U.S. Senator Lamar Alexander: Guns don't kill people, video games do

[RetroGamer1971]

Source: www.dailykos.com

CHUCK TODD (MSNBC): Can you envision a way of supporting the universal background checks bill?
LAMAR ALEXANDER: Chuck, I'm going to wait and see on all of these bills. I think video games is [sic] a bigger problem than guns, because video games affect people. But the First Amendment limits what we can do about video games and the Second Amendment to the Constitution limits what we can do about guns.

Read more: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/01/30/1183287/-U-S-Senator-Lamar-Alexander-Guns-don-t-kill-people-video-games-do?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+dailykos%2Findex+%28Daily+Kos%29

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Holy Crap!

[northoftheborder]

1. Idiot reasoning

[kardonb]

23. idiot

people WITH GUNS kill people , therefore it IS guns that kill people !!!

[Crowman1979]

2. Last time I check, bullets never came out of the screen and killed me when I played "Postal 2".

[derby378]

5. Or the Zombies game in CALL OF DUTY: BLACK OPS II

Even when I've got "The Hammer." Good times abound.

[sinkingfeeling]

3. Really, isn't it bullets that kill people?

[Uncle Joe]

20. Only the fast moving ones, unless you swallow one and choke on it.

[sinkingfeeling]

21. But will you admit that bullets, over all, kill more people than guns?

[Uncle Joe]

22. If you want to separate the two, guns have killed more people than bullets.

Guns have been used in many battles as clubs, bullets have rarely been thrown at the enemy with any real effect.

[Iggo]

4. Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!

Same for anyone who buys this bullshit reasoning.

[RetroGamer1971]

6. Ironic that Justice Scalia was for video games as free speech.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/28/us/28scotus.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

"Justice Antonin Scalia, writing for five justices in the majority in the video games decision, Brown v. Entertainment Merchants Association, No. 08-1448, said video games were subject to full First Amendment protection.

“Like the protected books, plays and movies that preceded them, video games communicate ideas — and even social messages — through many familiar literary devices (such as characters, dialogue, plot and music) and through features distinctive to the medium (such as the player’s interaction with the virtual world),” Justice Scalia wrote. “That suffices to confer First Amendment protection.”

[Drale]

8. That was a huge victory in Regular People vs Cranky Old People

The older generation did the same thing to Comics in the 50's, in fact they won that once and comics were censored for 50 years, and Rock/Metal Music in the 80's when Dee Snider put the smack down on Tipper Gore. They are afraid of what they don't understand and what is different than what they did as kids.

P.S. I apologize, I know not all older folks are like this but it is easier to generalize in this situation because I've never heard a 20-30 year old with any sense in their head say that video game, comic books or Rock and Roll music causing kids to go on killing rampages.

[november3rd]

29. Tony, Tony, Tony

There's a difference between "communicating ideas," and directly implanting adrenalin-gushing experiences into the awareness of a child or teenager.

Scalia is another conservative hack, like Greenspan was.

[yellowcanine]

7. If one's hand slipped off the controls and hit a sharp object, and the resulting cut got

infected with MRSA you could actually DIE.

[frylock]

9. someone should bludgeon this asshole to death with an xbox..

and i'm not being glib.

[cynzke]

10. Along With Demanding Strict Gun Laws...

I think we should be more vocal about how guns and violence are depicted as an acceptable way to resolve our conflicts with others through movies, TV programs and Reality TV programs. There are too many instances where the plot suggests that if you are disrespected or tresspassed against, you must take revenge and using a weapon may be necessary and acceptable. There are people today that believe in witchcraft and vampires by watching stupid tv shows. There are too many programs that glamorize the Rambo like character who is a law unto himself.

[Crowman1979]

11. I also never killed any actual pigs while throwing cute birds at them as well.

[GeorgeGist]

12. Damn straight.

Guns don't affect people.




























just in case.

[aka-chmeee]

13. Absolutely!

Because everyone knows that the only difference between the United States and every nation that doesn't kill off over a thousand people a month is that THEY DON"T HAVE VIDEO GAMES or Violence in media.

[AAO]

14. Wrong on every count!

LAMAR ALEXANDER: Chuck, I'm going to wait and see on all of these bills. I think video games is a bigger problem than guns, because video games affect people. But the First Amendment limits what we can do about video games and the Second Amendment to the Constitution limits what we can do about guns.

1) video games affect people - but GUNS KILL PEOPLE!

2) The first amendment does NOT limit what you can do to video games. Or do you take your 7 year old to Triple X movies?

3) The second amendment does NOT limit common sense gun control.

If these people ever stop lying, they will be in the ashcan of history the following day.

[FreeBC]

15. How does he form this opinion?

Let's see some studies... you know, if he's not just pulling his opinion out of his ass.

[wilt the stilt]

16. personally, i think plaid shirts

with signs sayiing "LAMAR" makes people kill people.

[calimary]

17. Guns don't kill people. People kill people. Yes, certainly. People kill people WITH GUNS.

[AAO]

26. and gun with BULLETS at that!

First we should take the bullets. There's nothing in the Constitution that says you have a right to bullets. If that doesn't work, only only if it doesn't work, then take away the guns. If that doesn't work, then and only then take the people to one of the "FEMA camps".

[TwilightGardener]

18. I'm afraid to drop my sons' XBox games while dusting, for fear they will go off accidentally.

[Javaman]

19. Hey come on! those video games really sting when you get hit with one!

Notice how he deflected the question?

[Samba]

24. Games kill

Games might kill if you let them drop you on a couch 500 hours a year instead of playing tag or soccer. Of course they are better that the stupefying cartoons that can do the same thing and many of the live kids shows are horrible as well - not violent but stupid and unrealistic.

I haven't seen any games where you slaughter helpless people. Generally the opposition is armed and dangerous and fighting back.

Generally the violent pg and teen games are as bad - or worse - than the Mature games. The same assault with deadly weapon intent - minus the gore, death and with lower penalties for dying or friendly fire. The same violence but less of the consequences - the enemy's health bar shrinks and when its empty - poof they're 'gone' without any pain or death or a corpse. Possibly more of the enemies are robots, aliens or monsters than in the adult games.

Of course the same is true of the cartoons - how many times has Elmer Fudd shot Daffy Duck without anything really bad happening? When the Pikachu electrocutes the bad guys they fade off into the sky and are gone for two minutes before they are back good as new.

[Arkana]

31. I'm the biggest defender of video games there is, but this:

"I haven't seen any games where you slaughter helpless people. Generally the opposition is armed and dangerous and fighting back."

...is not entirely true.

There was a mission in Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 called "No Russian", where you, the player, were an undercover agent placed in a Russian terrorist cell, and the mission involved shooting up an airport full of innocent Russian civilians so that the terrorists could pin it on the Americans and start a war.

Now, in Infinity Ward's defense, there was an option when you started a new game to skip this mission if you so desired, due to the EXTREMELY graphic nature of it, but it was still in there and it was pretty controversial at the time.

[John2]

25. Lamar Alexander is

another Southern Politician using rightwing talking points to bring about deception on the real issue. He wants the focus off guns. He wants it more on mental illness and video games. Even this argument that all people with a mental illness is dangerous is deceptive.

A gun is a weapon that can be used to cause serious bodily injury or Death. A video game cannot do that. Yes, it can influence attitudes through dramatization. A play by Shakespeare is dramatization or a re-enactment of historical events such as the Civil War or even the recent Lincoln movie.

I have never been influenced to deliberately go out and murder someone by playing a video game. And believe me I have played many. I have fired guns too and I know the difference. He is trying to insult people's intelligence. In order for those mass killings to be carried out, the killers needed a gun. They would not have accomplished the killings with a video game. Give me a gun and arm this gent just with a video game and see which one of us accomplish serious bodily injury or Death. Would he bet his life on being armed with a video game?

[Mike Daniels]

27. I wonder if Alexander knows that alcohol affects people and accounts for more shootings

than video games.

If is he aware of this little fact I won't hold my breath waiting for him to advocate some sort of action against the alcohol industry.

[Ash_F]

28. I don't understand why pugs are against background checks.

I thought they were tough on crime?

[Arkana]

30. Your argument's invalid, Senator.

I've played every violent video game that exists, and I have never ever felt any urges to recreate a video game in real life. Never.