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| | (Post a comment) » Rush Limbaugh DOESN'T Blame Games For VT ShootingsConservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh, in a surprisingly lucid statement, commented on his radio show on Tuesday that blaming video games for the Virginia Tech killings was the wrong way to look at explaining the shootings. Here is a snip from the transcript:
I know it's natural that everybody wants to throw their theories into this, and perhaps come up with perhaps a unique explanation or to understand, and I think it's natural, because people have a tough time accepting a relatively simple explanation for something of this scale. But how many people are playing video games out there? How many millions of people play video games, and how many millions of people have guns? If you start blaming the video games, you may as well demand video game control because it's the same thing when you start trying to blame guns for this. You have here a sick individual, an evil individual who committed a random act. But if you want to start blaming the video games, this guy was this or that, weeeeell, then you've gotta maybe talk about banning them because that's the same tack that's taken with guns. You got one guy who used a gun that's it. You're falling prey to the same way the Drive-Bys propagandize, and that's, "Well, we need gun control! We gotta get guns out of the hands of people."
Thanks Kotaku | Previous news article | Back to main news | Next news article  |


| 31 User Comment(s) • 12 root comment(s) |


FLYBOY611 (471) Apr 18, 2007 - 09:28 am
| | In all honesty I'm just glad that someone in mainstream news recognizes that Cho was a complete psycho and that it wasn't the video games. » Login to reply to this |

Zeatrix (181) Apr 18, 2007 - 08:34 am
| Of course people that live a criminal life could get their hands on guns. But ordinary people (although insane) couldn't. Do you think Cho could get a hand on a gun if only organized crime had access to it? Where would he go? And even if he found someone with access, would that person really sell it? They might suspect Cho to be a undercover cop and just decide not to deal to people they don't know.
Of course completely banning guns won't make it impossible to get one, but it will make it THAT much harder. Hard enough that it will prevent tragedies like this from ever happening.
If you don't believe this, take a good look at some European countries with similar wealth as the US but with much stricter gun laws and compare statistics. I think it'd be an eye opener for you.» Login to reply to this Spino (9) Apr 18, 2007 - 10:11 am
| Yes but you're using Cho as a common example of firearm abuse. The problem with Cho is that he's a spectacular example of those quiet wildcards that require certain stimuli before committing to a killing spree. Let's face it, you'll never stop oddities like Cho from going postal on innocents unless you enact state sponsored eugenics and psychological screening programs. I suppose those of your ideological persuasion could implement those measures after you've take away the guns, knives, video games, sporks and pointy sticks. That just might work but there's always the risk someone might get smothered with a fluffy pillow...
Fine, take away guns but you're still left with intent to commit premeditated murder. So in a world without firearms what if Cho decided to spend a few weeks prepping dozens of pipe bombs instead? Chucking them in dorms and classrooms might not have the desired effect so what if he set them off at a game, rally or party where there are sure to be lots of casualties? Cho's actions were not so impulsive, he clearly planned this massacre out beforehand as per his chaining up of the building exits so people couldn't escape. What's to keep him from waiting a bit longer in order to make a pipe bomb scenario work? Last I checked pipe bombs are highly illegal and yet any joe can make them in his basement using an internet recipe and materials purchased from a local hardware shop. What happens when some manic-depressive kids (i.e. the Columbine killers) decide to make a slew of those and set them off in a really crowded area? What will you do then, vote to ban ammonia & metal pipes? Lobby Google and Yahoo to censor their websearch engines? How about legislation that renders it illegal to publish any material that provides instructions of the creation of such devices or on a more relevant note, websites that provide instructions on the creation of zip guns and other homemade firearms? Bravo, you've not only trashed the second amendment but the first one as well.
Let's not discuss Europe shall we? When it comes to individual liberties modern Europe doesn't score too highly on the self expression meter. Attempting to deny the holocaust will get you instant jailtime in Germany. Immigrants are confronted with the proverbial glass ceiling if they decide to move to France. Britain sports the most surveillance cameras out of any industrialized nation and is flirting with the idea of national ID cards and a national DNA database for newborns. All this in spite of a lack of guns and an ever increasing violent crime rate, especially in France and the UK.
Sure, the average European is much safer from big bad firearms but they're also at far greater risk of living in the kind of society that sends civil rights loving liberals screaming into the night.
I'd much rather take a look at countries like Canada and Switzerland where firearms are quite prevalent and yet gun violence is remarkably low. Even Michael Moore in his infamous 'Bowling for Columbine' was puzzled over the stark contrast in violent crime between Canada and the United States. The cliche 'guns don't kill people, people kill people' holds true no matter how you badly you spin the contrary argument.
The biggest problem I have with the anti-gun crowd is how easily they dismiss the fact that firearms are inextricably linked to the Second Amendment. There's a very good reason why the founding fathers made it the SECOND amendment and not the 3rd, 4th, 5th, etc. The right to arm and protect oneself in the face of tyranny and/or individual actions intent on depriving you of your rights is deemed to be second only to the right to express oneself and worship freely.» Login to reply to this 
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Labotomizer (1077) Apr 18, 2007 - 09:38 am
| You're wrong. Maybe it's because you didn't grow up in the right kind of environment, but it is VERY easy to purchase a gun that isn't tracked and wouldn't be any harder if guns were completely illegal. In fact, it would probably be easier.
Step 1 - Dress like someone from your favorite rap video.
Step 2 - Go to your local "ghetto".
Step 3 - Make sure you know your slang and ask around.
Step 4 - Buy a gun.
It will not take you more than 48 hours to find one. I'd honestly be surprised, outside of just plain looking in the wrong place, if it took you more than two hours to find one. Perhaps you should get your facts straight before spewing nonsense.» Login to reply to this inspectrex (331) Apr 18, 2007 - 10:06 am
| oohh,,,wow. Not sure where to start here...
Zeatrix, First off what EU countries are you talking about with the same wealth as the US? If you're talking GDP size, or imports/exports I don't think any one EU country comes close to the US. Combine a few (Germany + Britain + ???) sure. Second, while gun crimes are non-existent, other violent crimes (beatings, stabbings, rapes, etc) are just as high if not higher.
Lobotomizer, I assume you're NOT from the hood. Take any 'suburbanized' kid, put him/her in 'rap clothes' and drop him off on the wrong side of the tracks and see where it gets him/her. "But I'm down, I have the clothes and I talk like you!" RIGHT... I guarantee you they won't sell that person a gun but they will beat the crap out of them for fun and take their money. Didn't you see 8-mile and Malibu's Most Wanted? If you're not from the hood, please for your own safety STAY OUT! They can spot marks like that a mile away.» Login to reply to this |

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Spino (9) Apr 18, 2007 - 08:18 am
| Geez, one never grows tired of hearing all the post-war generation kiddies and their anti-gun rants. I blame it on those 'very special' episodes of Fresh Prince and Saved by the Bell.
Had the thought ever occured to the anti-gun crowd that if guns were to be completely banned in the US it would have almost no effect on the violent crime rate? Or for that matter, the number of violent crimes that involve firearms?
DRUGS are illegal in the US; pot, cocaine, heroine, meth, etc. And thanks to some seriously draconian drug laws if you're caught in possession of a small amount or worse, selling said narcotics you can expect a really hefty sentence. And yet, shock and horror, drugs are EVERYWHERE in this country and are either grown here or imported by the thousands of tons every year.
Draconian gun laws won't prevent people who want to own and use them from getting them, especially criminals. Ban guns in the US and they'll simply be another illegal material that will be smuggled across our borders by the tons.
It's a simple question of supply and demand. If someone (i.e. a criminal or introverted psycho like Cho) really wants a gun they will be able to get one.» Login to reply to this |


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