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December 15th, 2012, 06:31 GMT · By

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Connecticut School Shooting Blamed Wrongly on Mass Effect

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Mass Effect had nothing to do with the Connecticut shooting Enlarge picture - Mass Effect had nothing to do with the Connecticut shooting
One of the most dramatic killing sprees in the U.S. took place yesterday at an elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut and, like most crimes, some people quickly decided to blame video games for the terrible tragedy, in this case the Mass Effect series.

Earlier in the day after news of the Newtown, Connecticut shooting hit, it seemed like Ryan Lanza was the gunman behind it. Angry people quickly found his Facebook page, according to the Examiner, and saw that he had "liked" the page of a video game series, in the form of Mass Effect.

Seeing as how the games involve a fair amount of shooting, many quickly bombarded the Mass Effect Facebook page with terrible messages, blaming the video game series for what had happened.

Loyal Mass Effect fans quickly retorted, saying that the blame of Lanza's actions shouldn't be shifted from him to the video games.

Things quickly stopped, however, when it was found that Adam Lanza, the brother of Ryan Lanza, was the actual man behind the tragedy.

Even so, this once again signals that if there's any correlation between a crime and a video game, people will always blame games.

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READER COMMENTS:


Comment #1 by: Spiritwolf1 on 15 Dec 2012, 14:59 UTC reply to this comment

In the face horrible things people need to find something to blame to make themself feel better about it. It is human nature. Video games are an easy target because they dont know anything about them. Heaven forbid they poor their efforts into where the real problem lies and look at the mental health system or the gun laws or anything that really cause the problem cause, video games are the root of all evil... and I am sure there was a band or two out there that when you played their music backwards there were hidden meanings. Also, while we're at just throwing out blame for the hell of it, I am sure we could find some witches in Salem that might have cast a spell on him


Comment #2 by: Lonewolf167 on 15 Dec 2012, 16:01 UTC reply to this comment

They're all to ignorant to recognise the actual issues. The blame lies with the parents, not the video games. The parents are in a position of power and responsibility to teach their children correct social-behaviour as well as what's right and wrong. This includes anything from violence to narcotics, they need to stop placing the blame on other people and organisations because of their own stupidity and parenting failures.

Comment #2.1 by: Anon on 22 Jan 2013, 09:44 GMT

I wouldn't blame the parents if the child has mental disorders, the parent can't control that. Don't act like amazing parenting could have changed somebody like Dahmer. Blame the fact that semi-automatic assault rifles are available and that it seems like nobody takes mental health seriously.


Comment #3 by: Big Bang on 15 Dec 2012, 23:53 UTC reply to this comment

I grew up watching Looney Toons, a simple and innocent cartoon back in the day but now as an adult it's quite violent, I've grown up playing violent video games since I was 5 starting with Doom and have played literally hundreds of ultra violent video games to this day at 26 years of age and I have never had an urge to gun down a room full of kids or even fight a person.

Society is quick to point a finger at games when all hell breaks loose yet they ignore the millions of people who play these same violent games and are not violent killers. Go look for the real problem and quit sitting and pointing fingers at the most easy answer just to satisfy your need for justification.

Also, Mass Effect? Are you serious? Mass Effect is the Looney Toons of violent games. You may as well blame Mass Effect for snowball fights.


Comment #4 by: eck21465 on 16 Dec 2012, 04:02 UTC reply to this comment

i play mass effect 1,2.3.in the game you save the worlds not kill little kids
if you want to blame video games blame call to duty that game your shooting people mass effect you dont because i play it you dont see me shooting people


Comment #5 by: 3X4D5 on 16 Dec 2012, 05:42 UTC reply to this comment

This happened with Columbine and Doom as well, right?
Figures, people WILL always blame video games for everything bad...

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