If You’re a Gamer, Don’t Ever Do the Following
Sometimes, even after tragedies, you’re forced to accept that stupidity will persist on all sides. A judge recently ruled that a sixteen-year-old student from Illinois should be banned from violent video games following his threat to carry out a school shooting.
The teenager in question, “annoyed” by all the talk of school shootings, took it upon himself to threaten peers with a school shooting on social media. Anyone will tell you, the surefire means of quelling talks of mass shootings is to continue making threats (I hope you understand this is sarcasm). According to the Chicago Tribune, the boy’s threat against his own school, Roselle’s Lake Park High School, resulted in two campuses closing last week.
Additionally, it seems that in order to brand video games into his destructive message, the sixteen-year-old chose to Snapchat himself making the threat while playing a violent video game. Police then searched his home, discovering no evidence of weapons while parents insisted they didn’t carry any. In the DuPage County juvenile court, the defense argued on behalf of the teenager that it was all a joke, albeit in very poor taste (no shit).
The prosecution claimed that such a threat, joke or not, was unacceptable, especially following the tragedy of the Florida shootings. Judge Robert Anderson ordered the teen placed in indefinite home detention. His phone was confiscated, and he was eternally banned from playing violent video games. Fortunately for the defendant, this did not wholly rule out Nintendo.
“You can play all the Mario Kat you want,” said the Judge.
On the one hand, justice has been served. On the other, video games have once again been linked to tragedy. Certainly, it doesn’t help that the Wig in Chief of the United States attempted to link video games to violence after the Florida tragedy. To this day, however, studies have found no conclusive links. Thoughts? Feel free to drop a comment down below.
SOURCE: Gamesindustry.biz