Okay, it has to be said. First the Ohio mall shooting happened, let's blame video games. No video games found. Now this one, let's blame video games, no video games found. That's two in a row where the killers did NOT partake of the most common entertainment pasttime of their age groups. Wonder how JT is still ending up on TV.

Also, I want to read some of this guys fiction....

What a non-controversial discovery! The news stations must be disappointed.

sheppy, if you're actually interested in reading some of the shooter's stuff, The Smoking Gun has at least one thing he wrote on their site. I was bothered enough by "Richard McBeef" that I didn't try looking to see what else they had.

As for the tone of the post - not to burst your bubble, but the vultures have already moved on and are awaiting the next tragedy to exploit for their pet issue.

why can't people believe a random person can't pick up any gun, load it and shoot a bunch of people at close range without 'special' training? we see guns nonstop on tv and movies and they aren't generally complicated. a couple buttons and a trigger. i used to go to the shooting range and you have to try to miss at less than 10 or 15 feet away.
i wonder what they blamed in 1800? plays? the ball-in-cup game?

So, if we're to employ the same knee-jerk response to things that people like JT use, I think we can safely say that his not playing video games resulted in him shooting up the place.

So parents, force your kids to play murder simulators today!

Thank god!

We can all breathe a sigh of relief...until the media finally needlessly blames all things video game for everything.

"i wonder what they blamed in 1800?"

Witches.

Anyone else surprised that there were no games at all? I'd have expected that they would've at least found Starcraft. ;)

"i wonder what they blamed in 1800?"

They didn't have school shootings in 1800. By the time you finished loading the gun, class was over.

Virginia Governor Tim Kaine said it perfectly about the scumbags who'd rather argue about gun control than focus on helping the victims and their families, which I think applies to the scumbags who have already started accusing video games of causing this tragedy:

“For those who want to make this a political hobby horse they can ride, I’ve got nothing but loathing for them."

I second that, Governor Kaine.

They blamed world of warcraft. It has been in development since the 1800s. Thats why its so big.

Can we officially refer to him as "Jack Thompson, attorney at lawl"?

When Thompson was interviewed on MSNBC or FOX News yesterday morning, I believe he went as far to say he "guaranteed" they would find copies of "these murder simulators that he played".

The most rediculous part was that whoever had him on, they listed his title not as lawyer or activist ... but something asinine such as "School Shooting Expert". Good gawd, they'll just slap anything up there for sensationalism.

We've posted our feelings about violent video games. Hopefully this lack of evidence will silence the anti-gaming pundits for a while.

knowing Mr. "Floridiot" Lawyer, i doubt, dude...

and as far as "marksmanship training" is concerned, anyone can pick up a gun, point it at someone and pull the trigger (if they do have enough strength to pull the trigger). "marksmanship training" only helps in coping with the recoil and increase accuracy of shots..
but AGAIN, any dufos can pick one up and hit someone even out of luck... besides.. movies are doing a better job teaching everyone how to use firearms than video games.

But, but, he played Microsoft's Counterstrike.

"First the Ohio mall shooting happened, let's blame video games. No video games found."

This can only mean that the non-gamer demographic is a serious threat to America. And to think that companies like Nintendo are actually marketing to these monsters!

We've posted our feelings about violent video games. Hopefully this lack of evidence will silence the anti-gaming pundits for a while.

knowing Mr. "Floridiot" Lawyer, i doubt, dude...

and as far as "marksmanship training" is concerned, anyone can pick up a gun, point it at someone and pull the trigger (if they do have enough strength to pull the trigger). "marksmanship training" only helps in coping with the recoil and increase accuracy of shots..
but AGAIN, any dufos can pick one up and hit someone even out of luck... besides.. movies are doing a better job teaching everyone how to use firearms than video games.

Oh dear...games cant be blamed. How about atheism? Terrorism?


Anything rather than blaming the real culprit: America's twisted, stupid and immoral gun laws.

"First the Ohio mall shooting happened, let's blame video games. No video games found."

This can only mean that the non-gamer demographic is a serious threat to America. And to think that companies like Nintendo are actually marketing to these monsters!

What, NO video games??

And this guy was South Korean?

Houston, i think we've spotted the problem!! I think we *CAN* put the blame squarely on video games. A distinct and erie lack of them.

All I can say is, Thank F'n God! I knew that if this loser so much had a copy of Pong in his room, there would be the usual Video Game death storm. Maybe its been averted for the most part. Good old JT and Dr. Phil won't shut up about it of course, but at least this time there isn't any evidence.

"but to the general public if Cho even looked at a video game, it's case-closed."

Stop being so paranoid. The 'general public' is not out to get videogamers. A lot of them enjoy videogames.

Actually, in the 1800s theaters were considered places of loose morals. Some people really did blame plays for the ills of society. Of course Lincoln's assassination in Ford theater by the actor John WIlkes Booth only furthered that perception.

What about the other perspective? Maybe if he'd had Counterstrike he could have vented his anger on it, perhaps this would have happened at his high school if he hadnt had Counterstrike back then.

So anybody want to bet that this won't be showing up on any AP wire or news report this week?

Though it would explain why some writers have moved onto blaming movies...no matter how obscure the connection.

Sheppy...

You're forgetting one.

The Trolley square shooter in SLC, Utah a month ago had no video games either.

So that's actually THREE in a row with no games.

However, I must say this....

I can think of no bigger shame that things have to happen like this before people will believe our community.

I can only hope that our own community will not be like Dr. Phil and JT. I hope will AT LEAST wait for the family to mourn properly before we starting shouting, "SEE!? I TOLD YOU SO!"

@is:

You are an insensitive prick.

If you point fingers at guns and criticize society for pointing at games, you are an idiot and a hypocrite.

If there is a REAL culprit...I say it is CHO! NOTHING AND NO ONE ELSE!!!

NOT guns.

NOT Videogames.

NOT rich kids or society.

NOT homosexuals and sinners.

NOT movies.

CHO is the culprit. PERIOD!

And you are an opportunistic asshole.

soo.. 3 in a row with no games? and 82% own video video games consoles?

That would make it statistically likely that video games REDUCE the chance of you flipping out and shooting people.

t_m:

Some have actually contended that.

I have heard it hypothosized that videogames can provide a safe outlet for people with stress and violent tendencies.

However, 3 shootings with no games is hardly a big enough sample to suggest that is supporting evidence to that theory.

Yes I know you were being ironic, but I just wanted to be sure no idiot read it and decided it was fact.

Maybe the reason gamers aren't killing 33 people in college is because I can blast away my frustrations at some Yakuza gang member or be an arab terrorist in BF2. I'd never harm someone in real life, but I'll bust me some caps in videogame gang land lol

I'm tired of the people that say "I bet he plays video games" when they heard about it. Probably he has at some point, but that just proves that he is in the age group that loves games. Most shooters owned cell phone, that doesn't prove that cell phones causes people to go on shooting rampages. It is really ridicoulous reasoning when they say someone did something and they play video games hence it was because of the video games.

(it reminds me of a simpsons episode where Lisa tries selling Homer a rock that keeps lions away, and it works, because there are no lions, hence the rock worked.)

Good news.

I wonder how ol' Jackie boy will react now? He'll more than likely think the investigation was inaccurate or their is a conspiracy being applied by Microsoft and 2K Games to keep their beloved game 'Counterstrike Half-Life' from being associated with such a tragedy.

Also, i wonder what JT would think of a friend and I...we both play video games very often, even the 'ultra violent' ones like Gears of War and Crackdown (and occasionally GTA ;)), yet...my friend is graduating from seminary (LTSS) this May and will be pastoring a Lutheran church in the Northeastern Pennsylvania area and I will be starting seminary (LTSS as well) to become a Lutheran pastor as well this summer.

Hmm...

@ Derbeste

There is only one idiot here my friend and thats you. How far would he have got on his killing spree with out guns????? Please, how far??? We don't have guns in England and while we do have gun crime we don't have kids walking around campus shooting the hell out of there fellow students. Thats because getting hold of guns is very very hard!!

The saddest thing is i'm not even sure how long he will hold the 'record' of 32 kills before some one else out does him.

A few random points...

The media used this as an anti-gaming story. Now that the connection has been proven false, they will move on without reporting that it has nothing at all to do with games. In the end, this will actually be an incident that pushes clueless people towards having more hatred of games. It will be another piece of evidence, since only the game connection will get national attention. That is how the TV makes our society believe lies in general.

If everybody had a gun, Cho would have only gotten 2 or 3. Maybe 5 or 6 if he was lucky/good.

Video games don't really teach you how to kill. They don't teach you how to acquire or operate a gun. They don't teach you how to aim (dual analog and WASP are nothing like aiming a real gun, and you don't get floating crosshairs and zoom when you go into aim mode). All they teach you is that big guns kill better and headshots make people die with less shotz.

Things to check list when finding something to blame for any school shooting:

Video games
Left wing conspiracy
Atheism
Films
Music
Terrorism
Muslims
Abortions (one of the father of a dead actually cited abortions as one of the causes of school shooting when interviewed on a British telly)

Kris...

And we all know England has NO history of violence in it's past right?

please.

Besides....I never said I was a gunning touting member of the NRA. I never said I wasn't for gun control either.

I merely said that CHO is to blame for what happened. And pointing the finger at ANYTHING else is hyprocisy.

Others can play the "how far would he have gone" game too.

How about:

"this wouldn't have happened if he didn't have guns"

"This wouldn't have happened if he had better parents"

"This wouldn't have happened if we wouldn't allow immigration of just ANYONE"

"This wouldn't have happened if we banned violent videogames"

"This wouldn't have happened if we were all communist and made sure no one was rich."

See the pattern!? There is ALWAYS something to blame. Why must we always blame the tool and not the person wielding it????

It's called PERSONAL responsibility. Not inatimate object responsibility.

As many people have already pointed out, shit went down before games....

Well.....SHIT WENT DOWN BEFORE GUNS TOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(P.S. I agree with you more than I let on about gun control, but I think nothing will EVER be truly solved until we start addressing people before tools. Go for the root CAUSE...not the symptom.)

Games are a way to escape the bullshit thats in real life. It the same reason why I play guitar. I like losing myself in the music. Music/games help me cope with the fucking stupid shit that occurs in life. Some people have mental problems that cause them to be insecure and crazy. If you mix a bad childhood, drugs, violence with mental instability the negative results are tremendous.

Blame society/religion for (most) of our hate and insecurities. People are assholes that make fun and judge of other people for liking a certain thing or acting a certain way. Thats why world world is such a cluster fuck.

@32_Footsteps,

I read that Richard McBeef. I think what drove him to kill is his horrid ability at spinning a yarn. Seriously, what a piece of shit smeared into the form of text that was.

@kris

I am not a gun activists by any stretch of the imagination. In fact, I hate em. Saw far too many in my lifetime and far too much violence. So it's with that attitude that I respond to you now.

Are you a "special" case? If getting a gun through legal means is too difficult, illegal means are there and those aren't too hard to find either. Trying to blame this on guns is blatantly ignorant. If Cho didn't have guns, bombs aren't that hard to make. Or even chaining the doors (like he did) and going about some good old fashioned Arson. He would have found a way to do what he did. It just so happens the gun was the only way he could personally get close to the victims. As for your record comment, dude, this was a record established in 1966. That's over 40 years. Doubtful we'll see it anytime soon no matter how much that disappoints you.

And, incidently, it's REAL easy to get a gun in Canada and the gun to person ratio is almost equal to the states. Where is their 30,000 a year kill count? This violence, sadly, is an American thing. NOT A GUN THING. Guns are the instrument but the violence is still inherent.

Someone go shoot someone and say you did it because JT is a douchebag, and you were tired of his lies.

Be sure to sell off all of your videogames first.


Actually... maybe you shouldn't shoot someone...


Heres what this all comes down to.

Cho was stressed cause nobody liked him, and he had no friends... shit happens. He was jealous of rich kids and their nice cars and parties. Nobody paid attention to him, and he snapped.

Cho is a pansy. I had a hard time in Junior High, but get over it. Go to public places and make some goddamn friends. Cho was just a coward who took an easy way out and tried to make a statement that people need to be nicer and not so spoiled... is it true? yeah, it is, but, killing 32 people (and yourself) is no way to prove a point.

Suicide would have been a better answer for him. If he doesn't like the way things were, kill himself, not other.

I have friends - I saw to it that we hang out together
I have a nice car - I paid for it myself
I drink vodka - Party time with friends

F*** you Cho, you dickhead. Grow a pair and man up.

In this case, the media have been forced to examine the mental state of the killer, rather than looking for scapegoats such as video games. It's obvious from his writings and his videotaped rant that he was mentally ill.

Also, I have to question a background check that only looks for a criminal record, and not at the fact that he had been declared "a danger to himself and others" by the state of Virginia only last year.

I also agree with jacks last comment.

I've been agreeing with him a lot recently... weird.

Sheppy

"This violence, sadly, is an American thing"

No its a human thing. Everywhere in the world violence occurs. In alot of place violence is ten times worse. We humans are programmed for violence.

Its in our genes. For thousands of years people have been at war because of differences in money, religion, power and race. Its so fucking stupid.

Sheppy....

It's an American thing eh?

Ironic, then, that the record is now held by a SOUTH KOREAN!!

Think before you type please.

Once again...blaming this on ANYTHING but CHO is right out WRONG!

i wonder if this will be reported on cnn

Incidently... news of Cho's mental past.

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/years/2007/0419071cho1.html

His comically bad yet disturbingly violent (it's violent without context in other words) play, Richard McBeef

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/years/2007/0417071vtech1.html

Derbeste

We are blaming Cho for his actions. For every action there is a equal and opposite reaction. Something caused him to go overboard.

Pwned.

Jack...

I garantee it wasn't guns, or games, or Americans that CAUSED him to go bad.

Chemical imbalance....maybe.

But as I have been saying....

People got killed before guns.

People got killed before games.

People got killed before America.

In fact, biblical resources (take it for whatever that is worth) SUGGEST that the 4th person EVER killed the 3rd man ever...

In other words.....the only thing people have NOT been killed before.....is PEOPLE.

Aside from dubious religious documents, records do show that killing people is older than the hills.

I personally think "cause" is an innaccurate word. All people have ever needed to kill another one......is a reason and a weapon (and sense even your bare hands can be a weapon....really all you need a reason).

However, this is my big point...

Tool =/= cause

Corrolation =/= Causation

So what CAUSED Cho to do what he did?

CHO DID!

His OWN choices! He has free will. He is his own cause! (though I will admit that psychological abnormalities may have been a part of Cho was.)

But imbalances notwithstanding, all he needed was a reason and he CHOSE rich kids to be that reason.

You don't see us blaming rich kids for this do you?

So let's just blame CHO!

@Jack, Derbeste

Statistically speaking, America is a much more violent culutre. Find me one area in the world with 30,000 gun deaths a year. I'll even be nice and let you include war zones. We are the champions, my friends. Even the Iraq war is lightweight considering the amount of deaths in the US each day.

I wish this was a global thing but America wins in this category. And no, derbeste, I didn't say it was because he was American that this happened. But Americans do have the most amount of gun deaths in the world. Maybe we should look at that. Maybe we should look at the celebrity status we give to killers. After all, the Columbine killers were constantly referenced in Cho's manifesto. We've made those two kids into gods as a culture. Ironically enough, Cho mentions he has to die just like Jesus Christ to lead his people from their suffering. Same lines of shit Harris and Krebold put to video before their attack. And what recently made huge news in relation to those two killers?

sheppy: I think you're misinformed about gun control in Canada. We can only get rifles and certain types of handguns up here. Private citizens cannot own automatic weapons in the Great White North. Also, you need a firearms license which requires a course and a safety test, you have to belong to a gun club, and you have to register all of your guns and ammo. On top of that, you're not allowed to carry a gun in public - you have to transport it, unloaded, in a metal case. The police catch you in public with a gun and you will be arrested. Those are some of the reasons there are not 30 000 gun deaths a year up here.

Violence is an inherent part of human nature, but keeping guns out of the hands of violent people is possible without infringing on the rights of average citizens. I'm always confused by the fact that the gun-control debate in the USA always seems like an all-or-nothing proposal. How about restricting gun ownership to people who are not ex-mental patients?

WTF Sheppy??

You're logic is SOO flawed I don't know where to begin....

#1. America is the 3rd most populated country in the WORLD! OF COURSE there is going to be MORE deaths than in Iraq where the population is DRAMATICALLY smaller! You really don't think it's infinately more difficult to police a nation with 300 million people over a nation with about 20 million????

#2. America is VASTLY more industrialized than Iraq, India and even China. So guns are going to be more widely available legally or not!

#3. You attempt (miserably) to limit the discussion of violence to GUNS as if to imply that killing people any other way is somehow more justified and/or civilized!!! HOLY WHAT THE FUCK!!?? I guess handing out blankets with small pox in them or shoving prisoners into ovens is ok way to commit genocide as long as they don't shoot anyone??

#4 I WILL submit a few places that have more gun death PER CAPITA!!!!!!

the Palastine/Israeli conflict.

Somalia and all the gorilla warfare there.

South America is still FULL of Gorilla warfare as well.

And how the recent past of Ireland vs. Scottland!? A little too close to home maybe?

Man really....STFU. You look like a moron.