Germans seek video game scapegoat

Originally posted by Metal_Gear_Ray
thats sad
at least games aren\'t being blamed here (yet)

You spoke too soon.

Roxborough, Scott "German politicos target violence in vids, games." The Hollywood Reporter.  April 30, 2002.

COLOGNE, Germany _ Leading German politicians have called for a ban of videos and computer games depicting extreme violence in the wake of last week\'s shooting spree at a high school in the eastern German city of Erfurt, in which 17 people died.

A 19-year-old student shot and killed 16 people at the Gutenberg high school in Erfurt on Friday before committing suicide. German police say they found a number of shoot-\'em-up video games and violent videos when they searched his home after the massacre. Edmund Stoiber, the premier of the German state of Bavaria and a leading conservative candidate in upcoming parliamentary elections, said the country needed to show "greater intolerance toward the depiction and glorification of violence." Stoiber singled out violent videos and shoot-to-kill video games as particularly dangerous.

"We have to be more conscious of our responsibility to young people," Stoiber said in a speech before the Bavarian parliament. "The price of (such depiction of) violence is far too high."

Bavarian Interior Minister Guenther Beckstein attacked the German federal government for being "scandalously idle" in not taking action in the past to ban violent material aimed at young people. Beckstein pledged to enact stricter legislation should the conservatives win national elections in September.

In response, German federal Interior Minister Otto Schily accused Beckstein of having blocked such legislation when it was proposed by the government two years ago. Schily proposed stricter handgun laws as a more effective way of reducing violence in schools.

So far the German government has not said if it will tighten laws regulating the sale of violent material to minors. Germany already has comparatively strict regulations regarding violent content in video games. Violent PC games such as "Doom" and "Quake," for example, are illegal here.

Speaking at a shareholder\'s meeting Monday, Urs Rohner, head of Germany\'s top commercial broadcaster, ProSiebenSat.1, warned politicians not to blame youth violence on the media. Rohner said the primary responsibility should lie with parents.

that is sad!!!!!

How lame, the politicians don\'t know what the hell to do so they go back to the classic scapegoat.  Yeah, before you know it everybody is gonna be shooting everyone because how many people have played Bond and Halo.  WERE ALL GONNA DIE:rolleyes:

GAH!!!

My God!

Loonies that shoot up _FILL IN THE BLANK_____ are like terrorism. It can never be stopped, unless of course we live in a totallitarian world....Hmmmm...

Fools!

So, ok all you normal people, you must give up your freedoms on account of the couple of bananas in your midst.

lol, like any kid cant turn o public TV there and see all the violence they could want

thank god we have a bill of rights here

"when they outlaw guns, only the outlaws will have guns"

For god sake, I play violent games, listen to agressive music and watch violent movies, you dont see me killing 16 people.

There was another school shooting in Bosnia not too long after these killings. The kid only picked off a teacher and wounded another before killing himself.. but how much you wanna bet there\'s going to blame that on the media too.

See.. America isn\'t the only country in the world where this crap happens. But it seems we\'re are what we\'ve always done best.. being trend setters. Everything from the crime to the scapegote.

Sad.