A kid shot his grandmother after playing Grand Theft Auto IV; if the game had REALLY influenced him he'd have shot his cousin. We went through this shit with Beavis & Butthead and that little moron that burned his trailer down, like 20 years ago. When Columbine happened it was because of Doom, and Marilyn Manson. But when religious nuts cite scripture to justify murdering an abortionist, no one wants to blame the Bible. No one blamed Son Of Sam's crimes on his neighbor's dog, or pets in general. It's because people (and I mean OLD people) are frightened of a culture that has left them behind, calcified and irrelevant. They fear what they don't understand, and they no longer understand ANYTHING. Look at the furor over last night's VMAs. Newsflash: stupid teenagers like stupid things, and especially like shocking old people.
So now we can start talking about what violent video games, and violent entertainment in general, say about us as a people, when the very fact that violence has been largely relegated to the world of fiction and entertainment is an amazingly positive thing. Study history. Human beings are some brutal ass motherfuckers. All of us today live in a world built on bloodshed and suffering. Today most people get that need out of their system through vicarious entertainment, instead of wantonly killing each other. But no, it's easier to say that fictional representations of reality CAUSE that reality than to admit that it reflects our true nature.
All that said, if the dubstep gun were a real thing, I would be on the national news by tomorrow night: "THREAT OR MENACE?" And having started with a Grand Theft Auto IV reference and ended with a Saints Row IV reference, this armchair soapboxing session is now over.
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