Comment Re:Not the cause.. (Score 1) 1168
I find it dishonest to only look at the problem from one side. Yes, clearly, he had a mental problem. Fixing the mental problems would prevent these tragedies from happening, and clearly we should strive to give more help to people that need it. So far there are no links between violence and video games. I personally believe there aren't any, but I'm not opposed to studies on the subject, because I think they will prove that there aren't any links.
There is another side of the equation, though, and it's that he had easy access to a tool that could let him kill people efficiently. Yes, yes, I know, he could have stolen guns, built bombs, used a baseball bat, whatever. The thing is.. all of these require more effort, and I _want_ them to require more effort. You have a higher chance of being tracked if you start buying ingredients for explosives in large amounts. You have a higher chance of being tracked if you need to steal or do something illegal to get a gun. The tracking might infringe on your rights, but you know what? It's already in place. It would be harder to plan something on this scale without legal guns. As for other means of killing people? You can kill less people in the same amount of time if you're using a baseball bat. How many people died in that Chinese incident?
There is another side of the equation, though, and it's that he had easy access to a tool that could let him kill people efficiently. Yes, yes, I know, he could have stolen guns, built bombs, used a baseball bat, whatever. The thing is.. all of these require more effort, and I _want_ them to require more effort. You have a higher chance of being tracked if you start buying ingredients for explosives in large amounts. You have a higher chance of being tracked if you need to steal or do something illegal to get a gun. The tracking might infringe on your rights, but you know what? It's already in place. It would be harder to plan something on this scale without legal guns. As for other means of killing people? You can kill less people in the same amount of time if you're using a baseball bat. How many people died in that Chinese incident?