Violent Video Game Restrictions for Illinois Teens?

The hell?

“‘We need to stop children from seeing the violence and getting their hands on anything they want to,’ Mark Brummer said after buying football and hunting video games for his 7-year-old son at a Champaign mall.””

Do they even know what the hell they’re saying or even understand what they’re talking about? He’s bitching about violent video games but he buys his son hunting and football video games? Now then, there are few pro sports on the face of the planet more violent and dangerous than American football. The only one popping to mind is Jai Lai. And what’s with the hunting games? Is it only violence when it pertains to humans? So the act of killing a deer using a long range rifle with the latest in scope tech, flash supressors, and specialty ammunition isn’t violent?

When are these people going to realize that violence is entertainment? I’m not talking actual violence, but the simulation thereof. Violence has always been entertaining. Phsycial comedy is violence. The Three Stooges are violent, always were always will be. Tom and Jerry is one of the most violent cartoons ever made. So what’s the difference? We know that the violence in movies and cartoons isn’t real.

This isn’t a job for government, this is a job for responsible parents. Growing up, my parents explained to me that John Wayne didn’t actually kill that man. Steve McQueen didn’t actually hurt that guy he just knocked down. It was easy to make this transition to video games. When I mow a guy down with a street sweeping shotgun in a video game, I haven’t actually done anything. It’s not real. Parents need to get back on the ball and teach this to their children.

The idea that violent movies, video games, and TV causes violence makes no sense. What video games was Hitler playing? What were the violent TV shows that caused Caligula to go mad? The theories all break down at the personal level. I grew up watching violent cartoons, violent TV shows, and violent movies. I still watch violent cartoons, and violent TV shows, and violent movies. I grew up playing violent video games. I still play violent video games. I read violent books. And to go with that, I’m a martial artist, a bladesman, and I often carry a gun. According to the theories, I’m just a walking time bomb. But ya know something? I just haven’t felt the need to go kill people, you know? Maybe it has something to do with the fact that I was taught that violence, real violence is rarely the right solution to a problem.