I don't know if anyone here has read Col. Grossman's book "on killing" but it is very thought provoking.
Now the media has been waving the red flag of "gun violence" around for weeks now hoping to distract attention away from themselves with regard to the latest spate of killings. The latest polls consistently show a larger proportion of Americans blame violent media and video games for these tragedies than blame guns. They're in trouble here and their own overblown "tragedy hype" that overstates and overdramatizes the real incidence of crime may come back to bite them.
Can they be trusted to honestly explore there own role in these tragedies (silly question I guess):
*****************
Videos `train' kids to shoot, soldier says
Games similar to firearm training, police chiefs told
By Cal Millar
Toronto Star Staff Reporter
HAMILTON - Violent video games are like firearm training simulators and
are teaching children to become mass murderers, says a retired U.S. Army
colonel.
``We are facing the most confident group of killers the world has ever
seen,'' retired Lt.-Col. David Grossman told delegates at the 94th annual
Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police conference yesterday.
Grossman, a psychologist and author of the soon to be released Teaching
our Kids to Kill, said there are links between military conditioning and
video games.
Killing, he argued, does not come naturally. Soldiers are prepared for
combat by firing at human-shaped targets that pop into view. Only with
constant repetition does this become a conditioned response.
In combat, conditioning takes over, even in soldiers who become frozen
with fear.
Children, Grossman said, inadvertently learn the same type of reflex
through video games.
``What the children have been drilled to do is to kill every living
creature in front of them until they run out of targets or run out of
bullets.''
In firearms combat situations, trained police officers have a 20 per cent
hit ratio, but because teenagers are getting so much practice with violent
video games, their shooting skills are much more developed, Grossman said.
The youngsters involved in recent school shootings in the United States
honed their skills by playing video games, he said.
For example, Michael Carneal in Paducah, Ky., had never fired a gun before
he went on a killing spree in his high school two years ago, Grossman
said. But the 14-year-old had fired tens of thousands of rounds playing
video games and had an automatic response to hit anything that moved, he
said.
``You can see the imprint of the video games on the crime. He only fired
one shot at every target . . . The natural response is to shoot at the
target until the target drops.'' The teen fired eight times and hit eight
students. He killed three with shots to the head and left another
paralyzed for life.
When young killers like Carneal open fire they are on autopilot, Grossman
said. ``In school shootings, students open fire, then keep on going.
Police ask them why and they say they don't know. But we know. . . . Kids
who have never shot a gun practise with tens of thousands of bullets
during video games.''
Jefferson County Sheriff John Stone, who led rescue teams during the April
massacre at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo., says teenage
shooters Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris were avid fans of video games. The
two, who committed suicide after killing 12 classmates and a teacher,
played a game called Doom, which involves hunting down people and shooting
them.
``When one of the kids in the library asked what are they doing . . . they
just smiled at him and said `We're killing people,' '' Stone said. ``They
moved on beyond him and just went over and shot other people. It was
almost like it was a fantasy for them.''
Just a week later in Taber, Alta., a 14-year-old student killed a
schoolmate and wounded another at W. R. Myers High School.
Retired Lethbridge constable Dennis Reimer, who serves as the school
resource officer in Taber, said the incident came without warning.
The gun, tobacco and alcohol industries to accept restraints on their
products when it comes to children, but the video game industry has not,
Grossman said. ``They say, `We're driven by the market. If people didn't
want it, we wouldn't make it.' ''
He showed police chiefs advertisements from various video games and said
that some actually focus on death. ``Kill your friends guilt free,'' read
one ad. Another said: ``More fun than shooting your neighbour's cat.''
The families of the three people killed in Kentucky are suing video game
manufacturers, and U.S. President Bill Clinton has ordered a high-level
investigation to determine if there is any link between school shootings
and video games, he added.
Brockville police Chief Barry King said the chiefs group's law amendments
committee will be asked for recommendations to help Canadian lawmakers
deal with the production of video games promoting violence.
``The glorification of violence, in actual fact, turns out to be a
liability,'' York Region police Chief Julian Fantino said yesterday. ``We
are programming children to be desensitized to violence and creating an
environment where they don't believe there are consequences. We have to
hold those who promote and glorify violence accountable for what is
happening.''
***********
=rod=
Now the media has been waving the red flag of "gun violence" around for weeks now hoping to distract attention away from themselves with regard to the latest spate of killings. The latest polls consistently show a larger proportion of Americans blame violent media and video games for these tragedies than blame guns. They're in trouble here and their own overblown "tragedy hype" that overstates and overdramatizes the real incidence of crime may come back to bite them.
Can they be trusted to honestly explore there own role in these tragedies (silly question I guess):
*****************
Videos `train' kids to shoot, soldier says
Games similar to firearm training, police chiefs told
By Cal Millar
Toronto Star Staff Reporter
HAMILTON - Violent video games are like firearm training simulators and
are teaching children to become mass murderers, says a retired U.S. Army
colonel.
``We are facing the most confident group of killers the world has ever
seen,'' retired Lt.-Col. David Grossman told delegates at the 94th annual
Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police conference yesterday.
Grossman, a psychologist and author of the soon to be released Teaching
our Kids to Kill, said there are links between military conditioning and
video games.
Killing, he argued, does not come naturally. Soldiers are prepared for
combat by firing at human-shaped targets that pop into view. Only with
constant repetition does this become a conditioned response.
In combat, conditioning takes over, even in soldiers who become frozen
with fear.
Children, Grossman said, inadvertently learn the same type of reflex
through video games.
``What the children have been drilled to do is to kill every living
creature in front of them until they run out of targets or run out of
bullets.''
In firearms combat situations, trained police officers have a 20 per cent
hit ratio, but because teenagers are getting so much practice with violent
video games, their shooting skills are much more developed, Grossman said.
The youngsters involved in recent school shootings in the United States
honed their skills by playing video games, he said.
For example, Michael Carneal in Paducah, Ky., had never fired a gun before
he went on a killing spree in his high school two years ago, Grossman
said. But the 14-year-old had fired tens of thousands of rounds playing
video games and had an automatic response to hit anything that moved, he
said.
``You can see the imprint of the video games on the crime. He only fired
one shot at every target . . . The natural response is to shoot at the
target until the target drops.'' The teen fired eight times and hit eight
students. He killed three with shots to the head and left another
paralyzed for life.
When young killers like Carneal open fire they are on autopilot, Grossman
said. ``In school shootings, students open fire, then keep on going.
Police ask them why and they say they don't know. But we know. . . . Kids
who have never shot a gun practise with tens of thousands of bullets
during video games.''
Jefferson County Sheriff John Stone, who led rescue teams during the April
massacre at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo., says teenage
shooters Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris were avid fans of video games. The
two, who committed suicide after killing 12 classmates and a teacher,
played a game called Doom, which involves hunting down people and shooting
them.
``When one of the kids in the library asked what are they doing . . . they
just smiled at him and said `We're killing people,' '' Stone said. ``They
moved on beyond him and just went over and shot other people. It was
almost like it was a fantasy for them.''
Just a week later in Taber, Alta., a 14-year-old student killed a
schoolmate and wounded another at W. R. Myers High School.
Retired Lethbridge constable Dennis Reimer, who serves as the school
resource officer in Taber, said the incident came without warning.
The gun, tobacco and alcohol industries to accept restraints on their
products when it comes to children, but the video game industry has not,
Grossman said. ``They say, `We're driven by the market. If people didn't
want it, we wouldn't make it.' ''
He showed police chiefs advertisements from various video games and said
that some actually focus on death. ``Kill your friends guilt free,'' read
one ad. Another said: ``More fun than shooting your neighbour's cat.''
The families of the three people killed in Kentucky are suing video game
manufacturers, and U.S. President Bill Clinton has ordered a high-level
investigation to determine if there is any link between school shootings
and video games, he added.
Brockville police Chief Barry King said the chiefs group's law amendments
committee will be asked for recommendations to help Canadian lawmakers
deal with the production of video games promoting violence.
``The glorification of violence, in actual fact, turns out to be a
liability,'' York Region police Chief Julian Fantino said yesterday. ``We
are programming children to be desensitized to violence and creating an
environment where they don't believe there are consequences. We have to
hold those who promote and glorify violence accountable for what is
happening.''
***********
=rod=