Blaming Games

27 October 2003


Grand Theft Auto III Blamed for Teenagers' Shooting Spree

William Buckner, 16, and Joshua Buckner, 14, are step-brothers living in Newport, Tennessee, and they are a couple of knuckleheads. They broke into a locked room in their home, took out some rifles and decided to shoot at tractor-trailer rigs as they passed through the Great Smoky Mountains. Families of the victims are suing Sony and Wal-Mart.

Sony and Wal-Mart are in the dock because the former produces a rather boring video game called "Grand Theft Auto III" and the latter sells it. This ridiculous game involves robbing people, stealing cars and shooting at both people and vehicles. And the Buckner boys allegedly were "inspired" by it to kill Aaron Hamel and wound Kimberly Bede as they came along Interstate 40. The lawyers bringing the case say the bill will be $46 million in compensation and $200 million in punitive damages for selling these two geniuses the game about a year before the shooting. In a decent society with a credible legal system, the lawyers bringing the case would be sanctioned for filing a frivolous lawsuit.

If there is any proof that violent video games cause violent behavior, and such proof is thin on the ground, how does one explain all the violence that existed prior to the invention of "Pong"? Was Hitler a time-traveler who got hooked on "Death Race 2000"? Did Torquemada somehow get hold of the manual for "Mortal Kombat"? Where the deaths in the Roman Coliseum caused by something other than a basic bloodlust in the human soul, like "Resident Evil 3?" In other words, there is every chance these kids were inspired to commit their homicide of stupidity by watching the evening news.

But the money is big; Sony and WalMart will probably find it cheaper to settle than to fight. And a dreadful wrong was committed -- a human being is dead. It just seems somewhat disrespectful to the deceased to suggest that a lame amusement like GTAIII is the cause.

Of course, the crime took place in the South, where men and women love their guns. Surely, the gun manufacturers would be blamed if the killers lived in, say, Massachusetts.

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