Rush Limbaugh On VA Tech Shootings
- Scribbled on April 18th, 2007 by Devin Grimes
- Filed in Industry News
All that America has had on its mind the past few days has been the massacre at Virginia Tech. What were the killer’s motives? What was the killer’s background? And thanks to Jack Thompson and Dr. Phil, how have videogames affected Cho Seung Hui’s killing spree agenda?
From those that have obviously portrayed a stance opposite from that of many gamers, there have risen a few notable public figures out there, who carry some heavy weight with their words, speaking out against these claims — most notably Howard Stern, and now the ever outspoken radio host: Rush Limbaugh.
After receiving a question concerning the matter of videogames being a factor, Limbaugh responded:
Not every video gamer goes out and murders 33 people on the college campus though. There’s more to this than that. We can find all kinds of societal problems and ills, but the fact of the matter is that whatever you would look at as a bad influence — video games as you mentioned — it may desensitize people, but it doesn’t turn everybody into mass murderers…But how many people are playing video games out there? How many millions of people play video games, and how many millions of people have guns?
It’s a very valid point, and it certainly brings out a fault with the media that many people have complained about for years. While news outlets certainly jump through hoops just to get the latest scoop on a big story, they sometimes lack the journalistic integrity to check their facts before announcing it to the world.
The VA Tech shootings haven’t just brought about faults within the media’s reporting of the videogames world though, keep in mind that a certain news outlet mistakenly misstated the shooter’s name three times before announcing the real facts.
(Source: RushLimbaugh.com,via Kotaku)
April 18th, 2007 at 8:59 pm
[...] Limbaugh has come out in support of video games in the wake of a caller’s attempt to lay some of the blame of the Virginia [...]
April 18th, 2007 at 9:46 pm
Not really, no. Rush is defending videogames because he’s trying to defend gun ownership.
April 18th, 2007 at 10:50 pm
A bit off topic, But since when do Howard Sterns words “Carry heavy weight”?
April 18th, 2007 at 11:49 pm
Crap. There are, as far as I can tell, exactly three constants in the universe: pi, the speed of light, and Rush Limbaugh is never, ever, ever right. With Rush defending video games, I fear I may have to start calling for their ban. What has the world come to?
April 19th, 2007 at 7:48 am
[...] 1: Rush Limbaugh gives his opinion on the possible Virginia Tech/video game connection. Share and Enjoy: These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and [...]
April 19th, 2007 at 8:55 am
The issue here is responsibility. Was the gun responsible? How about video games? How about the university? How about urban sprawl? Global warming? Capitalism? Blame it on the wealthy! The truth is, guns, knives, video games, movies, books are not the problem. This kid was the problem. He clearly had mental issues. NO one cared enough to do something about it. A few people went through the motions, shrugged it off, and walked away. If guns weren’t around, I suspect this kid would have switched to explosives, or poison, or driving a bus off of a cliff. One thing is sure: The current state of politics is a disgrace. The media and politicians want to blame someone, something. They don’t want to actually look at the problem. They don’t want to admit that society failed. That this kid wasn’t cared about enough for someone to step in and SOLVE the mental issues driving this kid to do what he did. The fact that he used a gun is a matter of convenience. For all we know, this kid watched Chow Yun Fat movies as a teenager. Or he read Richard Clarke novels in his spare time. Speculating and finger pointing doesn’t solve the problem, it’s simply a good way for a bad politician to try and look good in front of the camera. Nothing more, nothing less.
April 19th, 2007 at 12:08 pm
“Crap. There are, as far as I can tell, exactly three constants in the universe: pi, the speed of light, and Rush Limbaugh is never, ever, ever right. With Rush defending video games, I fear I may have to start calling for their ban. What has the world come to?”
Drocket, you’re no different than the ignorant people of the past who blamed Jazz, Rock and Roll, Movies and even Comic books for their fear of something they couldn’t explain. If you don’t know what you’re talking about, allow me to elaborate.
- I hope you know that no common trend between violent acts and video games has ever, ever, been found. In fact, the warrant showed that the VA tech shooter didn’t have a single game in his possession. From a personal standpoint, I’ve never met a single person who played video games and was in any way a violent person. Your ignorant claims make me wonder what this world is coming to where anyone like you can spew out their opinion form a moral high-horse without merit. You sir need to apologize to the gaming community.
In any case, when has banning solved a problem? (ie: Marijuana is still in high use, Prohibition actually INCREASED crime.)
This is a common misjudgment in my opinion often made by the current generation of law-makers. Quite often, they simply ban something to use as a scape-goat. Well I for one am absolutely sick of it. Stop pointing at the gamers and think of something to solve the REAL problems these troubled kids have. They need help!!
It makes absolutely no sense to look at someone with deep emotional problems, and say “MUST’VE BEEN THEM DAMN KIDS WITH THEIR GAMES.”
Drocket, ever notice you are part of a rapidly shrinking poplulation of uneducated people? Just think about it.
-(In no way is this intended to defend Rush Limbaugh. Only to defend innocent gamers who are being prosecuted by baseless claims.)
April 19th, 2007 at 1:15 pm
Yeah he’s in it just for the gun control. Thats the only reason he’s so quick to defend this.
April 19th, 2007 at 4:30 pm
Tim….you do realize you just ranted on and on based on Drocket’s sarcastic commment?
April 19th, 2007 at 8:54 pm
Hmmm. Guess sarcasm doesn’t translate well when typed out. Kinda hard to tell if someone is kidding or not, especially if there’s no indication that such is the case
April 20th, 2007 at 1:36 am
why is rush limbaugh ‘never’ right?
April 20th, 2007 at 12:27 pm
“why is rush limbaugh ‘never’ right?”
For me it’s a question of the medium. In this case the medium is Mr. Limbaugh and I treat things that he says in much the same way that I treat things that I read on a forum thread that has been Godwinned.
Everyone has an agenda and I know from past experiences that Limbaugh’s agenda is so extreme and far from my personal agenda that I cannot support him even if I might agree with him on one particular point. Everything he does supports his agenda (that’s not wrong, that’s just life) so I must assume that his feelings on video games are a part of something that is, to me, sinister.
April 20th, 2007 at 12:41 pm
*Guess sarcasm doesn’t translate well when typed out. Kinda hard to tell if someone is kidding or not, especially if there’s no indication that such is the case*
The ‘Crap’ that started what I wrote wasn’t at least something of a giveaway? Or the reference to pi, the speed of light and Rush? Really, it seems pretty hard to me to take what I said seriously…
April 21st, 2007 at 11:42 am
[...] received many gamers willing to share their views on the VA Tech Shootings. Comments to Rush Limbaugh talking about the situation, Dr. Phil’s opinions and of course Howard Stern bashing Dr. Phil! [...]
April 22nd, 2007 at 7:10 pm
Here’s an idea, United States Of America, how about NOT letting every single potential soceopath, psychopath, murderer etc have the right to own a gun?
April 25th, 2007 at 2:58 am
You know things are crazy when Rush Limbaugh becomes the voice of reason.
May 3rd, 2007 at 2:41 pm
The only way someone can really blame videogames as the reason they became a mass murderer is that the videogames had subliminal messages being passed through them. Which is total crap anyway!!!!
November 20th, 2007 at 6:25 am
While it’s true that Rush Limbaugh is a walking rectal hook, it is giving him too much credence to disagree automatically with whatever he says. Sure, he’s defending vidgames en route to defending the gun lobby, but things could be worse. He could be advocating the banning of violent vidgames *in order* to defend the gun lobby.
I would argue that placing children in front of multimedia babysitters for hours and hours is going to make them cold in ways that have little to do with explicit violence and everything to do with the absence of human contact. Lower levels of empathy due to absentee parenting, and readily available weapons for everyone in America, are the demonstrable threats — the latter being especially demonstrable because we’re the only ones with experimental gun laws, while the entire rest of the world has vidgames and bad parents.
February 18th, 2008 at 9:41 pm
Petunia, Maggot and Bellycrawler: I wasn’t aware of a recent mass production of fire arms. I didn’t know that Winchester and Remington suddenly started throwing more and more guns out to the public. Weapons have been readily available to Americans before America was even a country. Back when our parents were young, the closest gun was within arm’s reach, but there weren’t near the amount of public shootings as there are now, so don’t even try to use that as an excuse. If the crazies don’t use guns, they’ll use something else. China banned guns so their biggest crime rate doesn’t involve guns anymore, it’s all knives and swords. If somebody wants to hurt someone, they’ll find a way.