8-year old kills caregiver after playing Grand Theft Auto IV

Link

Here we go again folks...I can already imagine the politicians going after gaming again after they read this!

Better get it before Hillary Clinton has GTA V pulled from store shelves.

So the child lived in a trailer park and had direct access to firearms. I think videogames are the least issue here.

Letting the kid have access to GTA4 was dumb, letting the kid have access to a gun was dumber. I get that the parents might have been working or whatever, but they should have made sure that the home was reasonably child proof before leaving the kid there. Of course, while its remotely possible the PS3 and copy of GTA4 belonged to the grandmother, its far more likely they are what the parents bought for the kid.

I know a lot of parents differ, but I don't let my kids (oldest is 12, yougest is 8) anywhere near guns or GTA. Both are fine for older teenagers or adults, but they aren't things little kids need to be exposed to.

It's not GTA's fault, it's the kid that can't separate reality from fantasy. The game is mature rated for something...

Link

Here we go again folks...I can already imagine the politicians going after gaming again after they read this!

Metamania

So the child lived in a trailer park and had direct access to firearms. I think videogames are the least issue here.

Black_Knight_00

Terrible. The kid is now f*cked for life all because his dumb pos parents couldnt lock up their guns.

[QUOTE="Black_Knight_00"]

So the child lived in a trailer park and had direct access to firearms. I think videogames are the least issue here.

luno-gamer

[QUOTE="luno-gamer"][QUOTE="Black_Knight_00"]

So the child lived in a trailer park and had direct access to firearms. I think videogames are the least issue here.

Black_Knight_00

So the child lived in a trailer park and had direct access to firearms. I think videogames are the least issue here.

Black_Knight_00

This is on OT too.Allicrombie

Yeah, I was going to point out that 8-year-old kills his grandmother after playing GTA was posted 2 days ago.

As far as the topic goes, there is plenty of blame to go around and video games is the least of it. 

[QUOTE="Metamania"]

Link

Here we go again folks...I can already imagine the politicians going after gaming again after they read this!

Jacanuk

Some debates are for sale, and the NRA spends more than the ESA. But the majority of americans are educated enough (even in Louisiana) to recognize there are more things wrong here than a videogame. It's just that dumb people are louder and drive an unfortunate amount of american politics when they are mistaken for the majority simply because they are obnoxious enough to drown everything else out.

This is incredibly awful news. What I find even more increbile though is the spewing of judgement from both sides. Call me crazy, but I find that there is always more to the story than what is released in the news. Be it bad parenting, video games or guns; unless you are actually involved in the situation or know the family very well then I don't see anyone having a place to speak on the matter regarding what happened.

There certainly isn't enough here to come to any conclusion as to why it happened, only that there was a gun which was easily accessible and the child was playing a video game prior to the incident. based off of the sheriif's department's statement, both the child and the care-giver, had a normal, loving relationship. Beyond that it's pure speculation and it only cheapens this heinous incident when people attempt to arm-chair quarterback their bias perspective.

I suppose it would be different if parties on all sides discussing/debating this walked away with a better understanding of each other's stance but I've never seen that happen. All I've ever seen is events such as these get lost in a sea of personal polictical agendas and judgement. 

This is incredibly awful news. What I find even more increbile though is the spewing of judgement from both sides. Call me crazy, but I find that there is always more to the story than what is released in the news. Be it bad parenting, video games or guns; unless you are actually involved in the situation or know the family very well then I don't see anyone having a place to speak on the matter regarding what happened.

There certainly isn't enough here to come to any conclusion as to why it happened, only that there was a gun which was easily accessible and the child was playing a video game prior to the incident. based off of the sheriif's department's statement, both the child and the care-giver, had a normal, loving relationship. Beyond that it's pure speculation and it only cheapens this heinous incident when people attempt to arm-chair quarterback their bias perspective.

I suppose it would be different if parties on all sides discussing/debating this walked away with a better understanding of each other's stance but I've never seen that happen. All I've ever seen is events such as these get lost in a sea of personal polictical agendas and judgement. 

 

juradai

publicity is publicity.  keep increasing the sales.

We have a tendency of over simplyfing everything. Its bad parents, its the unsecured gun, its mental ill kid etc. I guess its illogical to concieve that there could be more than one factor. :|

1) Trailer park grand parent is taking care of an 8 year old but apparently isn't paying any attention to what he's doing.

2) Child has access to an unsecured, loaded firearm.

3) Child was left playing a violent video game rated for children 10 years older than him by his caretaker.

Clearly, the video game is at fault. If he didn't have access to the gun, I'm sure this 8 year old would have bludgeoned her to death with the video game console. :roll:

-Byshop

Whenever I see something like this it makes me laugh some because when I was 8 I had a shotgun, a rifle and 2 pistols that I kept in my room with ammunition. I didnt have games like that as a kid though but I had seen a lot of movies like they call her one eye and often frequented the horror section at the local game store.

Difference was I was taught how to properly handle guns and my grandma also explained to me that movies are just people pretending.

I dont know, maybe growing up on a farm gave me a different outlook on things I dont know.

But to me this entire story begins and ends with the parents. It has nothing to do with the games, it just happened to be just there. Thats like saying "That show COPS is to blame because the child had access to something that showed people shooting a gun"

Whenever I see something like this it makes me laugh some because when I was 8 I had a shotgun, a rifle and 2 pistols that I kept in my room with ammunition. I didnt have games like that as a kid though but I had seen a lot of movies like they call her one eye and often frequented the horror section at the local game store.

Difference was I was taught how to properly handle guns and my grandma also explained to me that movies are just people pretending.

I dont know, maybe growing up on a farm gave me a different outlook on things I dont know.

But to me this entire story begins and ends with the parents. It has nothing to do with the games, it just happened to be just there. Thats like saying "That show COPS is to blame because the child had access to something that showed people shooting a gun"

Gargus

You can't even argue this. What is an 8-year old playing an M-rated game and how is he able to grab a gun that easily? CAN'T THEY EVER **** SEE THAT INSTEAD OF BLAMING A RATED VIDEO GAME?!?!?!?!! This pisses me off so badly.

[QUOTE="Gargus"]

Whenever I see something like this it makes me laugh some because when I was 8 I had a shotgun, a rifle and 2 pistols that I kept in my room with ammunition. I didnt have games like that as a kid though but I had seen a lot of movies like they call her one eye and often frequented the horror section at the local game store.

Difference was I was taught how to properly handle guns and my grandma also explained to me that movies are just people pretending.

I dont know, maybe growing up on a farm gave me a different outlook on things I dont know.

But to me this entire story begins and ends with the parents. It has nothing to do with the games, it just happened to be just there. Thats like saying "That show COPS is to blame because the child had access to something that showed people shooting a gun"

luno-gamer

I think its more likely the kid isnt psycho. The child just has absolutely no concept of what guns actually do in real life when used against a real person. Hence why it is the parents fault for leaving a gun someplace a 8 year can get to and having the ammunition for it also someplace an 8 year can get to it as well.

Ive been a nurse and been in the mental health field long enough to know there arent that mant psychotic children running around. Most "Psycho kids" are purely illmannered, poorly bred, spoiled, asshole little kids who need a spanking and a stern parent to raise them. The vast majority of kids with mental problems are not violent in the least, they have emotional problems or social problems for the majority. Sure some children can be psychotic, but they are 1 in a million because children who grow up to be psychotic adults usually dont manifest psychotic behavior in childhood in the same manner as you would expect. The majority of violent behavior in children is simply a product of a poor growth enviornment.

[QUOTE="luno-gamer"][QUOTE="Gargus"]

Whenever I see something like this it makes me laugh some because when I was 8 I had a shotgun, a rifle and 2 pistols that I kept in my room with ammunition. I didnt have games like that as a kid though but I had seen a lot of movies like they call her one eye and often frequented the horror section at the local game store.

Difference was I was taught how to properly handle guns and my grandma also explained to me that movies are just people pretending.

I dont know, maybe growing up on a farm gave me a different outlook on things I dont know.

But to me this entire story begins and ends with the parents. It has nothing to do with the games, it just happened to be just there. Thats like saying "That show COPS is to blame because the child had access to something that showed people shooting a gun"

Gargus

I think its more likely the kid isnt psycho. The child just has absolutely no concept of what guns actually do in real life when used against a real person. Hence why it is the parents fault for leaving a gun someplace a 8 year can get to and having the ammunition for it also someplace an 8 year can get to it as well.

Ive been a nurse and been in the mental health field long enough to know there arent that mant psychotic children running around. Most "Psycho kids" are purely illmannered, poorly bred, spoiled, asshole little kids who need a spanking and a stern parent to raise them. The vast majority of kids with mental problems are not violent in the least, they have emotional problems or social problems for the majority. Sure some children can be psychotic, but they are 1 in a million because children who grow up to be psychotic adults usually dont manifest psychotic behavior in childhood in the same manner as you would expect. The majority of violent behavior in children is simply a product of a poor growth enviornment.

So the child lived in a trailer park and had direct access to firearms. I think videogames are the least issue here.

Black_Knight_00

Hence why it is the parents fault for leaving a gun someplace a 8 year can get to and having the ammunition for it also someplace an 8 year can get to it as well.Gargus

"(CNN) -- An 8-year-old Louisiana boy intentionally shot and killed his elderly caregiver after playing a violent video game, authorities say."

I think the main issue here is how did an 8-year old child get hold of a loaded gun? A secondary issue is how did an 8 year-old boy get hold of a Mature rated game?

Maybe they should have titled the article by framing it in those contexts (especially the gun part!) instead of assuming blame on the video game itself. Title of article should have been "8-year-old shoots, kills elderly caregiver after gaining access to loaded gun".