Call of Duty is why there are mass shootings

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brainbomb
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Call of Duty is why there are mass shootings

#1 Post by brainbomb » Sat Mar 27, 2021 10:08 pm

I remember thinking to myself while playing Call of Duty Black Ops 2, Team Deathmatch that I wasnt getting enough kills. I did not go buy a gun to go do an actual shooting mind you, but in my mind violent video games created this idea that for every person I kill, I get to unlock new cooler abilities. I wonder on occasion if mass shooters think like this, that they will get a UAV, or a Helicopter Attack, or a Carpet Bombing if they succeed.

Video games award you for going on a kill streak.

My advice for anyone who feels unhinged by society is to buy more call of duty games and not buy an actual gun. Or play games that are fun, stimulating and mentally challenging which dont cause violent instant gratification ideations to manifest.

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Re: Call of Duty is why there are mass shootings

#2 Post by brainbomb » Sat Mar 27, 2021 10:15 pm

Although this originally was intended as a troll or a cynical commentary on things I suddenly realized that perhaps violence is just so normalized that even the most stalwart intellectuals will not have an answer that can be agreed upon. With regards to a whole host of issues we face now, like border security, gun rights, voting rights, and abortion rights we always end up along the same lines with really piss poor ability to think for a new idea on how to fix a problem.

An international coalition should of course be created to regulate and advise states, countries, cities on how to prevent mass shootings without banning guns and without just letting every dipshit in America buy one without issue.

really shouldnt be a commerce issue or an amendment focused argument but an argument of how create devices which can shut down firearms electronically in areas where the intent of use is malicious. Trigger jam mechanisms armed by powerful magnetic fields perhaps or static free entry points which render a weapon useless upon entry. At least then we can ensure weapons cannot be discharged at all in places like schools, malls, movie theatres, and groceries.

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Re: Call of Duty is why there are mass shootings

#3 Post by orathaic » Sun Mar 28, 2021 8:37 am

Culture. The fundamental issue is entirely cultural, and that is what you need to tackle. Laws or constitutional amendments alone do not change culture.

That said, violence can act like an epidemic, and there is an are of social science which looks at it like a social disease. This kind of thinking allows targeted mitigation strategies. You can see in deprived communities, where there is no alternatives (like sports or academic) competition among 14 year olds means sky rocketing level of violence and sexual activity (violence along the male 14 year olds and sex along the females).

Everyone likes to feel they can do something to improve their position/social standing within their community. As societies have developed we have often ritualised and sanitised this kind of violence into 'acceptable' sports competitions (where the players are still seen as heroic warriors) and I suspect esports falls into a similar category - allowing healthy and socially acceptable competition.

White supremacist mass shootings with a political goal of restoring some fictional past (or a future white ethno state), or as a way of winning social standing within a white supremacist political movement need to be tackled in their own specific way. But again by looking at the culture.

People don't go out and shoot Muslims, or black people, or women, or Asian women (or indeed a gay club) without a specific misogynistic, homophobic and/or racist upbringing. Deciding that the only way to better the world is by killing those who are different from you is a clear example of supremacist thinking.

And lastly, unfortunately, the US sees a huge amount of state violence (mostly police violence) directed along the same white supremacist lines. You can see it every time they bring a white mass shooter in unharmed while shooting a black women in her bed.

But the issue with the institutional violence supported by the state is like hugely different in quality. These perpetrators of violence are often regarded as heroes, and this needs a cultural shift (which we are seeing in defund the police and black lives matter political grouping, people waking up to the state as an institution of violence against 'trouble makers').

Education of the next generation of white supremacists needs to actually teach modern history, but the state can not be trusted to do that. The state has a vested interest in protecting its own institutions. The media can not be trusted to do this, as as they have a vested interest in making money. Their parent's can only be trusted to do this is they can first be woken up to the evils which have benefitted them.

I don't see any easy solutions, others than mixing of race, gender, and religious groupings. Being friends with black/muslim/Gay kids before middle school is a great way to minimize prejudice against these groups, because they actually become people rather than stereotypes.

Alas this doesn't seem to prevent misogynistic violence and abuse. But I would hope that'boy culture' can still be tackled by better integration and education.
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Re: Call of Duty is why there are mass shootings

#4 Post by Randomizer » Mon Mar 29, 2021 6:58 pm

Gun regulation will reduce the number of deaths per incident. If you look at counties with the tightest regulation like Japan, when they have mass killings the death toll is lower because the perpetrator has to use a sword or other weapon that takes longer to kill. The ease od getting a gun with a high capacity magazine makes it easier for some one with little training to target more people in less time even with out being an accurate shooter.

Changing the culture is harder where you have a top down incitement against groups by leaders. Having Trump blaming ethnic groups or just spreading through retweets hate propaganda just encourages those that hate by reinforcing their views. Hate crimes have gone up in the last 4 years and when caught they repeat statements from Trump or news media to support their actions.

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Re: Call of Duty is why there are mass shootings

#5 Post by yavuzovic » Wed Mar 31, 2021 11:36 pm

I don't know you but I thought that "I must stab before they stab me " before stabbing all my victims.
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Re: Call of Duty is why there are mass shootings

#6 Post by MajorMitchell » Thu Apr 01, 2021 6:27 am

Great posts by Orathaic and Randomiser, that z is an appalling abuse of English and clear evidence that those Wascally Webellious North American Colonists have a fair bit of work ahead to become civilised. Civilized is just not good enough imho.
Oh.. yes effective gun control laws make a huge difference. The USA has been held hostage by it's own Armaments Industry & it's propaganda arm, the National Rifle Association imho

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Re: Call of Duty is why there are mass shootings

#7 Post by MajorMitchell » Thu Apr 01, 2021 6:29 am

& in Australia, like Japan it's demonstrably true, effective gun control laws do work. Yet Orathaic is correct, multiple solution strategies are required. Effective gun control laws, effective public education services etc etc

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Re: Call of Duty is why there are mass shootings

#8 Post by FriendBoy » Thu Jun 10, 2021 4:52 am

To throw my two cents in a few months late...

I think gun control can work great, but we see it 'working' in places like Australia, England, and Japan. Places that are somewhat isolated, and compared to the United States had fewer guns to begin with. The issue now is, there are a ton of guns in the US (especially compared to other countries), and you cannot simply legislate them away. Laws won't stop the lawless, but rather disarm those that abide by them, making it a safer place for the lawless.

I agree (at least in part) with orathaic, in that there needs to be a cultural change. Right now, the western culture has lost to some degree its value on human life. If culture respected and valued human life extremely highly, a despised the taking of human life, I believe we would see a reduction of mass shootings. But instead, I think as a culture we are desensitized to violence (in many different forms). We are taught that we evolved from (ultimately) bacteria, and we don't really know why we are here or for what purpose; that if we want we can kill the unborn life within and the elderly life without, and why not?

There seems to be a growing number of teens given little to live for, who then fall into depression, and kill themselves and/or others.
Culture needs to change.

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