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Chris Leigh
17 Apr, 2007

Thompson blames US school shootings on...

PALGN News | You've got three guesses.
Anti-video game critic Jack Thompson has claimed that there is a link between video games and the latest round of U.S. school shootings. Earlier today, a gunman at the Virginia Tech university killed 33 people, before turning the gun on himself.

And, while the dead are still being counted, Thompson has leapt on the story with all his usual levels of sensitivity and good taste in a bid to further his own political agenda. Referred to as a "school shooting expert" on Fox News, Thompson suggested that the shootings could be tied to video games, singling out Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto games for special criticism.

"What the FBI and secret service found after the Columbine shooting was the common denominator being the immersion of the perpetrators in incredibly violent entertainment, most notably violent video games," stated Thompson, who then went on to use previous school shootings as examples of the supposed link between video games and violence. One of his examples was Jeff Weise, the perpetrator of the Red Lake High School massacre in March 2005, who Thompson claimed had, "rehearsed for the massacre by playing Grand Theft Auto: Vice City in order to get his heart-rate down and be able to kill."

"So that's one thing the authorities are going to be looking at, because to be able to pull this off, with this high body count, one has to have rehearsed it in order to get ready to do it," concluded Thompson.

Thompson's interview with Fox News can be heard in full here.

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53 Comments
2 years ago
The guy is talking out of his ass. The guy had problem's and that's why he killed those kids. Damn idiot.
2 years ago
How does this moron get up and say something and all of a sudden everyone is hearing about it? It boggles the mind! How about people just stop reporting on this idiot? That includes Palgn.
2 years ago
I think the real issue here is that he was so quick to grab this tragedy and use it to for his own ends, regardless of what he's laying the blame on. The man has no decency at all.

Edit: Just wanted to get that in before the whole 'on noes, videogames getting more bad press' comments.
2 years ago
Where is a sniper when we need one icon_smile.gif. I can't beleive he came out so close to this major event and use it to get an advantage for his views. Pfft idiot just ignore him people nothing to see here
2 years ago
Because we all know that video games kill people and it has nothing to do with mentally unstable people having such easy access to guns icon_rolleyes.gif.
2 years ago
Jack Thompson wrote
Phase 1: Blame all of society's problems on games
Phase 2: ???
Phase 3: Profit
I think someone should shoot him and then he can speculate weather or not video games were the cause of that.

People are dead! And he uses tragety for profit and personal gain, I dont know about you guys but I would really like to bust this guys nose
2 years ago
My god what a tragedy. The police don't even know who the gun man was yet and Thompson's jumping all over it like a mad man. Who knows if the kid even played games yet alone GTA.

Thanks for the article link, I had no idea about the 1991 massacre in Texas either. I'd always thought Columbine was the worst. It seems the Virginia massacre just fell short of the infamous Port Arthur massacre record.
2 years ago
To blame videogames for something like this hours after it has happened is not only wrong but immoral on so many levels. No one has yet established what the shooter's motives were, nor do they know his mental state or even the events the built-up towards the shootings.
I personally think that today Jack has crossed the line from overbearing lawyer and self-proclaimed morality activitist to an outright scumbag who's only purpose at this stage is to try and rally support, though through his comments today I'm saying he's lost all creditability towards his beliefs.
2 years ago
HOW DARE that scumbag try to sue this tragedy for his own political agenda? I'm so goddamn furious at that man right now.

For a start apparently the shooter was doing THREE FREAKING DEGREES who has time for video games with that kind of workload?

Burn in hell Jack thompson.
2 years ago
Nevertheless, the incident is another tragedy in this world. We need to know more of what Thompson said before we start passing more judgement upon him. Also, does Thompson accuse other texts of the cause? such as movies, graphic novels or books.
2 years ago
jecht_raiden wrote
Nevertheless, the incident is another tragedy in this world. We need to know more of what Thompson said before we start passing more judgement upon him. Also, does Thompson accuse other texts of the cause? such as movies, graphic novels or books.
Not really, in a G4 interview a while back he said that while movies do contribute it is videogames which are the main cause of a majority of violent crime in the US currently.
Though when he's asked about citations or references he tends to come up short, he doesn't have any case where the judge has rules that computer games were defiantly a contribution to a crime. He did have the support of the psychology department or the United States but they've gone very quiet in the last few months.
2 years ago
It's not the fact that this guy is using Video Games to further his own agenda that bothers me. It's his complete and utter insensitivity in the way he goes about it. I remember him posting a condescending ain't it a shame message on a gaming site where one of it's members killed himself only days after the fact. Someone needs to get him on a talk show like Laryy King Live with someone who's going to put him back in his box cause public humiliation is the only way this guy will go away.
2 years ago
Right on Mr. Thompson, video games should be banned! So should literature because some idiots interpret The Catcher in the Rye differently to others. Heck, ban religion because some people misinterpret the Koran.
2 years ago
Qbert wrote
Right on Mr. Thompson, video games should be banned! So should literature because some idiots interpret The Catcher in the Rye differently to others. Heck, ban religion because some people misinterpret the Koran.
Yeah, we should probably ban ideas too...
I hear that ideas make people do all kinds of things!
icon_eek.gif

Honestly, the way this guy has jumped on this horrific event and tried to spin it in his favour - not respectable OR respectful at all.
2 years ago
stevolution wrote
It's not the fact that this guy is using Video Games to further his own agenda that bothers me. It's his complete and utter insensitivity in the way he goes about it. I remember him posting a condescending ain't it a shame message on a gaming site where one of it's members killed himself only days after the fact. Someone needs to get him on a talk show like Larry King Live with someone who's going to put him back in his box cause public humiliation is the only way this guy will go away.
He went onto Larry King Live a few years back, I remember watching it and thinking that while his agenda may be well and good he doesn't have enough substantiated evidence to support it, even Larry King expressed such views. Now when you hear about what's really going on with him you know that he can't prove his agenda so he does this sort fo thing to try and catch people out in a moment of panic so that they'll join his personal agenda, the problem now lies that he has no credibility.
2 years ago
Qbert wrote
Heck, ban religion...
Not such a bad idea really, different nations have been killing each other over their imaginary friends for decades.
2 years ago
Se7en wrote
Qbert wrote
Heck, ban religion...
Not such a bad idea really, different nations have been killing each other over their imaginary friends for decades.
Hey, I'm not making a big thing out of this, but don't be dissing religion.
Not cool.
That's all I have to say to that.
2 years ago
Andronicus wrote
Se7en wrote
Qbert wrote
Heck, ban religion...
Not such a bad idea really, different nations have been killing each other over their imaginary friends for decades.
Hey, I'm not making a big thing out of this, but don't be dissing religion.
Not cool.
That's all I have to say to that.
Religion is totally different guys, keep the Jack bashing in here and the religion bashing elsewhere I say.
2 years ago
Thompson = New Biggest Douche in the Universe.
2 years ago
jecht_raiden wrote
Nevertheless, the incident is another tragedy in this world. We need to know more of what Thompson said before we start passing more judgement upon him. Also, does Thompson accuse other texts of the cause? such as movies, graphic novels or books.
No we don't.The fact that he has said anything so soon, other than sending his condolences to the family makes him a asshole.

The first thing I though when I saw this topic was 'what a effing asshole, it happened not to long ago and he's already sprouting nonsense".

If he wants to blame the the murder on something at least wait some time.

He's just a self centered asshole who doesn't care who he stands on just so he can be in the spotlight.

I hope I'm allowed to say asshole.If I'm not then sorry.
2 years ago
Mr.Dumbass needs to know that the guy killed them because of a bad love triangle..now What the Hell does that have to do with video games? (He played Sprung...)
2 years ago
All easy targets.

Watch out Marilyn Manson you'll be next.

It's all smoke to cover the real problem, a simple scapegoat to veer people making the logical conclusion that

moron+gun=lots of dead people.

Since we can't ban/outlaw morons(not until they strike first like this and then graduate from moron into criminally insane), it's obvious guns are the issue.But don't you dare insinuate they get rid of their guns........they'll shoot you in the god damn face and scream it's my right.
2 years ago
Someone summed that up beautifully on another forum:
"You would never see them blaming lack of US gun control of course. How unconstitutional! How many of these kinds of shootings happen in Australia? I can walk into a shop here and buy the same game, but not the same gun (nearly as easily). Coincidence?"

While gun-control (lack there-of) is only part of the problem, and the least likey to be addressed, it certainly is part of the problem.
2 years ago
What Jack Thompson said is quite offensive to the families and friends of the victims.
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