Grossman Blames School Shootings on Video Games On the Lecture Circuit
By Shawn on Tuesday, October 9th, 2007 at 12:58 PM PST In Gamer Life, Games
Longtime video game critic Lt. Col. Dave Grossman is on the war path around the U.S. lecturing about the evils of video games. The “expert” witness for Jack Thompson is leveling accusations that the rise in school shootings is directly related to the violence children are exposed to.
“The price that we pay for violence goes far beyond the dead in the world, and the goal is to try to limit that,” says Col. Dave Grossman, school violence expert.
Col. Grossman says it comes from what our kids see, like violent video games and TV. He says it’s our jobs to deter what our kids take in.
Ironically, Grossman ’s Lancaster county Pennsylvania appearance was scheduled because of the tragic Nickel Mines school shooting at an Amish school house last year. The gunman was a 32 year old non gamer.
Grossman is a former Army Ranger and Westpoint Psychologist that tours the lecture circuits 300 days a year. He is considered an expert on school violence by some and has had a book published on the subject.via Game Politics
soooooooo books arent a source of violence ?……… this is bulshit games and tv arent the source of violence….the people who did it are dont blame others.
So he’s trying to blame an Amish school shooting on games?
And I thought jack thompson was crazy.
I can give you 20 school shootings by gamers, who trained on the games, such as Weis in Red Lake, the Dawson College shooter in Montreal, Carneal in Paducah, Klebold and Harris in Littleton, the school shooter in Wellsboro, PA, the school gunman in Fairfax, VA, the school shooter in Anchorage, the Lords of Doom school shooters in Ft. Myers, Malvo as the DC Sniper, Chas. McCoy, the serial highway shooter in Columbus, Jason McLaughlin in Cold Spring, MN, Joshua Cooke in Herndon, Va.
Do you gamer nerds want me to continue? Jack Thompson
Jack Thompson (And I really doubt you are him) is an asshole.
I kill people all the time in games, I haven’t shot anyone yet in real life. Gee, I wonder why….O thats right, I’m not a psycho.
It’ll then be interesting to see what the UK investigation throws up (different article on here). Considering it seems to be going in with an objective attitude, it might shed some light on this whole matter…of course, that doesn’t mean it can be applied to the US. Considering you guys do things differently to us over there, I don’t know how well it will be translateable.
The guy here in Montreal only played one game… nice try.
Am I the only one who sees a correlation between the rise in violence and the how much time parents actually spend with their children? Has anyone ever watched the old Tom and Jerry cartoons? That poor cat was blown up, skinned, his tail cut off, etc. There weren’t a slew of cat assaults…lol.
In my day…yes I said that…we ate dinner together at the table. That square, circle, or oval piece of furniture not far from the kitchen. Now since I work through dinner time my child is on the couch but right next to me and I monitor closely what she watches and plays. Parents, wheter they are gamers or not, need to look into what their kids are playing. They do that for what car they might buy them, first bike, girlfriend/boyfriend, friends. It shouldn’t stop at games. Parents to wake the f*** up and monitor their children.
Oh but you see then LaChandra, people would have to realise the problem is on them and obviously, we can’t do with that, so we need to return to scape-goatism! [just a bit of sarcasm there, right with you on that one]
Agreed, parents need to take more responsibility for their actions regarding their children. If its the games fault for making them violent then its the parents fault for being a big enough retard to buy their kids or allow their kids to play violent video games or watch violent TV.
Can I also add that I’m sick and tired of parents scared to tell their kids no. Don’t get me wrong sometimes having them mad at you hurts but it pays off. Let them sit there and cry. If you stood up to them when they were young you wouldn’t have half the problems that you have now.
I am proud to have a well behaved, well mannered 8 yr old. She has one system, a DS. I have a Wii and a PS2. They are not hers nor will she have one until she proves she is responsible enough. (I’m on the fence about the PS2 cause I hate sharing it. I rarely get to play my ‘grown up’ games)
She will not own a PSP until she is at least 10. Her DS is scratched up and she lost her charger. I am kinda off topic but I firmly believe the word no is a good thing.
LaChandra, if you were here I would hug you.
Most of (not all, Society isn’t totally off the hook) this stuff is on the parents.
I agree with S.T.A.L.K.E.R. If LaChandra was here I would hug her. You took the words about Tom and Jerrie right out of my mouth.
Jack Thompson, how can someone “train” to load, chamber, hold securely, use the sights, and fire with discrimination, all by playing a video game? They can’t.
Now I don’t disagree with you that video games and violent video games take PART in the actions of other people; however, you take it to far as to say they should be banned from all to play. You should be fighting to enforce more strict ESRB rating and for shop owners to take more scrutiny and discrimination in what age groups they are sold to, but parents are also very accountable for poor judgment of what their kids should play. If it has to be taken as far as you have to take a mental wellness test and have an official piece of evidence showing you are legally allowed to purchase and use a game of certain ratings above a specified rating, I would be all for it.
Just because Tom and Jerrie blew each other up constantly on their cartoon show, kids back in that time didn’t go out and start putting explosives in their friends locker as a joke or the school bullies locker expecting neither of them to come out hurt but only covered in black soot. Get over yourself.
I am a large teenager and I have been a large kid since Kindergarten and I would be picked on constantly; for example, I would be called “Chunky Munkey” (intensionally spelled), fatty, lardy, wall, world big boy, pregnant boy, and just plain fat ass. If I sat in someones seat they would refuse to sit back down because they would get “infected” with the fat virus. I can not remember many days I did not come home crying.
I have played violent video games for 7-8 years now and I am 17. I have done nothing to seriously hurt another human being (intentionally, but those were pure accidents where like I wasn’t looking or didn’t see a person there) even though I play these games. If it were not for these games for me to vent my anger and frustration and channel it into some other form of stress relief I believe I would have most likely by now done something drastic such as a shooting or knifing. I have never once had such a thought reach my mind.
I have plenty of friends now who are good and intelligent people in my eyes. I am still a large person and they accept it and makes jokes but in a “I’m only messing with you, I really don’t mean it” type of way.
I challenge you, Jack Thompson, to name one incident where some human being killed another human being SOLELY because they played a violent video game. No cheating, two people who have never met or known each other in any way, form, or place, and one shoots the other just because in a video game a random person got shot, they don’t even talk to each other or communicate in any form, the other just kills them, no motivation.
That includes; money, revenge, personal gain, robbery, religious cause, racial cause, nationality cause, national and/or international conflict, brainwashing, unintentional, accidental, personal deficiencies, mental insanity, mental stress, mental confusion, mental diseases, physical deformities, drunkenness of either the killer or victim, currently on medications, any substance that impairs the body or mind, politics, hatred of a public person, references to a public person, and anything you think of to weasel in an answer.
You are also a stereotype, causing it so that only the small percentage of people who violent video games and have done criminal acts ,in PART of their history of playing violent video games, represent all of the 10’s of millions, correct me if I am wrong on that number, of people who play violent video games. Those people do represent me or any other individual of the communities who play violent video games, those people only represent THEMSELVES, no one else!
I do want you to reply and I will take it as an act of cowardice and my being right along with the rest of the mentally stable violent video game community if you do not.
Sorry, second to last paragraph last sentence after the third word insert a not.
You do not have permission to quote or use my post(s).
You know what, screw this. Amdin if you see this just delete my last posts, like an idiot like Jack Thompson would respond to that.
I give up.
And we need an edit or delete button here.
Jack never comes back to these things after he comments on them, not any more. Join the rest of us in rubbing our temples to stave off the irriation-headaches and hoping that the patchwork mis-information these sad men have assembled never falls sympathetically on the ears of anybody with authority.
If that was actually Jack Thompson then I am the Pope
Same here STALKER.
I think its fair to say that some kids do draw upon the ideas and concepts learned in video games ALONG WITH, TV, Radio and the internet. However, it still falls back on the PARENTS responsibility to monitor what games they approve and disapprove of. Then again, we know that this typically would happen to a student who has a couple of screws loose to begin with, as I too grew up watching Billy Jack and Kung Foo kick butt, yet never did went to school to kung foo some kid.
I have to wonder of WII’s new gaming whereby a kids actually makes the slashing motion to execute the “kill”.
Parents just don’t want to admit that they arn’t doing their jobs and want to put the blame on something other than themselves.
Blame Canada anyone??? (Its a South Park reference)
Bottom line, a kid bugs out at a school and offs some people, he/she was freakin bent to start with. Ain’t no video game on the planet that would make it any better or worse.
Go, Jack, go!
ye jack listen. 1 like said many times PARENTS 2 if they wanted to kill they would have done it…..they can learn it by doing video games BUT he can also read stuff in books. And if the kid kills hes messed up anywaysz its not the couse of games go get a life and do something usefull. Oh and im still suprised you didnt say anything about The Evil Rock/Metal music muhahah …¬¬
Plain and simple we need to start and keep talking to our kids. I can tell by the look on my daughters face if she’s had a bad day. I ask her what’s wrong, she’ll say nothing, and then I say ok but if something’s bothering you feel free to come to me when you’re ready. I let her know she can come to me no matter what it is. We’ve had the drug converstaion many times, smoking cigarettes many times, and believe it or not sex appropriate discussions for an 8 yr old.
We also need to stop making excuses for children who behave badly. I’m tired of hearing ‘Boys will be boys’ or ‘He/She doesn’t act that way at home’. Duh!
I am going to stop here before I go into a full rant on the bad parenting I see just in my neighborhood. I am only the parent I am because of my parents bad choices. I know what I should and shouldn’t do. The excuse my parents did so why shouldn’t I doesn’t apply or work with everthing. Okay, okay, I’m stepping off my pedestal now. I went off topic again.
what a bloody hypocrite!
here he is saying killing non existant people in a game is evil, but he is part of the US military, an organisation set up to kill REAL people in real life!
please, some one slap him!