And now:LISN <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
Subject: please forward VIDEO GAMES TRAIN CHILDREN TO SHOOT
Date: Wed, 25 Aug 1999 07:39:55 -0400
From: Lynne Moss-Sharman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
August 25, 1999
`We are facing the most
confident group of killers the
world has ever seen'
Videos `train' kids to shoot, soldier says
Games similar to firearm training, police chiefs told
By Cal Millar
Toronto Star Staff Reporter
HAMILTON - Violent video games are like firearm training simulators and
are
teaching children to become mass murderers, says a retired U.S. Army
colonel. ``We are facing the most confident group of killers the world
has
ever seen,'' retired Lt.-Col. David Grossman told delegates at the 94th
annual Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police conference yesterday.
Grossman, a psychologist and author of the soon to be released Teaching
our
Kids to Kill, said there are links between military conditioning and
video
games.
Killing, he argued, does not come naturally. Soldiers are
prepared for combat by firing at human-shaped targets that pop
into view. Only with constant repetition does this become a
conditioned response.
In combat, conditioning takes over, even in soldiers who become frozen
with
fear. Children, Grossman said, inadvertently learn the same type of
reflex
through video games. ``What the children have been drilled to do is to
kill every living creature in front of them until they run out of
targets
or run out of bullets.''
In firearms combat situations, trained police officers have a 20
per cent hit ratio, but because teenagers are getting so much
practice with violent video games, their shooting skills are much
more developed, Grossman said. The youngsters involved in recent school
shootings in the United States honed their skills by playing video
games,
he said. For example, Michael Carneal in Paducah, Ky., had never fired a
gun before he went on a killing spree in his high school two years ago,
Grossman said. But the 14-year-old had fired tens of thousands of rounds
playing video games and had an
automatic response to hit anything that moved, he said.
`You can see the imprint of the video games on the crime. He only
fired
one shot at every target . . . The natural response is
to shoot at the target until the target drops.'' The teen fired
eight times and hit eight students. He killed three with shots to
the head and left another paralyzed for life. When young killers like
Carneal open fire they are on autopilot, Grossman said. ``In school
shootings, students open fire, then keep on going. Police ask them why
and
they say they don't know. But we know. . . . Kids who have never shot a
gun practise with tens of thousands of bullets during video games.''
`We are facing the most confident group of killers the
world has ever seen'
Jefferson County Sheriff John Stone, who led rescue teams during the
April
massacre at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo., says teenage
shooters Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris were avid fans of video games.
The
two, who committed suicide after killing 12 classmates and a teacher,
played a game called Doom, which involves hunting down people and
shooting
them. ``When one of the kids in the library asked what are they doing .
.
. they just smiled at him and said `We're killing people,' '' Stone
said.
``They moved on beyond him and just went over and shot other people. It
was
almost like it was a fantasy for them.''
Just a week later in Taber, Alta., a 14-year-old student killed a
schoolmate and wounded another at W. R. Myers High School.
Retired Lethbridge constable Dennis Reimer, who serves as the
school resource officer in Taber, said the incident came without
warning. The gun, tobacco and alcohol industries had to accept
restraints
on their products when it comes to children, but the video game industry
has not, Grossman said. ``They say, `We're driven by the market. If
people
didn't want it, we wouldn't make it.' ''
He showed police chiefs advertisements from various video games and said
that some actually focus on death. ``Kill your friends guilt free,''
read
one ad. Another said: ``More fun than shooting your neighbour's cat.''
The families of the three people killed in Kentucky are suing
video game manufacturers, and U.S. President Bill Clinton has
ordered a high-level investigation to determine if there is any
link between school shootings and video games, he added.
Brockville police Chief Barry King said the chiefs group's law
amendments committee will be asked for recommendations to help Canadian
lawmakers deal with the production of video games promoting violence.
``The
glorification of violence, in actual fact, turns out to be a
liability,''
York Region police Chief Julian Fantino said
yesterday.
``We are programming children to be desensitized to violence and
creating
an environment where they don't believe there are consequences. We have
to
hold those who promote and glorify violence accountable for what is
happening.''
"Let Us Consider The Human Brain As
A Very Complex Photographic Plate"
1957 G.H. Estabrooks
www.angelfire.com/mn/mcap/bc.html
FOR K A R E N #01182
who died fighting 4/23/99
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
www.aches-mc.org
807-622-5407
--
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