Post by leunas on Feb 13, 2007 17:22:56 GMT -5
On Monday evening, an unidentified teenage gunman in a trench coat, carrying a shotgun and a handgun, opened fire in a historic shopping mall in Salt Lake City, Utah. When the dust settled in Trolley Square shopping mall, five people are dead and four more were wounded. It's a tragic event that forces us all to reach for those closest to us and squeeze them for just a moment longer; this is something the families of the victims in Utah have been denied of for the rest of their lives. My heart goes out to them.
After the initial shock of a horrid event such as this subsides in the media, the focus will turn towards the gunman. Sadly, this is a storyline we've all seen unfold in recent years. An expressionless teenager in a trench coat, with weapons he had no reason to carry, firing blindly into a crowd. The masses will be looking for a reason why such an unthinkable act has taken place.
The gunman's life will be examined, piece by piece, looking for clues to this senseless crime. It will unfortunately go far beyond how he acquired the weapons of death that he wielded on the Utah shopping mall. We will eventually be seeing journals and sketchbooks, anything and everything the media can get their hands on they will broadcast for the world to see. We'll find out what was his favorite food, his favorite music but none of that will be assumed to blame. We'll find out the medication he might have been prescribed but even that probably won't garner any of the blame. I'd love to blame the media for all of this but I simply can't, the masses obviously want to hear all of this.
Then maybe there will be a sketch or a note to a friend. It might be a passing remark or an empty threat to a schoolmate. Chances are a teenager of modern times in middle-America, has played a video game at one point in his life. We'll find out soon enough if a particular game was his favorite and it's hard to believe that the video game industry is looking forward to that report. Politicians will once again get involved, possibly leveraging this story along with their personal agenda. I'm sure they'll blame the video game industry for corrupting our youth. Expect names like Hillary and Lieberman to grace your television screens soon.
This might be yet another moment when the video game industry and their gaming community will need to stand together to condemn this young man’s actions yet somehow defend our favorite pastime. What's truly sad is that this teenager, this child's life and the lives of the everyone in that mall, will be twisted and exploited to push political and in the end, financial agendas. The problem, the gaping disconnect between modern parents and their children, will again go overlooked.
Photo from Associated Press
By: James Munn at February 13, 2007 12:00 PM
www.aeropause.com/archives/2007/02/game_industry_h.php