<![CDATA[Kotaku: niu shooting]]> http://tags.kotaku.com/assets/base/img/thumbs140x140/kotaku.com.png <![CDATA[Kotaku: niu shooting]]> http://kotaku.com/tag/niushooting http://kotaku.com/tag/niushooting <![CDATA[LaRouche Blames Microsoft For NIU Tragedy]]> "International Fascism: Microsoft Will Kill More Youth than Hitler." That is the title of a news posting over at the LaRouche Political Action Committee website, home of the supporters of American political nutcase Lyndon LaRouche. Taking their lead from the New York Post's sensationalist article "COLLEGE KILLER CRAZY FOR VIOLENT VID GAME", the LaRouche Camp is apparently blaming "Microsoft's Counterstrike killer video-game" for the shooting. Never mind that Microsoft doesn't make Counter-Strike - that's probably all part of the conspiracy as well.

The intended effect, to foster an environment of mass suicide terrorism in the U.S.A., is a by-product of the 'Revolution in Military Affairs' policy, organized by Felix Rohatyn and George P. Shultz; the same individuals, who not only helped to install the fascist Pinochet into the Chilean government, but are the prime backers of a fascist Bloomberg Presidency.
We really need to get LaRouche and Thompson into a room together. Then we can lock it and forget where we put the key. Perhaps sweet love will bloom.

International Fascism: Microsoft Will Kill More Youth than Hitler [LaRouche Website via Game Politics]

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<![CDATA[Dissecting Jack's Lies: NIU Shooting]]>

Jack Thompson must have Fox News on speed dial, because every time a student shoots someone it seems like he's there, head hanging low, like a vulture, dishing out his special brand of truisms.

Seeing that Jack went out of his way to email me this morning to point out that he was "right" about the shooting being spurred by Counter-Strike, I thought it was probably worth another round of Dissecting Jack's Lies.

Hit a jump for his confusing quotes and how accurate they were:

1: We find from brain scan studies out of Harvard that if you get started playing, for example, violent video games you can more likely copy-cat the behaviors in the games.
Verdict: False
Evidence: While the study of adolescents by Harvard and Indiana university researchers found that video games can spur "emotional arousal" and lower self-control it never made that final leap. In fact David S. Bickham, a research scientist at the Center on Media and Child Health at the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston, told the Washington Post that the study, while interesting, wasn't conclusive.

2: The disturbing thing that keeps popping up in many of these as in Va Tech, Columbine, Paducah, where I represented the six parents of the three girls shot and killed, is that you can rehearse these types of massacres on simulators which are called video games. And you can therefore made more proficient in doing this.
Verdict: False
Evidence: Va Tech shooter Seung-Hui Cho only had a passing interest in gaming years before the shooter. A lawyer tried to draw a connection between the game Doom and Columbine shooters Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, but that was tossed out by a federal judge. Paducah shooter Michael Carneal also played Doom, but that was found to not be connected to the shooting. Video game as murder simulator and training tool just doesn't hold any water.

3. The worst school shooting in history until Va Tech, was by Robert Steinhauser in Erfurt, Germany who trained on Counter-Strike Half Life. That's the game that Cho at Va Tech trained on in High School.
Verdict: Not exactly true
Evidence: While it is true that Steinhauser and Cho both played Counter-Strike at some point in their lives, with more than a million copies sold, that could probably be said of a lot of college students. Saying that Cho "trained on" the game is a bit of a stretch.

4. And um the effect, the affects the psychological affect of the shooter, plus his attire is suggestive of a couple of the games in which the "hero" wears this type of attire.
Verdict: Likely false
Evidence: The description by those present don't make it sound like he had a flat affect. One person said "It looked like a theatrical thing the way he walked onto the stage." Others described his behavior leading up to the shooting as erratic. Not surprising of a man who had recently been dumped by his girlfriend and had stopped taking his medication, possibly anti-depressants. Simply wearing black doesn't mean he was dressing up like the "hero" from Counter-Strike.

5: I lost my train of thought. I wrote a book...
Verdict: True
Evidence: Jack did indeed write a book, and I think he lost his train of thought about two decades ago.

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<![CDATA[NYPost: College Killer Crazy for Violent Vid Games]]>

The New York Post, not exactly a bastion for accurate and fair reporting, decided that "sick shooter" Steven Kazmierczak's interest in Counter-Strike three to four years ago made a better headline than the fact that he was off his medication when he decided to go on a rampage in an Illinois classroom.

The man who gunned down five people and wounded 16 in an Illinois classroom rampage was a loner who preferred studying to partying and was obsessed with an ultra-violent video game, dormitory mates said yesterday.

Stephen Kazmierczak, 27, played the wildly popular game Counter-Strike while studying sociology at Northern Illinois University in 2003 and 2004.

"He played a lot of video games, especially Counter-Strike, really loud," said dorm mate Ben Woloszyn, 24.

What they failed to mention was what dorm mates likely told them next, or at least told the Northwest Herald, that just about everyone in the dorm played the game.

But both men said that if Kazmierczak seemed disconnected from the other students, it could have been because he was an older student living alongside underclassmen.

"I guess he was polite," Rice said. "He was just really quiet. I wouldn't have guessed he would do anything."

Kazmierczak often would play the video game Counter Strike, a first-person shooting game, the roommates said, but they were quick to add that the game was nothing unusual for dormitory halls.

It's also worth noting that over the nearly 1,700 articles published about the shooting the only two that mention the game are the Northwest Herald and the New York Post. That didn't stop Thompson for shooting out an email this morning crowing about getting it right. It's nice to know that he cares about what's important in this shooting, that a college student played video games at one point in his life, not that six people are dead and a country traumatized.

Our condolences go out to the families of those killed and to Kazmierczak's family.

COLLEGE KILLER CRAZY FOR VIOLENT VID GAME
[New York Post]

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<![CDATA[JT On The NIU Shooting - The Video]]> Here is the clip of Jack Thompson on Fox News this morning, explaining how the Northern Illinois University shooting was the result of violent video games. My favorite bit is right at the beginning.
"Jack, welcome on this tragic day." "Yeah, I wish I weren't here." "You know? Us too."
We wish you weren't there either Jackie boy, but there you are anyway, immediately hijacking the interview for your own purposes. The interviewer starts by asking what the shooter's age (27) tells us about him, seeing as he is more of an adult than the usual late teens that perform these sorts of crime. Jack's answer? "If you get started playing - for example - violent video games you can uh...you are more likely to copycat the behaviors in the games."

It's like he doesn't even hear the question the guy is asking. The question merely served to pull the string on JT's back to ready the anti-gaming rhetoric. It's classic Thompson every step of the way. "You can rehearse these type of massacres on simulators which are called video games and you can...therefor made more proficient in doing this." He explains that "Counter-Strike Half-Life" was that Cho, the perpetrator of the Virginia Tech Massacre trained on in High School, suggesting that the behavoir of the NIU shooter had the same sort of training. He also cites the shooter's attire...all black...was also similiar to what the hero in Counter-Strike wears. He certainly couldn't have gotten the idea to wear all black from anywhere else, could he? What kind of bad guy wears all black, other than a good 50% of them throughout the history of fiction?

Then Jack loses his train of thought for a moment, the gnomes inside his head desperately trying to recover any for of cohesive thought tossing a plug for one of his books out and...did he just suggest that he predicted exactly how the shooting occurred? Why yes - yes he did.

To his credit, the Fox News anchor seems to realize how full of shit JT is and ended the interview with a dismissive, "Well clearly you connect this to games, and we'll find out more about the suspect Steven Kazmierczak.." only to have Jack speak over him with a smug, "Well we'll see...we'll see."

So far what we know of Kazmierczak counteracts the profile of previous school shooters. He was a well-adjusted, well liked student who received honors in classes and was in the chess club while growing up. He owned a gun permit, purchased his handguns legally, and only really began to show any signs of trouble a few weeks before the shootings when he stopped taking medication for an undisclosed condition.

Will Jack wind up with mud on his face once more? Is there any more room for mud? Why the hell do major news agencies still contact him when this sort of thing happens? The world is full of crazy people. Some shoot up schools. Others blame that on violent games without proof.

Thanks to Andy for pointing us towards the clip.

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<![CDATA[ECA Boss Responds To JT, NIU Shooting]]> NIU.jpg Hal Halpin, head of the Entertainment Consumers Association, has issued a statement following the tragic events at Northern Illinois University, events which our dear old friend was so quick to seize upon and blame on videogames. The statement reads:
We'd like to extend our condolences to the families, friends and classmates of those who were affected in the school shooting at Northern Illinois University. Separately, we are disgusted, but no longer shocked, to find that anti-game activists are again rushing to conclusions about what drove Stephen Kazmierczak, the clearly disturbed 27 year old who police say was responsible for this tragedy, to commit such an act.

Blaming video games for the behavior of the mentally-challenged is vile on many levels. And, as Generations X and Y mature, it is extremely likely that just about all of us have played at least one video game at some point in our lives. Drawing a parallel between games and violence without any substantive proof is sensationalism for its own sake. This is a sad event, made worse by the irresponsible actions of attention-seekers and the media that has given them a platform for their reckless venom.

So sad that a statement like this has to even be issued, and that such calm, reasonable statements are ignored by types like Fox News in favour of the ravings of a spotlight-hungry, ambulance chasing loon.

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<![CDATA[Jack Thompson Blames NIU Shooting On Video Games]]> It's Virginia Tech all over again! Florida attorney Jack Thompson has appeared on Fox News this morning as a "School Shooting Expert", blaming 27-year-old sociology grad Steven Kazmierczak's rampage yesterday at Northern Illinois University on - you guessed it - video games like Counter-Strike. Kazmierczak, identified only this morning, walked onto a lecture hall stage dressed in black and opened fire on a crowded science class, killing six students before taking his own life. As always, no evidence has been found linking Kazmierczak to video games, Counter-Strike or otherwise, but Thompson never let a lack of evidence keep him from shooting off his mouth. I imagine his ears perk up like a dog hearing its master's voice the moment a terrible tragedy like this occurs. We're currently looking into Kazmierczak to see if there is any sort of video game connection. We'll keep you posted.

UPDATE: Here is the video of Jack's appearance, in which he comlpetely ignores the interviewer's question and goes on an anti-gaming tirade.

Photo Courtesy of Jack Thompson

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