Parents Sue Over Game Linked to Shooting

[Sean Reynolds]

SNIP:

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=519&ncid=519&e=20&u=/ap/20031022/ap_on_re_us/video_game_lawsuit_1

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. - A $246 million lawsuit was filed against the designer, marketer and a retailer of the video game series "Grand Theft Auto" by the families of two people shot by teenagers apparently inspired by the game.

SNIP:

Thompson, who said he sent letters to Sony and Wal-Mart to drop the game before the shootings, said, "It's not like this is coming out of the blue, they chose to ignore this danger."


San Mateo, Calif.-based Sony and Bentonville, Ark.-based Wal-Mart did not return calls for comment Tuesday. The lawsuit alleges the retail giant sold the game to the Buckners about a year before the shootings.

SNIP:

Thompson has made similar claims in the past and lost, notably a $33 million lawsuit against video game makers stemming from the 1997 school shooting near Paducah, Ky., by a 14-year-old boy.


The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals (news - web sites) ruled in the case last year that it was "simply to far a leap from shooting characters on a video screen to shooting people in a classroom."
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Maybe if the parents actually were WATCHING their kids this would have never happened? Jesus, yet again the video game industry becomes a scapegoat for brutal crimes. It boggles the mind that they can continually blame movies and video games as reason to why a child or person kills. Let me guess, Hitler was an avid fan fan of GTA III too, right?