Newtown shooter did lots of planning and research.

[ManiacJoe]

Tactics learned through gaming also used.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/03/18/newtown-sandy-hook-adam-lanza-massacre-school/1996455/
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/lupica-lanza-plotted-massacre-years-article-1.1291408

[Hayabusa]

1. Bullshit

[ManiacJoe]

2. Which part?

Please enlighten us.

[Hayabusa]

3. Pretty much every single insinuation in the USA Today article

[DollarBillHines]

4. I see all of it being quite valid

Do you have some inside info, anything concrete that would debunk anything in either of those articles?

[Hayabusa]

8. No inside info only that

the article came in with a very heavy anti-gamer bias and seemingly based everything on that. He almost made it sound like all gamers are one snap away from going Lanza...

[DollarBillHines]

14. It was a tad heavy-handed

I have never thought that gaming has a troubling influence on the vast majority of gamers.

But there are those such as that fucking loser who should never be near a game. This shit was compounded by the enabling mother.

[oldhippie]

15. So you don't like the article?

Care to refute any of it on facts, rather than just "bullshit, I don't like it?"

Sometimes biases are justified.

[Hayabusa]

21. Well, if you insist...

The fact that he kept a spreadsheet of mass killings is by no means indicative of being a gamer, nor is the fact that he was trying "beat the high score." There is absolutely no evidence of that mentality in Lanza other than what was said.

"In the code of a gamer, even a deranged gamer like this little bastard, if somebody else kills you, they get your points," the source said, quoting the Connecticut police officer. "They believe that's why he killed himself."

There is absolutely no system of this in any freaking game that I know of. In deathmatch video games, you do have a score, but that can never be stolen by an opponent, especially for killing your character.

The violent insane gamer quip is also insulting, as it implies that this is the main reason for it. Once again, absolutely no evidence that his gaming habits, if any, were responsible for the massacre, other than this little manifesto that is. Simply put, it's a mad grasp attempt to find some reason other than a failing of the mother and/or mental health system that this guy went and did an absolutely deplorable thing. Society cannot be at fault, let's blame the media! It's been that way since way before video games. Before Marilyn Manson, before heavy metal, before comic books, before Jazz music...

[oldhippie]

28. Thank you for your comments

But I still think Lanza was a violent, insane video gamer. And that violent video games are a proximate cause to this type of act.

[Rex]

37. Science does not back up your claim.

Losers will do loser type stuff no matter what they do as a hobby.

[oldhippie]

39. But what contributed to making them losers?

And anyway, I have 65 years of experience and observation, I don't need science to back up my beliefs. Kinda like a Religionist that way.

[Nuclear Unicorn]

50. My husband works upwards of 70 hours a week and likes to veg-out playing Skyrim

If I ever come home and find dragon bones scattered all over the house I'm going to be very concerned.

[markpkessinger]

10. for starters, "This is the work of a video gamer" n/t

[CreekDog]

13. so if you say it's alll BS and that's all you say, we're just supposed to discount everything?

[Hayabusa]

16. You can if you want.

To tell the truth, I saw the topic, read the first article and that single word was the best rebuttal to it that I could think of because it was far too absurd for me to even begin to refute.

[DollarBillHines]

5. This should be front and center

When the thing happened, I was excoriated here for daring to mention the video game link.

[loli phabay]

6. makes no real difference as they will never ban video games

[markpkessinger]

12. The article posits a theory of linkage to video gaming . . .

. . . but hardly establishes that linkage.

[oldhippie]

17. The video game humpers will never admit their .....

...(insert favorite term here.)

[Fla_Democrat]

26. Since gun owners are called delicate flowers....

does that make gamers.... digital flowers?

[LAGC]

31. ...

[sylvi]

43. Choose one:

The video game humpers will never admit their .....

A. electronic fetish
B. joystick penis-extender
C. death spewing Halo obsession

is creating...

A. a holocaust of Holocaust proportions
B. a nation of camping snipers and team-killers
C. a new cult that worships the Respawn button

that is making rich...

A. the microwave popcorn industry
B. X-Box Live!
C. parents who own a swear jar

at the expense of...

A. 6-year-old children
B. 12-year-old children
C. 35-year-old children

which means we must...

A. call Congress right fucking now
B. ban the "unlimited ammo" hack in Call Of Duty
C. demand virtual trigger locks for all in-game weapons

.

[oldhippie]

44. LOL! Excellent!

[LAGC]

7. Jesus, how could anyone have not noticed?

Did his mom never venture into his room?

[slackmaster]

9. That was the first question to come to my mind

A seven-foot-long spreadsheet of information about mass murders, and she didn't think anything was strange about it?

[markpkessinger]

11. It was probably an Excel file on his computer . . .

. . . that she never saw.

[slackmaster]

18. Which begs the question "How long is a seven-foot Excel file on someone's computer?"

[markpkessinger]

25. Depends on how competent in Excel the person printing it is...

Excel is designed primarily for on-screen display, with printing as a secondary function. But, assuming printing on 8.5" x 11" paper in a landscape orientation with 1-inch margins, it would be about eight and a half pages. But that tells you nothing about how much data those 8.5 pages actually contained. Things like font size, column width, etc. all factor into that.

[malaise]

20. No - the article says he needed a special printer for it n/t

[TeeYiYi]

24. It was...

...and it took a special printer to print it out. And the font was in 9 pt type, which is small. A 7 ft by 4 ft spreadsheet in 9 pt. type. Scary.

TYY

[markpkessinger]

27. Point taken n/t

[TeeYiYi]

34. :) ...I saw what you did there. ..nt

TYY

[JHB]

53. Did HE have the printout, or is that what the police needed to print it out?

They mention that a special printer was needed, but it's not clear who used a printer to make the 7x4 printout.

Obviously he created the spreadsheet file and all that went into it. But is the printout something that they found, or did they make it from the file so they could look at the whole thing at once?

[TeeYiYi]

54. My understanding...

... is that the authorities printed it out from a spreadsheet found on Lanza's computer.

TYY

On edit: I think I'm wrong and that Lanza printed it out for himself...

The spreadsheet was so large that Lanza needed to use a special printer to produce it, the Daily News reported.
http://www.ibtimes.com/adam-lanza-spreadsheet-sandy-hook-shooter-compiled-extensive-list-mass-murderers-1133557#

[malaise]

19. Seems quite sane to me with a driving ambition to be a famous killer

His mother appears to have been a genuine enabler.

Fuck them all!!

[ManiacJoe]

22. Have the cops released any info yet

on how the guns were stored? The last article I read that mentioned it just said that "the public would be surprised" by the info.

[malaise]

29. Not yet but they suggest that she was an enabler

Bet it never crossed her mind that he'd kill her first.

[LisaL]

52. I don't think she knew he was going to kill anyone.

But she purchased all the guns in the home and took him to gun ranges.
She should have found some nicer hobby for them to bond over with.

[Electric Monk]

23. NRA talking points

[graham4anything]

30. This proves he was sane, and a rightwing extremist doing it for political reasons

using LEGAL guns.

which is why it is time to make sure there are ZERO bullets and ZERO tolerance in the streets.

This person and Zimmerman are 100% proof of the need to get rid of bullets.

[ManiacJoe]

32. Political reasons?

Did I miss that part somewhere?

[cherokeeprogressive]

49. This is the biggest leap in the thread.

[oldhippie]

51. Calling it a leap is pretty tame .....

I think he is really floating "out there."

Maybe if I understood what the hell he was trying to talk about?

[meadowlark5]

33. I don't know if violent video games can be blamed

I haven't seen any statistics.

But what I did feel from reading those articles was this overwhelming push to blame video games and no speculation on how different things might have been had he not been able to carry an AR-15 with a lot of 30 round magazines into the school.

Sounds like this article was written totally ignoring the lack of gun laws. Place the blame anywhere and everywhere but not the access to these kind of guns.

[TeeYiYi]

35. Violent video games...

...are used by our military to desensitize soldiers for war. That's a fact.

TYY

[meadowlark5]

36. That still isn't data or statistics for the average gamer

The military trains their troops for combat in many ways. That still doesn't make me believe every video gamer is going to go take their game live in a mall or movie theater.

And I still think the article is purposely trying to place the blame there or anywhere but guns.

[TeeYiYi]

40. Look into this book from 1999...

…Stop Teaching Our Kids to Kill: A Call to Action Against TV, Movie and Video Game Violence by Dave Grossman…

From the book description:

There is perhaps no bigger or more important issue in America at present than youth violence. Jonesboro; Paducah; Pearl, Mississippi; Stamps, Arkansas; Conyers, Georgia; and, of course, Littleton, Colorado. We know them all too well, and for all the wrong reasons: kids, some as young as eleven years old, taking up arms and, with deadly, frightening accuracy, murdering anyone in their paths. What is going on? According to the authors of Stop Teaching Our Kids to Kill, there is blame to be laid right at the feet of the makers of violent video games (called "murder trainers" by one expert), the TV networks, and the Hollywood movie studios--the people responsible for the fact that children witness literally thousands of violent images a day.

Authors Lt. Col. Dave Grossman and Gloria DeGaetano offer incontrovertible evidence, much of it based on recent major scientific studies and empirical research, that movies, TV, and video games are not just conditioning children to be violent--and unaware of the consequences of that violence--but are teaching the very mechanics of killing. Their book is a much-needed call to action for every parent, teacher, and citizen to help our children and stop the wave of killing and violence gripping America's youth. And, most important, it is a blueprint for us all on how that can be achieved.

In Paducah, Kentucky, Michael Carneal, a fourteen-year-old boy who stole a gun from a neighbor's house, brought it to school and fired eight shots at a student prayer group as they were breaking up. Prior to this event, he had never shot a real gun before. Of the eight shots he fired, he had eight hits on eight different kids. Five were head shots, the other three upper torso. The result was three dead, one paralyzed for life. The FBI says that the average, experienced, qualified law enforcement officer, in the average shootout, at an average range of seven yards, hits with less than one bullet in five. How does a child acquire such killing ability? What would lead him to go out and commit such a horrific act?

http://www.amazon.com/Stop-Teaching-Our-Kids-Kill/dp/0609606131

TYY

[Hayabusa]

42. Wasn't Paducah the one where the shooter sniped the students?

God, those late 90s school shootings tend to blend together...

As for the last point, there's a difference between accuracy in a shootout and accuracy in a massacre. Carneal, as far as I know, had no one shooting back at him.

[meadowlark5]

46. What you quoted is referencing more than just video games

I don't disagree that the content of music, video and movies are far more realistic and violent than what I grew up with. I don't disagree that kids should not have unlimited access and holing up in a basement or room doing nothing but playing violent video games or even watching slasher movies hours on end.

Trying to pin these recent mass killings on one thing is not cut and dry. I think we all know that. And that is what this article seemed to be trying to do.

That is all I am saying. The article seemed to be blame only the games with no mention of guns or for that matter mental health. I was commenting on the article.

[Crepuscular]

47. I don't think

I don't think anyone is suggesting that violent video games are going to cause most gamers to become mass killers or even suggesting that it will impact many individuals. I'd guess that the vast majority of gamers will be perfectly normal and that the games don't effect them any more than Black Sabbath lyrics effected kids in the 70's, despite the fears of many during that era.

I do think, though, that repetitive and graphic violence depicted in some games, may cause some disturbed individuals to become desensitized and somewhat disassociated from the normal boundaries that exist for most people between fantasy and reality. Is it enough of a contributing factor to be a cause of some of the heinous acts that we've seen? I don't think we have enough evidence to make that conclusion yet but I don't think that it can be totally dismissed as having a potential influence, either.

[Hayabusa]

41. And judging how many PTSD cases we've all seen

among veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, it seems like it doesn't work. I have no doubt that the military uses video games for training (I've even seen them used for recruiting, America's Army, anyone?), but I don't think that they're used specifically to desensitize people to commit violent acts.

[Progressive dog]

38. So which part of the spreadsheet was the video? nt

[blueknight]

55. the kid was fucked up

but i dont see how anyone can blame video games. they have the same video games in canada, europe, etc. and i dont think they have mass killings there