| | | Sniper Games |  During the 2002 "Beltway Sniper" attacks, Florida
Attorney Jack Thompson suggested that the beltway
sniper could be a teenager who had trained on sniping
video games, and could possibly be as young as
fifteen. He based this hypothesis on information he
had learned working on the Paducah school shooting
case. In that case, the shooter had trained on sniper
games to get himself ready for the actual shooting.
When they caught the beltway snipers, it was revealed
that one of them, John Lee Malvo was only seventeen.
Not only that, but he had trained on the Xbox video
game "Halo" in sniper mode to get desensitized and
break down his inhibition to kill.
The United States Army has it's own video game,
designed to recruit teenagers into the Army. In the
video game "America's Army" children assume the roles
of soldiers, and do operations as such. Meanwhile, the
Supreme Court of the United States is questioning
whether Microsoft, the company that makes the video
game "Halo" Should be held liable for the deaths in
the beltway sniper episode and the Paducah school
shootings, as the sniper game was used by the shooters
to practice. Some opponents of video violence, and
especially first person shooting simulators, have said
that this is all the evidence the government should
need to ban, or atleast regulate more strongly, the
levels of video violence present in sniper games.
There are many sniper games on the market that center
around precision shooting. "Sniper elite" by Namco,
"sniper 2" by midway, "Sniper Path of Vengeance"
"counterstrike" and "Silent Scope" to name a few. At
present, there has been no attempt to ban these games.
All have a rating of "adult" and a warning of strong
violent themes. |
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