Students Gunned Down at Montreal College

[AG124]

At least no one is dead yet, although at least eight are in critical condition. What a sick world we live in.

12 shot, eight critical, 2 serious, 2 injured. Two gunmen dead, one escaped. Latest news.

EDIT - Update - Only one gunman dead (actually, the only one present), one innocent woman dead, 20 injured in various degrees. Will continue to update.

http://www.cbc.ca/story/canada/natio...ts-dawson.html

[Perilscope]

Indeed, it is sad news, I hate this type of stuff. I went to that college just last year for a PHP crash course. This is the second shootout here in Montreal. WTF is happening here?

[flyingdane]

Yes very sad indeed.....

It's gotta be that damned "DOOM3" game that caused this! That's what they'll be saying anyways! Or Grand Theft Auto, or Bad Day LA. What a sick world we live in when it's so easy to tag computers and the programs they run for the mental problems and instabilities of humans!

It's clear as day that this guy's mental operating system crashed!

[STEED]

A proper investigation is needed to sort this issue out once and for all. About the connection of violent video games and violent acts; I am not convinced that there is any strong evidence what so ever. It’s so easy to pass the buck.

[HunterICX]

Yet again an school has been striked by VLLAF

Violent Low Life Armed *******faces.....

and why do they pick on those inocent fellow students bastards...shooting at people for no reason at all....

[AG124]

Edited first post to reflect changing information.

[Skybird]

Jajaja... it's never the action games I love to play. It's also not the action movies I love to see. And certainly not the guns in my parent's household, and the fetish my society is making of them. All what I like has nothing to do with it...

Sounds familiar? Well, rightfully so. The discussion is old.

Truth is: culture and media output both are symptom and expression of the state of human mind and society - and affect that human mind in a feedback loop at the same time. If you are dumb, you do stupid things, that turn your culture into a stupid culture - which makes you even more dumb. Its kind of a codified interaction between society, and individual. If parents steal items in their companies and offices, do not be surprised if their kids steal in the supermarket and are not aware that what they do is not right. If medias teach you from young years on that all your social problems can be solved with pulling a trigger simply, don't be surprised if violance itself becomes an idol, and a focus. If no other and more valuable idols and ideals give orientation during the years a young human seeks orientation and borders that help him to define his structure - don't wonder when he falls for wrong idols, raw messiahs and a way through life that wills to easily pull a trigger. You become what you do and like, you like what you are used to, you are used to what you have done often. The debate of wether it is a given personality structure or a given media causing people to turn into freakheads is pointless. It works both ways simultaneously. that way, people's wishes become limited in scope, and canalised by market strategists. The argument that the market only delivers what is demanded is a foul excuse. In the above mechanism, people are no longer able to want certain things, and are fixated to want other things. There is no freedom of choice if you never have learned the ability of excercising freedom and think it is only doing what you want, without responsebility, only rights: no duties. The degree of your freedom is defined by the number of your options. And you can be made not to be aware of options you have. That way, the market gains control over your behavior, especially consummation and buying behavior.

Not only with video games, btw.

If I were a father, I would have a close eye on what my son or daugther is playing. Mindless violance orgies would be off limits, that means most egoshooters setting place in a war ambient like WWII, Vietnam, or War on terror, and all ego shooters that are only that: shooters. More complex sims, strategy, and others would be allowed. I also would set up a contrast program that is obligatory. If he/she is playing a war-setting-game, he/she also would have to see docus showing the cruel reality of war in all shocking brutality, or reflective movies on the matter as well. Information, not just the display of miltary action, like the many looping warmovies CBS is showing here in germany and that seem to be adverts for how great modern weapns take out this or that kind of target and what a picnic war is if you only wear the right uniform. Realizing what is going on in human minds when they fall for this leader or for that ideology that propagates war. And so on. Scepticism. A doubtful, but awake, alert mind asking questions and accepting no answer untested.

[scandium]

Originally Posted by SubSerpent

It's gotta be that damned "DOOM3" game that caused this! That's what they'll be saying anyways! Or Grand Theft Auto, or Bad Day LA. What a sick world we live in when it's so easy to tag computers and the programs they run for the mental problems and instabilities of humans!

It's clear as day that this guys operating system crashed!

Its about on par with blaming it on the person's religion, and if the shooter happened to be Muslim then this would automatically be Jihad and a "Muslim thing" or an "Islamofascist thing".

Fortunately the police response was extremely rapid and effective, which is exactly where the emphasis and funding should be on preventing/responding to anything of this sort (that and on intel).

[HunterICX]

No scandium , these days they would call it an ''Terrorist Attack''
whatever these shooting guys where thinking its sure it wasnt healthy

[The Noob]

Skybird,

I have Been Playing So Called "Shooters" very long now, and still i'm not ( At Least not Totally) Crazy. My Opinion is, if something like this happends, People want to Blame it on something. And thats, very often, the media, inculuding Video Games, Movies ect. And your "Strategy and simulation restriction" won't work anymore, since games like "Company of Heroes" for excample are no different to a shooter in therms of Violence. The only Difference is that you don't pull the trigger.

People who do such stuff are usually Menthaly Crazy. It ain't happend so often anyway. Once in a Few years. People will learn to live with that, like with terrorist attacks.

[Perilscope]

Originally Posted by STEED

A proper investigation is needed to sort this issue out once and for all. About the connection of violent video games and violent acts;...

They can start doing the investigation right here in my house. I have tree young children, 5, 7 and 9. They all play the wildest, most disturbing games around. They watch extremely violent movies often with content not suited for their age, I often use bad words in front of them and all other stuff that a good Christian would freak out about and condemn me as parenthood. Especially if they hear me say to my kids my famous saying, "There is no gods, but only evolution"

Anyway, you get the picture, we must be the worst, right. My kids must be bullies, with bad grades and they are always fighting, and use foul language at school and home, right?

WRONG!

Let's start with the young one, it's a girl, she's five and goes to pre-school. So to tell you the truth we can't really know how she performs in society. So let's skip to the others.

My two sons are so similar they can be spoken of as one.
Home they respect us and are obeisant, point.
At school, they are simply the best, the best grades in class, best behavior and loved by all teachers, nothing less.

The more they know from youth, the better they can confront life on a daily basis and have a good philosophy of life. And grow fair-minded far from any false notion one would want to impose to them.

And to come back to my daughter, I think she's even smarter than the two boys when they were the same age, she catches even faster. So I guess I can predict she is going to glow at school too, behavior and academic wise.

Therefore, it all comes down how we teach our kids about life and how to behave and interpret all types off circumstances. Anyway, it is working for me and my wife, and we are proud of it because we think we will never yield idiots that will start shooting people because they feel rejected a way or another.

In my house, a game is a game, a movie is a movie, and life is reality, plain and simple.

[mog]

Originally Posted by scandium

Its about on par with blaming it on the person's religion, and if the shooter happened to be Muslim then this would automatically be Jihad and a "Muslim thing" or an "Islamofascist thing".

It's nothing like blaming it on someone's religion. Games are recreational, whilst Islam is a way of life.

[goldorak]

I wonder why this kind of violence is so specific to the north american continent (usa + canada) ? :hmm:

Originally Posted by goldorak

I wonder why this kind of violence is so specific to the north american continent (usa + canada) ? :hmm:

What are you implying? Do you live in a land where murder does not exist?
Do you have a theory you'd like to share with us?