[News] Hope everyone has their thoughts and prayers ready ..........again

[Megazone]

Kids knifing each other, it’s ridiculous. But the answer to this is to try and reduce access to these weapons (very difficult) and educate. The other issue is the massively provocative and lazy journalism that declares ‘London has a higher murder rate than New York’. Such bollocks. It did for two consecutive months, so if you take those months then it was true.

2018 homicides.
London - 135
New York - 289

Despite both being a similar size, London is massively safer than New York

what's alarming is that knife crime in london has risen by 40% since 2014.

There has to be a bigger influence behind this than the knives themselves?

 

[FatSuperman]

Get rid of say slender (whatever the game is called) where would a kid find anything that allows him/her to enjoy kidnapping kids and killing them? They wouldn't. Same goes for those messed up GTa games where you drive around shooting peoples heads off who are just walking down your standard road.

The solution? Football manager and Match of the day..

I’ve played Slender by the way, as has my sister and wife. It’s aim is categorically not what you are saying or may have been reported. Yes there is a creature stalking a character around some creepy locations. But the player is the one being stalked. It’s a horror game, actually really scary / jumpy. You don’t kidnap or kill anyone. In a way it’s the opposite to what you have inferred.

 

[Megazone]

I’ve played Slender by the way, as has my sister and wife. It’s aim is categorically not what you are saying or may have been reported. Yes there is a creature stalking a character around some creepy locations. But the player is the one being stalked. It’s a horror game, actually really scary / jumpy. You don’t kidnap or kill anyone. In a way it’s the opposite to what you have inferred.

Okay fair enough my misunderstanding on that game. I haven't actually played played it. I'm just going off the reports a youngster became obsessed with a character on the game who kidnaps kids, to the point which you could argue desensitised his thinking towards such horrific actions.

 

[FatSuperman]

what's alarming is that knife crime in london has risen by 40% since 2014.

There has to be a bigger influence behind this than the knives themselves?

Perhaps there is Mega. The analysis on the matter points to the austerity drive removing lots of crutches that helped poor people with access to education etc. For example, in 2010 the EWA fund that helped kids from low income families go on to further education was cancelled by the government. Perhaps this sort of thing is involved in the issue.

But the thing you are doing here is building an association between mass shootings in America with stabbings in London, which is a terrible comparison. The comparison to be made is mass shooting in the US vs mass shootings everywhere else.

 

[FatSuperman]

Okay fair enough my misunderstanding on that game. I haven't actually played played it. I'm just going off the reports a youngster became obsessed with a character on the game who kidnaps kids, to the point which you could argue desensitised his thinking towards such horrific actions.

This is rather the point though. All of those media reports making a link with a computer game are not helping. Look at what the experts were saying about that case - we have to learn from it! Blaming a computer game is a ridiculous notion and draws the reader and perhaps general thinking away from where the action should be. Take this debate as an example - you’re a sensible, funny and well adjusted guy. But you’ve been fairly convinced by these media reports that a game might have been heavily involved in influencing this kid, and therefore the debate should perhaps be about games!

There used to be a LOT of gang related football violence in the 80’s. But we didn’t cancel football.

 

[Triggaaar]

and yes playing a game where you go around kidnapping kids is messed up.

What game is that? I don't know anything about it.

 

[Megazone]

Perhaps there is Mega. The analysis on the matter points to the austerity drive removing lots of crutches that helped poor people with access to education etc. For example, in 2010 the EWA fund that helped kids from low income families go on to further education was cancelled by the government. Perhaps this sort of thing is involved in the issue.

But the thing you are doing here is building an association between mass shootings in America with stabbings in London, which is a terrible comparison. The comparison to be made is mass shooting in the US vs mass shootings everywhere else.

I'm not trying to compare knife crime to mass shootings. I'm trying to understand the psychology and the possible social affects behind this sharp rise in people committing murderous activities with guns and knives. It's obvious the easy access to guns in the US is a huge problem and no one is debating that on here, but whilst the US has these divided opinions on their gun laws, which suggests a lot of people in the US are against the legalisation of guns, shouting out "ban guns" as the only solution everytime these disasters occurs just seems a bit small minded in relation to the complexity of a kid going into schools etc and shooting loads of people. Why not discuss other benefactors behind the mass shootings to create better awareness on these issues for the present and the future? Many people prefer labelling this sort of stuff as an act of 'evil' which doesn't help us to understand anything unless you want to go down the route of God and the Devil, which I don't.

 

[NooBHA]

what's alarming is that knife crime in london has risen by 40% since 2014.

There has to be a bigger influence behind this than the knives themselves?

Actually - It is the knives themselves

If the people carrying knives could get easier access to guns then it would be guns that they would be carrying here as well - We did something about ''firearms'' in this country in the wake of the ''Thomas Hamilton'' incident. The US needs to do something similar.

You will never eradicate it in the US or anywhere else for that matter but at least you need to try and make it more difficult for it to happen. And when you have a President virtually inciting violence and referring to the ''Hispanic Community as ''Rapists and Murderers'' at his Election Rallies then I am afraid he needs to accept some of the responsibility for this latest spree of killing.


I totally despair of it all now but they are not helping themselves and innocent people are dying because of the Personal Agenda of some Individuals and Groups in the US

 

[Megazone]

What game is that? I don't know anything about it.

https://slendergame.com

Alesha MacPhail killer Aaron Campbell was obsessed with Slender Man before raping and murdering six-year-old Bute schoolgirl.
The maniac, 16, was fixated with the faceless meme that abducts kids — in a chilling echo of his attack on the six-year-old schoolgirl

https://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/ne...a-macphail-murderer-killer-slender-man-court/

 

[Mexican Seagull]

Its very difficult to begin to understand the US love affair with guns. I have worked for most of my career for 2 different Midwest financial service companies and have spent a lot of time in Kansas & St Louis with some great colleagues, most of them well educated and very decent people. But one subject that over the years has been very very difficult to discuss on any sort of rational basis has been guns. I have come to the sad conclusion that nothing is going to change in the US re their view of the right/need to have them even in huge quantaties and that it's perfectly ok/normal to go into a shop in the South and stock up with some AK 47s.....and don't get me going on all the weapons that easily make their way south of the border and have ensured that the drug violence is fought here in Mexico rather than on the streets of the US where it should be.
Computer games, mental problems etc., may play a role in certain shootings but the fundemental problem is such easy access to very high powered guns, remove/reduce that, then the issues do not disappear (they never will) but will save a lot of lives - that unfortunately is just not going to happen....

 

[Razzoo]

I’m sorry [MENTION=30847]Megazone[/MENTION] but GAMES don’t make you want to slaughter people. Before people blamed games, they blamed violent films, before that they blamed dungeon and ****ing dragons.

Millions of kids spend tens of millions of hours a week playing games and it’s very few countries that have these issues. Blaming games DOES NOT HELP address the issue.

They also blamed Judas Priest lps played backwards if I remember correctly

 

[maltaseagull]

Trump tweeted his thoughts and prayers.

14 minutes later he tweeted congratulating a UFC fighter on his recent win.

He's mentally ill.

He had the gall to criticise the UK for knife crime.
According to the Mayor of one of the cities affected, this was the 250th mass shooting THIS YEAR!
Country has serious problems. President doesn't dare do anything about it as it will cost votes.

RIP all the innocent victims.

 

[FatSuperman]

...shouting out "ban guns" as the only solution everytime these disasters occurs just seems a bit small minded in relation to the complexity of a kid going into schools etc and shooting loads of people.

The analysis and reviews performed over the years shows that the number of & ease of access to guns is closely correlated to mass shootings. It shows that ALL of the other factors are irrelevant. There isn’t much else to say really - you and many others feel there is an influence from violent games etc. There is but it is very minor - like other things - so utterly irrelevant to this problem

 

[Triggaaar]

and yes playing a game where you go around kidnapping kids is messed up. No debate.

https://slendergame.com

Er, you don't go around kidnapping kids in that game do you? You spend the game running from a monster. Can you post a link to show me gamers kidnapping kids?


I see you've been corrected above (weirdly, before you'd told me what game it was). So you've jumped to conclusions before knowing the facts. The kid could have equally watched horror movies, or Game of Thrones.

 

[Megazone]

The analysis and reviews performed over the years shows that the number of & ease of access to guns is closely correlated to mass shootings. It shows that ALL of the other factors are irrelevant. There isn’t much else to say really - you and many others feel there is an influence from violent games etc. There is but it is very minor - like other things - so utterly irrelevant to this problem

Not that i'm disagreeing with you (just trying to understand) but besides the gun laws, why weren't these mass shootings as regular in the States as they are now when guns were still legal back then? This question leads me to wanting to understand more on this than just the gun laws. If guns had always been illegal over there (which I wish had been the case), then like London, I guess we'd still see a sharp increase in nutty killings compared to the past over there. Yes the killing toll would be less, but we'd still hear stories of isolated, bullied, revengeful, jealous etc maniacs trying to or succeeding in committing murder much more than we used to

as others have said on this thread, these insane mass murders are starting to become the norm over there. Why when it wasn't before? I personally wish all guns were gone including the ones in the hands of soldiers, police officers, terrorists etc So i'm not defending being armed with a murderous weapon. I just think there's something we haven't understood in relation to this recent uprising in youth culture killings, and this includes the knife crime in London and the mass shootings in the US.

Ghetto culture maybe? our obsession with war maybe? Films where Tom Cruise manages to takes down a whole army of people with just a hand gun maybe? Media portraying what a normal person should look and act like which may create bitterness and jealously within our communities maybe? The sharp increase in people suffering with depression maybe? over half of the US's youth have reported being lonely according to a report I read, maybe that has some relation maybe? The media telling us that we're in constant threat of a terrorist attack maybe? Unemployment issues maybe?

But to say all other benefactors away from the gun laws are completely irrelevant to this issue, just sounds ignorant.

 

[vegster]

President Trump is right on the ball about these shooting's, it seems lessons are being learned. Here is an excerpt from a recent Tweet....

"The FBI, local and state law enforcement are working together in El Paso and in Dayton, Ohio. Information is rapidly being accumulated in Dayton. Much has already be learned in El Paso. Law enforcement was very rapid in both instances "


Now all they have to figure out is how 29 people died, I fear that Elephant remains undiscovered.

 

[Megazone]

Er, you don't go around kidnapping kids in that game do you? You spend the game running from a monster. Can you post a link to show me gamers kidnapping kids?


I see you've been corrected above (weirdly, before you'd told me what game it was). So you've jumped to conclusions before knowing the facts. The kid could have equally watched horror movies, or Game of Thrones.

agreed I was wrong. The game has a character which kidnaps kids. You spend the game running away from this character from what I've just learnt . Nothing wrong with that whatsoever.

 

[vegster]

They also blamed Judas Priest lps played backwards if I remember correctly

Whatever you do, don't play a Country and Western song backwards..... you get your house back, you get your girl back, you get your job back and you get your Dog back.

 

[carlzeiss]

Trump supporters also enjoying themselves in Chicago .

At Least 3 Killed, 37 Wounded In Weekend Shootings Across Chicago

https://chicago.cbslocal.com/2019/08/04/weekend-shootings-chicago-2/

 

[Creaky]

Wtf? Do some reading. Why should I have to spoon feed it to you?

That's the lowest of low arguments. I may as well say, you prove me wrong then. Very poor sir, very poor.

Although hold on, this is quite appropriate.. For those at the back.

https://www.engadget.com/2018/03/07/video-game-violence-trump-meeting-esa-nra/

Isn’t this link just as valid?

https://edition.cnn.com/2016/07/25/health/video-games-and-violence/index.html
The American Psychological Association observed in an August 2015 policy statement that research demonstrated a link "between violent video game use and both increases in aggressive behavior ... and decreases in prosocial behavior, empathy, and moral engagement."