The point is we need gun control, and LOTS of it. The US has the most gun related homicides bar none.

Gun ownership can stop campus killings. Guns were prohibited at Virginia
Tech. By administration policy, even those with a state-issued concealed carry
permit could not have guns on campus.

That policy didn’t keep the Virginia Tech killer from bringing guns on campus.
But it did keep law-abiding gun owners from having their guns nearby, to
possibly stop the tragedy. Syndicated columnist Jacob Sullum points out:

“In shootings at other schools, armed students or employees have restrained
gunmen, possibly preventing additional murders. Four years ago at Appalachian
Law School in Grundy, Va., a man who had killed the dean, a professor and a
student was subdued by two students who ran to their cars and grabbed their
guns. In 1997 an assistant principal at a public high school in Pearl, Miss.,
likewise retrieved a handgun from his car and used it to apprehend a student
who had killed three people.”

And Larry Pratt of Gun Owners of America notes: “All the school shootings that
have ended abruptly in the last ten years were stopped because a law-abiding
citizen — a potential victim — had a gun.”

* Gun ownership prevents mass killings. In a 1999 paper, economists John Lott
and William Landes examined all the multiple-victim public shootings in the
United States from 1977 to 1999. They found that “when states passed right-to-
carry laws, these attacks fell by 60 percent. Deaths and injuries from multiple-victim public shootings fell on average by 78 percent.”

* Gun ownership prevents crime. A landmark 1996 national study by John Lott and David Mustard found that violent crime fell dramatically in those states that made it legal to carry concealed firearms.

Their study found that states which passed concealed carry laws reduced their
rate of murder by 8.5 percent, rape by 5 percent, aggravated assault by 7
percent and robbery by 3 percent. An example is Florida, where, in the fifteen
years following the passage of a concealed carry law in 1987, the homicide rate fell 52 percent.

* Every day, Americans successfully use guns to protect themselves from crime –
more than 2 million times a year, according to a 1993 study by criminologist Gary Kleck. Most of these uses are non-violent; merely showing a weapon sends the criminal fleeing.

* Gun control *increases* crime and violence. The Lott and Mustard study cited above extrapolates that, if those states not having concealed carry laws had adopted such laws, then approximately 1,570 murders, 4,177 rapes, 60,000 aggravated assaults and over 11,000 robberies would have been avoided — yearly.

More power to Howard Stern for making it real.

It does push the level of taste, but Howard has consistently fought for gay and minority rights. He gives people who would otherwise be neglected by society, mentally and physically handicapped, a platform to be heard.

“Of course 99% of people wont act out because of violent video games.”

Please do not assume any figure here. There are millions and millions of gamers who play Grand Theft Auto alone and I doubt that more than a few would do something like this, surely not 1%.

“It’s funny how all of you people say that there is no tie at all. [..] It’s been proven that watching even a 30 second commercial can influence people.”

But maybe there is no tie at all? It’s one thing being influenced by a commercial about tampons and a totally different thing to kill 30 students because you are outraged with your girlfriend.

“Is it all because of video games? Of course not. But don’t bury your head and act like it has not one shred of influence. Remember, I’m not talking about normally adjusted people here.”

People have been killing other people for many millennia, with or without a reason. Yes, people do get influenced, but there are many different ways of getting influence too.

If this guy decided to kill a lot of people, it was hardly because he was playing games. He had decided to do so because his girlfriend, friends (etc) caused him pain, in which he had to respond in a brutal way. If he was not a video game player, would he then have chosen the diplomatic way?

The only way that the video games may have “influenced” him - in my opinion - could have been choice of weapons and such, as seen in video games. Now, a Beretta is still just as lethal as any other unknown type of guns.

I know you mean well with your post and part of me agrees with you, but there is a difference between influenced and INFLUENCED.