Were Video Gaming to Blame for the Virgina Technology Massacre?

Perpetrators only hours following the Virgina Tech firing had ended up accusing computer Click here for the bloodiest massacre in U.S. history.This is what Jack Thompson told Fox or anyone else who would listen that 'These are real lives. These are real people who are in the ground today because of this sport. I've without doubt about it,' Thompson is an attorney for Florida and an avid critic of the video game industry.The video game that Thompson was emphasizing was Counter Strike 'a massively preferred team-based tactical shooting game that puts participants in the heavily armed boots of whether counter-terrorist or terrorist.'The problem here is the shooter, Seung-Hui Cho is not even known to be considered a huge fan of the game table strike.After the shooting the video game industry was shocked that the hand was being pointed to them even though Seung-Hui Cho was recorded to being psychologically disturbed and had a history of violent acts in the past.Thompson got so strong that he named gamers 'knuckleheads' and referred to video games as 'emotional masturbation.' He considers himself a crusader or master within the war against the video game business. Very daring for some body who probably has not performed many video games in his life.'In modern times he's blamed games such as 'Counter-Strike,' 'Doom' and 'Grand Theft Auto III' for college shootings in Littleton, Colo., Red Lake, Minn. and Paducah, Ky.' As a result and not surprisingly Thompson has launched several unsuccessful lawsuits.Thompson explains that the advertising, specifically video games glorifies killing especially on a huge scale which means getting a fibre of the type of the person playing the video games.By Tuesday after the shootings it was known that Seung-Hui Cho in high school was a huge fan of violent video game especially 'Counter-Strike.' Nevertheless Cho's college suite-mate said he had never witnessed Cho play video games.Thompson actually sent a letter to Bill Gates describing that Microsoft was potently accountable for the damage done at Virgina Tech stating that Counter Strike is game designed to mimic killing and how exactly to kill.Thompson does declare that there where many factors that result in the shooting but video games are what provided Cho with the skills required to execute what he did.On the flip side is 'Dr. Karen Sternheimer, a sociologist at the University of Southern Calfornia and author of the guide 'Kids These Days: Facts and Fictions About Today's Youth,' disagrees.' She figures that it did not take much talent for Cho to accomplish what he did particularly sense there where many eye-witnesses that saw people where shot a place blank range.For all the claims Thompson made about video games being the reason behind all the violence, Sternheimer relates the shooting at the University of Texas in 1966 when Pong hadn't actually come to exist yet.'One thing that people usually don't understand is that in the years since video game sales have really exploded, not only have childhood violence rates lowered but violence rates within the U.S. have dropped precipitously,' she added. She also included it's rather typical for a guy like Cho to have played video games sooner or later in his life.The basic answer is blame some one like the video game business for such a complected issue since we as a society want solutions we want closure.This obviously isn't initially pop-culture has been the theif for anything, while in the 50's it was rock and roll, the 30's it was Jazz, literature, TV, Movies have all been there as well. What Thompson does is he feeds off of the anxiety about people that do not realize video games. A standard term is 'What you never recognize scarys you.'There have been organizations established to counter act and knowledge people on what video game are actually for and that video games are not killing simulators.Being a gamer myself I am aware there are lots of normal people enjoying video game like Counter Strike that would have no intension of kill everyone afterwards, people play for fun and being an escape not to replicate what they'll do in actual life, those who do that like Cho are emotionally disturbed.