| Guest Editorial: Hitler Didn't Play Doom
by Jim "Twitch" Tittle |
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"I was playing Falcon 4 for thirteen hours straight and then I just snapped." Is that a future quote from a felon in custody? This is the 90's version of the famous Twinkie defense from the 70's where it was argued that a kid who gorged on Twinkies was so full of sugar it made him commit criminal acts. The kids perpetrating the high school massacre never used the above type of phrase since they were dead. They never wrote it anywhere either, but some inspired individual assumed that they would have if they could. It seems a lot of things are assumed these days and reported as fact. I believe that games and simulations relieve stress and anger and do not fuel them. Sure, if you create a Manchurian Candidate atmosphere you could probably alter someone's thinking through mental torture using a game. But playing games/sims every day for extended periods won't do it. That's what we all do! IT'S NOT MY FAULT The other contention is that the Internet was a factor in the "war page" of these felons. Yes, let's discount all the good that is out there and focus on the bad. The fact that pipe-bomb-making instructions are on the web is the same argument used by previous anti freedom of press individuals. In the 60's it was books in print that described the structure of atomic bombs that worried certain people. I read a book by one of Fidel Castro's mentors revealing the formula for Molotov cocktails. By the way, you use 1/3 oil and 2/3 gasoline. He mentions other explosive brews too. Gee, acquiring that knowledge didn't force me to make a bomb. Should little flashing lights activate in some Gestapo-style bureau when anyone goes to web sites deemed questionable, as your name and life history scrolls onto some CRT in a dingy cubicle of the Safety Police? Who should police the internet? Should it be policed? |
AAI Corporation Photo And let's not forget the demon firearm as the cause of the high school massacre. Never mind that they obtained them illegally as other perpetrators of similar crimes have done. No waiting period would have helped since the killing was planned for a year. And the guns were not assault-style weapons; the shotgun was made illegal by cutting the barrel off. The fact that firearms simply exist in the U.S.A. has certain people gnashing their teeth in dread that the Utopian society they picture in their mind's eye cannot flourish. I purchased a Glock 17 and a Colt Python within the calendar month of April. I have yet to fire either. Certain factions want to limit what I want to buy in a month. Should I be scrutinized? Are games next? Even if a game is labeled "adult," isn't a high school Senior at eighteen years of age adult enough to make the purchase alone? Oh yeah, dark music forces people to commit criminal acts, like the kid who committed suicide after listening to Ozzie Ozborne music for hours on end. Why blame him? With all due sarcasm, did Ozzie raise that boy? And musically, some of the darkest, most depressing and violent rhythms I've ever heard were timeless classical pieces. Everyone with good sense knows that there is much more to it than the above trivia. If a profile existed, with these things pointing to a probable felon, then I'm on the list. Many of you are too. I've been messing with computers for a decade and have been seriously into flight simulations since 1991, having spent countless hours in them on a daily basis. I learned safe firearm handling and have what the news media would call "a small arsenal." Of course "arsenal" has no number defining it in the Webster sense. Today it is a buzzword. When does a lifetime collection become an arsenal? I own recorded music of all types; is that an arsenal? I have a huge library of aviation, history and war. I find wonderful things on the web. Some would say COMBATSIM.COM™ glorifies the violence of combat, I suppose. And one last item that hasn't been a factor in most of the lunacy of the multiple murders yet, I like high performance cars. I can see it now, "the Lamborghini murders!" Go to Page Two |
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