CBS is reporting that they have talked to law enforcement officials who say that they believe Adam Lanza was acting out a video game fantasy where he believed that each person he shot was simply adding up to a score in his sick mind. They also say that they have evidence that he became obsessed with another mass murderer, and that he may have been hoping to top that body count of 77.
In addition to living out a video game massacre scenario, they also say that Lanza picked the school as his target because he knew it would be an easy target to attack with large clusters of people. He did apparently fire a couple of rounds in the direction of the parking lot when police first showed up, but then quickly shot himself.
Obviously we have to ban CSI.
For the children!
It seems to me that the knowitalls and the busybodies are targeting video games and the 1A after they get done crapping all over the 2A. Anyone remember Hillary doing this back in the ’90s? There is no freedom these cretins won’t try to stamp out in time, if we let them.
It seems to me the influence of “fantasies” may have some effect on a sick mind, but I also think they can come from all sorts of media, and not just video games. I remember a lot of people being influence by Soldier of Fortune magazine when it first hit the market. And I remember when I was a kid, there wasn’t an action movie we didn’t act out for days after seeing it; I even remember acting out scenarios from the turn-of-the-last-century books by Zane Grey and Ernest Thompson Seton, in the “youth room” of the town library.
It is a fair question which is the chicken and which is the egg when it comes to the influence of fantasy; very likely the sick mind is necessary for the full cultivation of a violent fantasy. In any case we can’t allow 1A violations based on what sick minds may extrapolate from free speech or free expression.
I remember when I was a kid, there wasn’t an action movie we didn’t act out for days after seeing it; I even remember acting out scenarios from the turn-of-the-last-century books by Zane Grey and Ernest Thompson Seton, in the “youth room†of the town library.
We all did that. As kids. And then we outgrew it, just as we outgrew cap guns, imaginary friends, and the like. If an adult is doing that, it points to serious issues with that individual’s mind, not any sort of “trigger” for those issues. Basically anything could act as such, for those with but a tenuous grasp on the difference between fantasy and reality: any book, any movie, any game…for a time D&D was the demon du jour. Yet another instance of dealing with objects, rather than people (almost surely because it’s easier to ban objects than to fix broken people).
The fact that just about anything could be a trigger should be enough to convince most rational people that banning violent movies or video games is silly unless you want to ban every single possible trigger. But most people aren’t rational. They’re scared, and they have no particular issue with banning things that don’t figure in their own personal lives.
The underlying issue–mentally ill people–is not as easy as just blaming games or movies. There’s a certain amount of rational political ignorance here. People are choosing not to educate themselves because it protects them from having to make difficult decisions about the mentally ill. Much easier to just blame inanimate objects and tuck one’s head in the sand. Life is so much easier that way.
“just as we outgrew cap guns”
Hey, let’s not talk crazy talk, now!
“We all did that. As kids. And then we outgrew it, just as we outgrew cap guns, imaginary friends, and the like. . .”
Ever hear of Cowboy Action shoots?
That’s not intended to badmouth Cowboy Action. It’s intended to make the point that we all engage in fantasies, and sometimes acting them out, our entire lives. I believe it is mostly healthy. I don’t know where the line should be drawn on “healthy,” but I think we would would all admit that when it comes to our Games and Toys for Big Boys, we have had associates who were a little overboard and made us nervous.
I just realized we are both saying the same thing. Sorry.
…they believe Adam Lanza was acting out a video game fantasy where he believed that each person he shot was simply adding up to a score in his sick mind. They also say that they have evidence that he became obsessed with another mass murderer, and that he may have been hoping to top that body count of 77.
So, he was bug nuts crazy and nearly completely divorced from reality. Well, I’m just shocked!
Sarcasm aside, I’m actually interested in what makes people like this tick, but I think we generally need to wait a few years after the dust settles before they actually figure it all out.
Next thing you know police and the media will be reporting that Lanza was pulled over on the way to Sandy Hook, but refused a search. If they could have searched him without consent/PC/warrant, this massacre would have never happened.
Repeal the 4th amendment!!! For the children!!!
CBS scumbags! They’re giving him the fame necessary to set some other whack-job off.
I never want to hear or see his name again.
May God damn him to suffer torment and agony for all eternity.
I’m SHOCKED, I say SHOCKED he chose an easy target full of people that couldn’t defend themselves.
I’d love to see what evidence they have, other than a game room full of violent video games, to support the claim that he was acting out a video game fantasy.
So, he was rational enough to come up with a goal (rack up a body count of 77+) and then select a target where achieving that goal was as easy as possible.
Anyone who allows a defense free zone to be established without any real security — whether it be a legislator, an administrator that bans all weapons including tasers or defensive sprays when they have the power to allow them, or anyone else — should carry guilt on their conscience for crimes that occur because of that fantasy land.
Gun banners are responsible for setting the conditions that allow mass murderers to execute their rampages so easily. I suspect that for many of the smarter gun grabbers it is intentional: more innocent blood lets them carry out more of their political agenda. It is sickening.
Mass shooters go where the masses are: Schools, malls, churches, public meetings, etc.
From what I just heard on ABC News, the news media may have been his biggest motivator! As Sebastian wrote almost immediately after Sandi Hook occurred, the desire for national notoriety fuels these suicidal-homicidal mass murderers. This morning’s broadcast bears out how right on the money our host was.
I’m not in favor of limiting 1st Amendment freedom of the press, but that is clearly as much or more an issue here than Second Amendment rights, and for the media to ignore their responsibility in this while attacking us is pure, self-serving hypocrisy on their part! But then, why would I expect otherwise from them?!
I like the editors note on the CBS story: We were contacted by the Connecticut State Police and told to stop speculating.
That certainly wasn’t there when I linked it. Too funny.
I have mixed emotions about that. On one hand, I don’t like the The Authorities trying to limit CBS’s 1A rights. On the other hand, objective reporting would seem to demand that they confine themselves to reporting only the facts, and not be leading people’s opinions.
Of course, if they report on officials’ speculation, I guess that become news.
I wouldnt call it a limit, just the issuance of a correction.