well in my stomach even making the actions of slaughtering people in general. Not to say it’s wrong just that the whole act of it seems stupid if you don’t agree with the action you are imitating. Whether or not its right or wrong it is still a “guilty pleasure”. This said the barrier between killing someone on the screen and killing someone in real life is a world of difference and even after playing these games for years I have honestly only grown to resent them as I get older. Thus fueling my resentment for actual killing. Now either you just accept its only a game and it means absolutely nothing or you don’t play it because of the actions you are imitating. The only person who will actually want to kill after playing these games are people who picked them up already with a fucked up mindset to begin with. It takes something more than a game to make a man feel the justification of killing another.
No matter what his upbringing, in the end, the responsibility for his actions lies in the shooter. You have no control over what happens to you, but you do have control over how you react to what happens to you and your actions.
This is a good reason why I am an atheist. If Religion didn’t exist, this would not have happened. Religion is a plight upon our society. We would be much better off without it. Without believing in fairy tales.
as I found out, I think it becomes true, Gods are security blankets passed on to adulthood(James Randi), and I believe that religious adults take things way too far, Im not saying all, but most, they can compare to the middle eastern extremeists or politicians, forcing what they believe on non-believers, this shows that he is only human, what any human should do, blow off rage, religion should be taken so far, but without religion, how much different would the world be? always take that into perspective, be open-minded about everything, but believe in what you do not the others around you, I love music with a passion(death metal and such) and I enjoy violent video games both with a passion
OMG thats My name! not kidding, i stumbled and was like “WHOA”
@Lannen O’Rouke
Y’know, perhaps he was really good at hiding these things from his parents. When you’re dealing with a situation such as his, I can imagine that one could become a master at it. Necessity is the mother of invention after all.
I’ve been in bad situations before, and I found myself thinking in ways that I never would otherwise, just because I had no other alternative. It was either adapt or suffer, so to me, his story is entirely plausible.
The irony, kid is supressed from most forms of entertainment (maybe even not just from violent forms) and they still try to blame it on a medium.
Seems he quite rightly picked up violence from a more interactive form of “media” than video games frankly and then chose to return the favor.
Ha.
Yet another piece of evidence that proves video games and other forms of entertainment are not the cause of violence.
WHERE IS YOUR GOD NOW?
[/obligatory meme]
The problem with the violence debate is the fact that we keep forgetting that violence is simply part of human nature. Although most of us are civilized, there are those who revert to animalistic natures. These days whenever someone goes on a killing rampage, it seems most people point fingers at the environment. I just don’t see that as an applicable argument when a majority of those in the environment can get along peacefully. If we ever want to advance in our thinking as a society, we need to place more blame on individuals.
I think that this is a classic example of bad parenting. The victim here is the child just as much as the people he shot. Personally, if things get that far, and nothing is done about it, then I believe that it is no longer the child’s fault. The parents are to blame here.
I’m gonna throw this one out there. He’s unbelievably crazy and/or stupid. It’s most likely the parents fault for also being crazy and/or stupid. I’d put my money on the stupid one. You see as a Christian I want to defend the people of my faith. But when they decide to make up rules that they for whatever reason believe are in The Bible, well quite frankly it makes me want to punt a kitten. So how about we stop pulling these random laws out of our asses and give our kids a little freedom to go and play video games and make friends (which is probably why this happened) so that kids don’t snap. As a matter of fact I’m surprised the parents are still around. If it was me they would’ve been top on my list.
Hating stupid people since 1994
Osty_ghosty
“This is a good reason why I am an atheist. If Religion didn’t exist, this would not have happened. Religion is a plight upon our society. We would be much better off without it. Without believing in fairy tales.”
Exactly. Like Soviet Russia, or Mao’s PRC. Without religion, everyone is better off. Good governments try to control what their people thing, and get rid of stupid things like religion. Hopefully, other nations will try to do this to.
He didn’t have video games so he killed people. Spoiled brat logic.
I don’t know about the rest of you, but I’m REALLY interested in Jack Thompson’s take on this.
I keep waiting for him to pop out of the woodwork again to stick his hand up someone’s ass and make them his latest unwitting puppet in his holy war against video games…
“Exactly. Like Soviet Russia, or Mao’s PRC. Without religion, everyone is better off. Good governments try to control what their people thing, and get rid of stupid things like religion. Hopefully, other nations will try to do this to.
He didn’t have video games so he killed people. Spoiled brat logic.”
You present a strawman argument. Intangent did not say that governments should ban religion. He said we would be better off without it. Also, you really, really don’t want to try to argue your point by bringing up atheists who committed atrocities. How about Hitler (no, no matter what Christians like to say, he wasn’t an atheist, he justified what he did in Christian terms), the Inquisition, the Crusades, the witch hunts, etc. Stalin, Mao and the like did not do what they did -because- they were atheists, they enforced atheism because it was a way of tightening their control over the people. The Church has/had much influence over the people, which those dictators viewed as a threat to their power.
He didn’t kill people because he didn’t have video games, he killed people because he snapped after being abused emotionally and physically and prevented from having any sort of release.
I really feel sorry for this kid.
I love my video games and I love my metal. I don’t know how I’d survive without them. My mum doesn’t like my music, but she doesn’t try to keep it from me because she understands that it’s what I enjoy. It’s okay for parents to dislike a certain trend (say, video games) but it’s not ok to go all Spanish Inquistion meets Fort Knox on it.
There are games like Manhunt which aren’t really suitable for, well anyone really, but it’s not my place or anyone else’s to judge what other people do and try to stop them. Maybe video games fuck people up, maybe they don’t. But it should be the person’s CHOICE to play them or not. Their choice and their choice alone. His parents may have had his spiritual well-being at heart, but that doesn’t give them the right to search him for games and music because that just makes his life harder. Video games are the most violent media there is, but people who play them need to remember the difference between games and real life. Everyone I know is pretty much a hardcore gamer and none of them have gone on a shooting spree because they understand that. People (I am looking in your direction Jack Thompson) need to stop trying to ruin it because of a few nutjobs that crack under pressure.
Gaming is a great media, but people have to remember to leave your aggression behind when you put down the controller or walk away from the keyboard. If everyone can do that, I’m pretty sure we could undo the damage that has been done to the gaming industry (as well as wipe Jack Thompson from the face of the earth, a relief for me personally as he isn’t the prettiest weirdo around).
I’m sorry that religion has indoctrinated you since the day you were born, just as it has and does kids of different religions all over the world. I’m sorry that your social, sexual and cultural repression leads to a somehow meaningful release in “heavy metal” along with other meaningless endeavors, rather than really engaging with a world whose survival may depend on your active participation. Time to grow up now! We’re in this together.
Okay then.
*cracks fingers*
First off, the religion of either party (the church, the boy, or his family) because if he, the church, or his family were truly a member of said faith, they would not, under any circumstances have abused their child, peer or clergy in such a manner. However in most cases the thought that this is a human factor, i.e. that the people involved make mistakes some of them grave and horrible as what he did, or that his family thought what they were doing was best (if not really what would be appropriate). In my very, very, very, honest opinion I think that there is no god, I know how controversial it sounds, especially being written onto a comment of a website, but it is a valid platform. I being of little faith, can see that his background was severely lacking in social care and upbringing. No one needs religion, video games, or even to have fun, in order to survive and be happy in this world. I am one without religion, I do play video games and I do have fun, I also would never kill another human being, why do this act? It serves no purpose, whether of frustration or anger, greed or what, it makes no sense to kill anything without a valid purpose. Music doesn’t tell you to kill, video games don’t tell you to kill, parents don’t even tell you to kill. It is all on the person to decide why and how they want to do something. If they feel the need to kill another being, there has to be a reason that they find feasible, that they can forgive themselves for. After all, there isn’t an after life in my belief, it’s nothing moral that prevents me from being a maniac serial killer/rapist or down right fiendish person, it’s just the sense that it wouldn’t serve a purpose to me personally. I have nothing to gain and neither did this young man. He was without love for the most part, with that he would have probably not snapped so thoroughly. Sad story.
he should have nuked the whole church
Long post – covers
- my theroy on the clergys involvement
- The parents involvement
- Why media effects theroy sucks
- An exception for pornography.
- Summary
Now i personally think the clergy was probably catholic, which would explain a lot. They were still a bad influence with all their censorship, but they are less to blame then many athiests hype them to be.
The parents are insane subscribers of media effects theroy. Like a previous poster said, they sound like “Spanish inquisition meets Fort Knox”. Seriously, they kept about a tight ship as mail during military times. This feeling of isolation, not the fact that he didn’t have video games/TV, is what caused feelings of rebellion. Notice, also he repressed his anger. “They threw me around the room loll”. Repressed + angry + wanted to rebel is pretty bad on its own, there are many tales of people like that snapping. But even with that dynamite combination, thats still wouldn’t make you a mass murderer. As an earlier poster pointed out, this kid was also crazy, and violent by nature. Repressed + violent + angry + crazy + wanted to rebel = o ****. Blaming this phenomina on no video games = killing spree is over simplified, and the evidence is based on a corrolation between declining violence and the release of violent video games. This is fairly weak, as there are thousands of factors like that. If you want to hear my rant on media effects theroy, read on.
Now for a rant on media effects theroy: Most people simply are for media effects theroy because they see a violent kid, and he watches violent movies. They assume its the movies fault. This is poor evidence, because it just as easily could be the other way around. The rest of people people that subscribe to media effects theroy simply are for the precautionary principle. Most of the people against media effects theroy point out there is no proof, the burden of proof is on the censors, so why can’t i play video games? Simple – the precautionary principle. But i haven’t argued myself in a corner. The thing is, media effects theroy didn’t start with video games. It goes back to rock music, books, to the friggin alphabet. Learning the alphabet was at one point considered to put you at risk for violent behavior. This theroy has been around for thousands of years, without any proof. The theroy should have been proven by now, which= is actually a bit of weak evidence that its not true. So i believe, since we’ve tried it out the censors evidenceless argument for thousands of years, its high time we drop the precautionary principle. “oh no” you say. “Modern media are oh so differant from learning the alphabet”. No, the argument is the exact same, no matter what form of media you use. The one exception is pornography, due to physical response. If you wish to know a bit more, read on.
Pornography addiction is really a subset of sexual addiction, or in rare cases the same as an addiction to the colour pink. Sexual release is therorized to reduce the occurance of rape, weakly evidenced by the corrolation between increase in porn access and decrease in rape, with a lack of other explanations for this phenomona.
In summary, and back on track, the kid was crazy, and isolating and abusing him was what turned him from crazy to mass murderer. Not playing games has little to no involvement, and media effects theroy is bunk.
Serves them right to get killed by the guy that they denied all the entertainment from. This is justice.
Not that the idiots would even learn a lesson, though, their theories have been proven wrong so many times. What they are really mad at is not that violent media causes problems in real life situations, but rather the fact that the never got into enjoying a good movie, game or music. They never tried to see the matter from the viewpoint of a normal consumer they so harshly criticize for doing it. If they could just TRY it sometimes they’d see that it doesn’t result in a killing frenzy.
Well at least we have 5 fewer idiots on the planet now, shame it took 1 descent guy though.
No matter what his upbringing, in the end, the responsibility for his actions lies in the shooter. You have no control over what happens to you, but you do have control over how you react to what happens to you and your actions.
no you don’t
not always.
every heard of phsycological disorders??? (just one example where you might lose control. severe physical or psycological trauma might cause this)
i could go on for quite some time. (drugs for example)
so things are not as black and white as you’d like
but most of you are missing the point. it’s not the fact he couldn’t play videogames or listen to rock music. he was severely abused!!!
there are tons of people who aren’t allowed videogames (amish people for instance) do they go shooting up churches?
NO!!!!
if some1 decides to such a thing he obviously has some sort of phsycological disorder (be it genetic or caused by serious trauma).
what i’m trying to say is THEY ARE ALL INDIVIDUAL CASES AND SHOULD BE TREATED AS SUCH!!!!
making such generalazations is not only stupid but possibly dangerous!
This is why I’m an Atheist- religion kills people.
Nope people kill people. Usually intentionally.
my name explains it all. i think this shit sucks! Christianity should be banned from everything. and kept in the church at all times- and thats where it should stay. i’m up for freedom of expression and all- buy seriously?
CHRISTIANITY IS A CULT FOLLOWING A MYSTIC “SPIRIT” THAT IMPREGNATED SOME VIRGIN AND HAD A ZOMBIE CHILD!
serously- there was stuff posted in the bible about jesus using prostitution- and drugs and ya know what- he “sinned” too-excuse me- was HUMAN!
i do not worship the devil- i am simply an anti-Christ supporter
thank you
i suppose
Well.. Here’s my opinion.
By the way, if you don’t want to read a rant, I suggest you don’t scroll down.
Responsibility-
Why blame the shooter? Sure Murray was the one that pulled the trigger, but did anyone consider the puppeteer that was pulling his finger? Seems to me that the parents and clergy are at fault for caging him up with no release for all his stifled emotions. He was repressed, locked down, beaten, and interrogated. All on the grounds that the things he wanted to do were works of “the devil.” If I was in his position, I could definitely see myself snapping in some way too. Of course, I’m not the kind of person that could ever kill my fellow man, but to each his own.
Religion-
It’s been around for a long long time. I think it may have started with good intentions, but nowadays I can’t think of a single religion that hasn’t changed in some way. Some religions still exist with good intentions, (I.E. Buddhism, Taoism, Hinduism, etc.) But quite a few, namely Christianity, are so corrupt and dogmatic that it makes me sick. Religion, instead of guiding you through life, is now used as an excuse to hurt, kill, and do other things of that nature. For example, just look at the crusades. Preachers now teach about how those who don’t follow their religion are no longer people. This is complete lunacy. Religion should be about making the world a better place, not shunning those who disagree with you!
Media effect theory-
This is total bull. In my opinion, the whole thing is just humanity trying to find an excuse for their wrongful actions. Example: Both parents are outwardly violent towards their child. Child learns to be violent, grows up watching violent movies. When asked why the child is so violent, the parents just say “Well, it’s just because he watches violent movies. We’ve done nothing wrong!” On the other end of the spectrum, say a different child (who just happens to play violent video games) with a mental condition and repressed anger comes into school with a knife and stabs someone. When asked why he did it, the child simply answers: “It’s not my fault! It was all those violent games that made me think it was okay to stab people!”
In both these examples, the party being questioned just shifted the blame to the easiest target – violent movies/games. And thus, media effect theory.