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Marijuana has been illegal for decades upon decades.
I'm sure that no one knows anyone who has ever even heard of anyone even trying it .......
What does this have to do with the price of hash in Bangkok? 
#GMSTRONG
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But, I think we should begin to question the basic premise by which we have been told that we have to accept these acts as being beyond our control.
I agree with this. I think we do need a major culture shift to protect our children when they are entrusted to schools. My culture shift would be towards eliminating the ridiculous "Gun Free Zones" at schools and colleges. They are laughable. I would bonus and sanction any teacher or staffer at any school or college if they would complete a CCW course and take further training in responding to these kinds of attacks. I think there should be one armed, responsible adult for every 50-or-so children in any school. They should have ongoing training and a solid understanding of what their response should be in any attack. One armed guard might have saved 20 people at Newtown on Friday. Instead, it was like fish in a barrel for this POS punk.
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have we? 
~Lyuokdea
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I think what he was getting at, and maybe I'm wrong - but I think it was the whole "banning guns" thing. Comparing it to prohibition - which didn't work.
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I think what he was getting at, and maybe I'm wrong - but I think it was the whole "banning guns" thing. Comparing it to prohibition - which didn't work.
thank you...
#GMSTRONG
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I have been preaching that to everyone I know for years. It's one of the rare tax increases I always vote for. It is woefully underfunded.
This just made its way to me earlier today, Jules.
I think it puts a very real face on what you've been trying to tell us... and describes what My Wife works so hard to treat, every day.
A Mom's Perspective- From Inside Our National Mental Health Crisis
Scary, sobering stuff.
Heartfelt hugs,
Clem
"too many notes, not enough music-"
#GMStong
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Quote:
Quote:
Marijuana has been illegal for decades upon decades.
I'm sure that no one knows anyone who has ever even heard of anyone even trying it .......
What does this have to do with the price of hash in Bangkok?
Hash??Did somebody say hash??
You may be in the drivers seat but God is holding the map. #GMSTRONG
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j/c
I'm a pretty liberal guy, but I have no allusions when it comes to gun control. I've had 2 family members killed by guns (both while in their teens), and I don't think "banning" guns is going to do anything worthwhile.
That being said, I'm not sure why people "need" to own automatic weapons. I'm not a gun person, so maybe I'm just not understanding.
Luckily, it seems that this is at least opening the discussion on what it truly should be: let's not just attack guns, let's attack the underlying problem.
It's like saying if we just cut welfare, then everyone will go to work. Or if we ban guns, then no one will kill another person. That's just faulty logic.
If I build a house and the walls start crumbling, I don't just replace an upstairs window and say it's done. I look at the foundation.
Let's truly help those with mental illnesses (which the Mental Health Parity Act a few years ago tries to start, at least). Let's truly look at our violent culture. Let's see if there is a way to keep people from feeling that violence is the answer. It's not an easy road, and let's face it, we're all going to have to make sacrifices. We might have to pay higher taxes to fund mental illness support, we might have to pay higher taxes to make sure we have enough of a police presence/security at our schools. We might have to sacrifice a small amount of our right to own automatic guns.
But if those things can help prevent another shooting like Friday's, don't you think it's worth it? Is the "right" to own automatic weapons more important than the lives of our children?
Last night, I held my three year old son and my 6 month old daughter close. I looked at them and realized that this is the world they live in. They'll likely never know what it's like to be able to walk someone to the gate at the airport. They'll never know what it's like to leave your shoes on going through the metal detector.
Now, they'll never know what it's like to go to school that doesn't have most, if not all, of its doors locked, potentially with armed security people around.
It made me very sad.
I am unfamiliar with this feeling of optimism
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JC...
Gun Control in the US won't work for one main reason.....There are millions of guns in the country, and the government will never be able to get them all, and criminals will start hoarding them the minute the likelyhood of a gun ban and collection becomes law.
Much like prohibition, the government can ban it, and start to dispose of all they can get ahold of, but that doesn't stop it/them from existing and becoming available to those willing to break the law.
We don't have to agree with each other, to respect each others opinion.
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As far as this event goes, all that is going to come of it is more personal freedoms will be taken from the law abiding citizens, and the government will gain a little more control.
We don't have to agree with each other, to respect each others opinion.
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CLARK COUNTY — A post on a student’s Facebook page created safety concerns for Shawnee High School today.
The post by a Shawnee High School student said that he could “do better” than killing 26 people, a reference to the people who died in the Newtown, Conn. shooting. The post has since been taken down.
Clark County Sheriff deputies took the teen, who is 17 or 18 years old, in for questioning, although he was not charged or arrested.
The sheriff’s department provided extra security for the district today. The student is not in class today, and a disciplinary hearing is scheduled for this morning.
Clark-Shawnee leaders put out an “all-call” to parents Sunday alerting them to the situation.
Close to where I live
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i hope that is just a case of a kid being absolutely ridiculously stupid and not something serious. most likely the case.
#gmstrong
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i hope that is just a case of a kid being absolutely ridiculously stupid and not something serious. most likely the case.
Sadly, many youth today think they can just say or do anything on the internet. Seems the lack of face to face communication has caused some loss of common sense, or the feeling that what you type holds less weight than what would be said in a public setting.
Personally I think it's worse. Many of these kids have 100's of "friends" on facebook, and anything they type gets seen by all of them the majority of the time, many are people they would NEVER say such a thing to face to face.
We don't have to agree with each other, to respect each others opinion.
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First I will say that I'm a proponent of the second amendment but I'm going to go devils advocate here..... Quote:
Gun Control in the US won't work for one main reason.....There are millions of guns in the country, and the government will never be able to get them all, and criminals will start hoarding them the minute the likelyhood of a gun ban and collection becomes law.
Yes, it would take a while but over time, the number of guns would diminish as criminals are caught, guns are lost, etc... not to mention, the cost of obtaining a gun would skyrocket in the black market.. thus making it much harder for your garden variety criminals to get guns. Lastly, if the ammo is not made or legal to buy, then all of the guns become relatively useless.
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Much like prohibition, the government can ban it, and start to dispose of all they can get ahold of,
i agree that you could never get rid of them totally, there will always be a black market for those hardcore enough to import them from other countries, steal them from law enforcement etc... but here is why your prohibition analogy isn't quite accurate. Anybody can make distilled spirits with corn, sugar, yeast, water and a simple cooking aparatus... anybody can do it and then drink it or sell it. How many people can make an automatic or semi-automatic weapon from everyday household items? or the ammo to use it? Can you make a bomb with everyday household items? Yes you can.... No system is going to be perfect when it comes to stopping a deranged lunatic hell-bent on killing people.. that doesn't mean we shouldn't try to make it harder or make the tools used to kill mass amounts of people more difficult to acquire.
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but that doesn't stop it/them from existing and becoming available to those willing to break the law.
Here's the problem with this part... these spree killers are NOT hardened criminals, they are deranged individuals... Do they have the connections and the wherewithal to obtain these weapons and ammunition if they weren't readily available and legal? These killers aren't mafia members who are part of an underground criminal empire who have lots of cash and are able to obtain things illegally through their vast network of contacts, they are generally mentally disturbed teenagers in suburban neighborhoods without the means or the resources to obtain things if they were heavily controlled.
yebat' Putin
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j/c
Random ramblings...
I lost my brother-in-law to a group of thugs when they robbed him, shot him and put him in the trunk of the my sister's car to die in front of their home. I don't blame the guns. I blame the POSs that killed him. The guns didn't rob him. The guns didn't fire themselves. The guns didn't put him in the trunk to die. They could have easily done it with knives. I am not anti-gun.
With that said, I honestly don't know why the public needs access to assault weapons or clips that hold a number of rounds that exceed any reasonable amount. I don't think a person is going to walk around with an assault weapon as protection or a clip that holds 30 rounds or whatever the amount is. There needs to be a line. I don't know exactly where that line is as my knowledge on guns isn't much.
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The people that have threatened the lives of the NRA leaders on Twitter are imbeciles. It's ironic that they make statements that these guys need to be shot.
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Why do some of the Hollywood elites show outrage at guns while at the same time profit from the glorification of the same in their TV shows and movies without a peep?
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Some in the British media have been all over this and touting their low gun murder rates. All I know if it wasn't for the right to bear arms, we would probably still be living under the Union Jack.
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How many guns did Timothy McVeigh use when he slaughtered all those people in OKC? How many guns were used to slaughter those people on 911?
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IMHO, this is at least a 90% parenting issue. I know parents who let their very young kids play video games that are all about the shooting and killing. I don't blame the video games as much as I blame the parents who allow it. Same with graphic movies and TV shows. There are social concepts kids need to develop. I believe that almost all kids are a product of their environment. Parents can't control that environment 24/7, but they sure could control a lot of it.
<off soapbox>
"My signature line goes here."
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We're finding out more about this family. Apparently the kid suffered from Asperger's. I don't think that's an excuse, but there was obviously some problems there. Some of their friends said that his problems dominated their family. She didn't work.
I support the right to own weapons. I don't think we need assault rifles, but either way, if you have a kid living with you, with problems enough that it takes over your life, you shouldn't have weapons. It may be a hobby, but that's a hobby that you shouldn't be taking part in.
This was more bad parenting than it was anything else. I realize the kid was 20, and can make his own decisions, but it sounded like their situation was a ticking time bomb.
I still think there is more to this story, there have been unconfirmed reports that there was some kind of altercation with the kid at the school before Friday.
60 minutes talked with a group that supports autism (which Asperger's falls under) and they said people who deal with that disease are far more likely to be victims.
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Couple things I agree with and a couple things I don't Quote:
With that said, I honestly don't know why the public needs access to assault weapons or clips that hold a number of rounds that exceed any reasonable amount. I don't think a person is going to walk around with an assault weapon as protection or a clip that holds 30 rounds or whatever the amount is. There needs to be a line. I don't know exactly where that line is as my knowledge on guns isn't much.
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See, the only thing that makes me weary about this is that guns like the AR15 (and weapons that can hold large clips which you can legally buy), are some of the only guns that are formidable enough to be used in an uprising. While they aren't military caliber, they're close. And god forbid something like what happened in Syria is happening here, that's one of our only chances until parts of the military defect and so on.
I get that for home protection, a shotgun is a pretty decent choice. My buddy has an AR15, that would be his choice, but for the standard citizen, a Semi-Auto Shotgun will keep you pretty darn safe. But god-forbid we ever need our right to bear arms, I'd like to have the weapon instead of not having it.
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How many guns did Timothy McVeigh use when he slaughtered all those people in OKC? How many guns were used to slaughter those people on 911?
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This point I absolutely agree with. A nut is a nut, and they will get the job done no matter what.
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IMHO, this is at least a 90% parenting issue. I know parents who let their very young kids play video games that are all about the shooting and killing. I don't blame the video games as much as I blame the parents who allow it. Same with graphic movies and TV shows. There are social concepts kids need to develop. I believe that almost all kids are a product of their environment. Parents can't control that environment 24/7, but they sure could control a lot of it.
<off soapbox>
This I don't. May be video games might inspire crazy kids to come up with these ideas, but I don't think that video games create crazy. I also think that the ideas have already come up, so it might be too late for that. But hey, may be these videogames allow crazy people to start fantasizing about this kind of stuff. But I don't think playing games at a young age makes you crazy. Being crazy makes you crazy.
It's like when we did a little thing for an education class of mine (when I was in undergrad) about what's appropriate around little kids. I said to my teacher, "You're either a child molester or you aren't. Some class isn't going to keep you from being a sick human being." That's how I feel about the video games too.
99.99% of us can play video games without there being any problems. I love video games, and violent ones too. Grand Theft Auto where you can do just about anything. And I like shooting video games too. I like shooting guns when I get the chance too. I'm gonna be moving to Chicago with my girlfriend in a couple months, and I'm gone a month at a time. During that period, she will be alone. And it's definitely come across my mind to purchase a handgun or shotgun there, so just in case she needs it, she has it.
But that does not make me (or any other sane human) more susceptible to going into a school and slaughtering a bunch of innocent kids. One thing I do think we need to do is have psychological evaluations before you can get a gun license. Some of the rules regarding Gun Shows are ridiculous, and they make it way to easy to purchase various types of firearms. Other than that, that mother of Adam Lanza or whatever that guy's name is got what she got. She had a nuts kid and didn't keep her weapons locked up. She is just as at fault as her son IMO.
But yeah, I don't want my violent videogames to stop because there's sickos out there. And I don't think that kids playing these games makes them mentally-ill. And (as you feel), I don't want to lose the right to shoot guns taken away because some crazy person gets their hands on a legally licensed weapon.
UCONN HUSKIES 2014 Champions of Basketball
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Good Post, DC.
The issue I have with the availability of guns is that it allows someone instant access to extreme violence when they snap.
Could they use knives or bow-n-arrows or something else if they are hell bent on killing people? Sure, of course. But you can't off people as fast and furiously as you can with automatic weapons. It only takes moments to kill LOTS of people.
You can attempt to physically subdue someone with a knife. They could have tried to gang-tackle him and have more time to get the kids out of harms way. Can't do that to a person with a gun.
People using Timothy McVeigh is such an apples to oranges comparison. His plan was a long, thought out act against the gov't for his own deranged reasons.
Trying to justify keeping assault weapons because the madmen will just "make bombs instead" really misses the mark.
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*In Baker we trust*
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JC...
I can make a flame thrower with a lighter and a super soaker squirt gun in minutes.
Or an acid gun with pool acid in a squirt gun.
Or molatov coctail in a gallon milk jug.
There are many ways to to carry out mass damage and death, many much cheaper than BUYING a gun, and some even more deadly.
We don't have to agree with each other, to respect each others opinion.
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Yes, Clem, I read that yesterday also. It is sobering.
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Quote:
JC...
I can make a flame thrower with a lighter and a super soaker squirt gun in minutes.
Or an acid gun with pool acid in a squirt gun.
Or molatov coctail in a gallon milk jug.
There are many ways to to carry out mass damage and death, many much cheaper than BUYING a gun, and some even more deadly.
These guys do plan these things, they are rarely spur of the moment. Also, a good many of these last killers have "off the chart" IQs. They would have no problem building something that could kill even more people. People are being very naive if they think banning guns is going to stop these people.
I'm tired of reading that those of us who don't advocate gun control as an answer to this don't care about children. It's stooping to the lowest level of the argument. My guess is that more or an equal number of children die from drowning than handguns. I guess people who own pools don't care about children. 
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I believe that the reason so many fight against restrictions on assault weapons, automatic and semi-automatic weapons, and such, is the inevitable slippery slope argument.
Ban one type of weapon, and move on to the next. Obtain a ban on that type, then move on to the next. I think so many try to draw the line at assault or automatic weapons so they don't have to fight for their rifles or small handguns.
It's much like the abortion debate. One side fights for restrictions of abolition, and the other side fights for absolute freedom and access. Same thing with guns.
Micah 6:8; He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.
John 14:19 Jesus said: Because I live, you also will live.
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j/c
People are damned idiots. Looks like there was a threat made at the high school about 4 blocks from my house. School is on lockdown and kids are being kept in the classrooms. Supposedly, there are tv crews and police there but the principal has given the "safe and sound" but still keeping the lockdown until the all clear from police.
I hope whomever made these threats is dealt with harshly, severely and quickly. Considering the events of Friday, it's not even close to cute or funny to make threats - most likely just because the kid wants attention or to get out of a test (and there are a lot of tests at this school right before Christmas break - I remember that from 20+ years ago) or because he/she forgot to do a project for a class, whatever.
![[Linked Image from i75.photobucket.com]](http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i302/lrhinkle/d5eaf0b9-e429-4211-b53f-b843bfcf6aa9_zps2ac17420.jpg) #gmstrong
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The mother should have never home schooled this guy. Unless you're kid is very outgoing, you're really handicapping their ability to interact with others, and develop the skills everyone needs to function in this society
. I work with 2 kids that are home schooled, and you could tell their lacking in social skills department. One of them is very insecure, and has several cuts on her forearm. Others have told me her parents have told her to kill herself. Her brother is almost 20, but they won't let the kid get his license.
It's a sad situation all around, but it seems the mother cut this guy off from the outside world. Not a good way to raise a kid in my opinion.
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There was an arrest in LA of a 20-somthing guy claiming to go shooting up an elemntary school. And just north of where I am in Florida, there was a student who posted about placing a bomb in his high school.
How stupid can you be to post it on your personal facebook, especially if they are "just kidding"? Claiming to bomb or shoot anything, even in jest has been taboo for sometime, especially since Columbine and then 9-11, that anyone alive now should know better.
We don't have to agree with each other, to respect each others opinion.
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I guess people who own pools don't care about children.
Only the ones that want to marry farm animals. 
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People are being very naive if they think banning guns is going to stop these people.
We have a cultural problem that goes way beyond banning or allow guns or banning violent video games or whatever other thing people want to pin the blame on... we also have a much bigger problem than "I blame the parents"... which is an easy fall back since it's hard to know what goes on in a persons home that could lead to this... By all accounts, most of the kids who have done these things seem to come from fairly normal homes, probably not perfect, but good enough.... The simple fact is that we lead the world by a wide margin in this kind of stuff and if somebody doesn't come up with a plan to slow it down, people are going to start losing their "rights"..... People are fed with the carnage on campuses, high schools, and now elementary schools... Politicians cannot allow themselves to be viewed as "doing nothing", voters won't stand for it... and banning/restricting guns is the obvious first step and makes for an easy scapegoat.... I know the NRA and responsible gun owners groups do a lot to promote gun safety but if responsible gun owners do not want to see their rights eroded, they better get their collective heads together and come up with some ideas on how to stop some of this beyond quoting the second amendment and explaining how it's their right to have fun blasting away their automatic weapon at the range on Saturdays or that they may need it to overthrow the government some day....
The constitutional freedoms we have lost have been lost because of the actions of the few who didn't treat them responsibly... the same thing will happen to gun owners if they don't come up with some plans of how to police themselves...
yebat' Putin
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The mother should have never home schooled this guy. Unless you're kid is very outgoing, you're really handicapping their ability to interact with others, and develop the skills everyone needs to function in this society
. I work with 2 kids that are home schooled, and you could tell their lacking in social skills department. One of them is very insecure, and has several cuts on her forearm. Others have told me her parents have told her to kill herself. Her brother is almost 20, but they won't let the kid get his license.
It's a sad situation all around, but it seems the mother cut this guy off from the outside world. Not a good way to raise a kid in my opinion.
Home schooling happens a lot around here due to many factors. I bet I could pick them out in the factory I work and be right 85-90% of the time. You are spot on in my opinion.
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Quote:
The mother should have never home schooled this guy. Unless you're kid is very outgoing, you're really handicapping their ability to interact with others, and develop the skills everyone needs to function in this society
. I work with 2 kids that are home schooled, and you could tell their lacking in social skills department. One of them is very insecure, and has several cuts on her forearm. Others have told me her parents have told her to kill herself. Her brother is almost 20, but they won't let the kid get his license.
Sounds like the parents are just freaks.. home schooled kids tend to do very well.
yebat' Putin
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j/c
I'll take this 'problem' on from a different perspective.
I truly believe that much of this stems from a breakdown in communities. When we were kids, everyone in the neighborhood knew each other. There was backyard play among the kids, moms chatted and gossiped over the backyard fence. If I did something mischievous at Timmy Worthington's house, My Parents knew about it before I got home. This was the essence of community... and it bred personal responsibility and civic-mindedness.
That scenario is far less prevalent these days. Even in suburbia, people are much more isolated from their neighbors. Oh, there is still some talk during Sat afternoon lawn mowings, but I'll bet that Mr. Jones doesn't know Mr. Smith if he lives more than a block away. There was a network of Moms who stayed in touch with each other back in the day, and I knew that Timmy W's Mom or Dwayne Bivens' Mom, or even Mr Baxter, the retired gentleman on the corner could discipline us kids, with the full backing of all our parents.... and when we got home, hellfire would rain down upon us.
Try something like that these days, and YOU would be the next victim your neighbors read about. There HAS been a cultural shift... and not necessarily for the better. I'm a believer in that old chestnut: "It takes a village to raise a child:... but that implies a willingness on the part of the villagers to actually invest in each other's well-being.
Sadly, today's chestnut seems to be: "I'm in this for me- stay TF out of my way."
When we all knew each other, we looked out for each other. And just as importantly, we were all accountable to each other. We've lost that in our communities- and I believe that loss contributes to the behaviors we see. It goes beyond basic civility- anyone can say "please" and "thank-you" without really meaning it- it involves a shared sense of connectedness and responsibility to something other than one's own needs and desires.
Until we can find our way back to that paradigm, I'm afraid we'll see more tragedies like this.
.02
"too many notes, not enough music-"
#GMStong
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Exactly, I know a number of home schooled kids and they are perfectly fine. Without knowing the details of the situation and blaming the mother for home schooling is ridiculous in my opinion. The kid was mentally ill, she didn't cause that. Can you imagine what he would have gone through in public school? He may have snapped even sooner.
The only thing I fault the mother for in this situation is for not securing her weapons, especially with her son's mental state.
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Joined: Sep 2006
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Legend
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Legend
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An excellent point Clem. Which makes it odd that these shootings almost always happen in middle to upper middle class areas of smaller towns. One would think that if the notion of a "community" was still alive anywhere, it would be there.
yebat' Putin
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Legend
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Legend
Joined: Sep 2006
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True...
I also know many home schooled kids, but one thing I notice is that the ones that were involved in other activities (ie: Sports, Clubs, Groups, Church) tended to be better adjusted when they left the nest, than those that were basically home schooled and shltered and didn't get much interaction with people outside thier own family circle.
And in some cases that adjustment was extreme. A couple of them would have me sleeping with one eye opened if they ever stayed with us for a night.
We don't have to agree with each other, to respect each others opinion.
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Joined: Sep 2006
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Legend
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Legend
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Oh yeah, part of doing home schooling well is getting the children involved in as many outside activities with other kids as you can. The people I know who did it took that part very seriously....and their kids all did great in college.
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Joined: Sep 2006
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Legend
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Legend
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Quote:
but one thing I notice is that the ones that were involved in other activities (ie: Sports, Clubs, Groups, Church) tended to be better adjusted when they left the nest, than those that were basically home schooled and shltered
This is true of any kid.
yebat' Putin
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j/c There needs to be better mental health support for people with mental health issues. Very many health insurance plans do not offer much in the way of mental health coverage and it becomes cost prohibitive to obtain care. If you have a mentally ill child, not only does the child need treatment, but the parent needs training on how to handle their child. I am guessing a lot of people don't get the help they need.  There is also the general stigma that goes with mental illness, and seems people would rather hide it under the rug than admit there is a problem that needs attention. Seems to me that getting people the help they need would be much more effective than trying to eliminate whatever random weapon.
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Legend
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Legend
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Quote:
Seems to me that getting people the help they need would be much more effective than trying to eliminate whatever random weapon.
You have a point except for the reasons you already gave.. people want to avoid the stigma, it can be very hard to diagnose, etc..
yebat' Putin
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Dawg Talker
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Dawg Talker
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I'm completely baffled that people would think the availability of such deadly weapons has NOTHING to do with it. 
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They need to have public awareness campaigns and make it easier to obtain care, and reduce the stigma somehow. In school, kids have sex ed classes, they have anti-drug classes, why don't they have classes about mental health issues and when to see a counselor? Why is there no education for parents on how to know your child needs treatment? If there are places like Planned Parenthood, there should be places a parent can go to have their kid undergo a basic evaluation, or talk to a counselor to know if further evaluations and treatments are needed. I am not at all liberal, but I feel these things are seriously lacking in our society. There is no place to get help until it is too late or out of control, and there is no education for the kids or parents on mental health issues. 
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Hall of Famer
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Quote:
This I don't. May be video games might inspire crazy kids to come up with these ideas, but I don't think that video games create crazy. I also think that the ideas have already come up, so it might be too late for that. But hey, may be these videogames allow crazy people to start fantasizing about this kind of stuff. But I don't think playing games at a young age makes you crazy. Being crazy makes you crazy.
It's like when we did a little thing for an education class of mine (when I was in undergrad) about what's appropriate around little kids. I said to my teacher, "You're either a child molester or you aren't. Some class isn't going to keep you from being a sick human being." That's how I feel about the video games too.
99.99% of us can play video games without there being any problems. I love video games, and violent ones too. Grand Theft Auto where you can do just about anything. And I like shooting video games too. I like shooting guns when I get the chance too. I'm gonna be moving to Chicago with my girlfriend in a couple months, and I'm gone a month at a time. During that period, she will be alone. And it's definitely come across my mind to purchase a handgun or shotgun there, so just in case she needs it, she has it.
But that does not make me (or any other sane human) more susceptible to going into a school and slaughtering a bunch of innocent kids. One thing I do think we need to do is have psychological evaluations before you can get a gun license. Some of the rules regarding Gun Shows are ridiculous, and they make it way to easy to purchase various types of firearms. Other than that, that mother of Adam Lanza or whatever that guy's name is got what she got. She had a nuts kid and didn't keep her weapons locked up. She is just as at fault as her son IMO.
But yeah, I don't want my violent videogames to stop because there's sickos out there. And I don't think that kids playing these games makes them mentally-ill. And (as you feel), I don't want to lose the right to shoot guns taken away because some crazy person gets their hands on a legally licensed weapon.
Forgive me if I cut up your quote somewhere...not sure if I did. I'm not saying ban the games at all. I like GTA as much as the next guy who likes GTA. My point is that I think there is a level of maturity and social development that needs to be achieved before playing the games. I firmly believe in the "rated mature" and I wish parents wouldn't buy their 9 year old a GTA game or play theirs. But, it happens and I think it really does desensitize children and I also think morals get developed early. Again, just my $0.02
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Hall of Famer
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Quote:
Forgive me if I cut up your quote somewhere...not sure if I did. I'm not saying ban the games at all. I like GTA as much as the next guy who likes GTA. My point is that I think there is a level of maturity and social development that needs to be achieved before playing the games. I firmly believe in the "rated mature" and I wish parents wouldn't buy their 9 year old a GTA game or play theirs. But, it happens and I think it really does desensitize children and I also think morals get developed early. Again, just my $0.02
Fair enough, and as you said. Society issue. Seeing as you like GTA, we might be around the same age. I was in elementary school when Mortal Kombat came out. Man did that cause a commotion. There was the "Finish Him" and the "Fatality" and WORST the blood code, lol.
But the fact is, even though my parents (and many other parents) wouldn't buy the game, instead I was allowed to have Street Fighter 2 (great game as well), two of my neighborhood friends had the game. So what did I do? I went over to their house to play Mortal Kombat.
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