Monday, February 18, 2013

With all the attention the media have given to guns in the months following this tragic incident, there's been precious little to the violent video games our youth are exposed to

Police Found Thousands of Dollars of Graphically Violent Video Games at Newtown Shooter's Home - Noel Sheppard/Newsbusters

Post facto question: Why has it taken over two months for this information to come out?

If they had found a book by Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Mark Levin, Ann Coulter, or Glenn Beck, I bet we would have heard about it weeks ago with it making headline news across the fruited plain.

But the presence of thousands of dollars of graphically violent video games?

The New York Post filed a report on December 19 titled "Killer’s Basement His Eerie Lair of Violent Video Games." But the source was an unnamed "person familiar with the layout" of Lanza's home.

It took two months for some news outlet to confirm this with the police?

POLICE: Sandy Hook killer copied massacre scene from one of the hundreds of violent video-games he played relentlessly - Doug Ross

No Russian - Bob Owens

Did Media Coverage of Breivik Lead to Newtown Massacre? - Daniel Greenfield/Frontpage

The current claims bylaw enforcement sources are that Lanza was treating mass murder as a video game score that he felt compelled to beat Breivik at. Breivik had his own gaming obsessions and seemed to be living in an imaginary world where he was the leader of an army of crusader knights.

Crazy people are basically crazy. Still it would appear from this that Lanza knew entirely what he was doing and that the obsessive publicity that the media gave to the Breivik case may have inspired the Newtown massacre.

Naturally we won’t be calling for a video game ban or a media ban, because attacking the First Amendment because of a madman’s actions is wrong. But somehow attacking the Second Amendment isn’t.

Newtown shooter motivated by Norway massacre, sources say - CBS

Evidence shows that his mind, sources say, Lanza was also likely acting out the fantasies of a video game as he killed 20 first graders and six adults at the school. For Lanza, the deaths apparently amounted to some kind of "score."

But Lanza ended his killing spree sooner than he intended. Unlike Breivik, who surrendered, Lanza killed himself as police closed in. Just before his suicide, Lanza fired some shots at police in the school's parking lot.

Officials have not publicly revealed what led them to the motive, but sources say investigators have found evidence Lanza was obsessed with Breivik.

They've also recovered what they called a "trove" of video games from the basement of Lanza's home. Sources say Lanza spent countless hours there alone, in a private gaming room with the windows blacked out, honing his computer shooting skills.