Kid Shoots Parents Over Halo 3

[Tindytim]

First of all, the 'kid' was 17. If someone of that age is that susceptible of violence, there is something wrong with them. In which case, I still blame the parents. The point being, if you knew your kid was this susceptible to the media, you should have them under lock and key.

Give me an effing break. How many douches posting here are now blaming religion as the cause of this psychopath.

I think people are commenting on the whole forbidden fruit idea. For example, when I was young I remember watching all sorts of violent movies (I remember watching Blade when I was 10), and as I got older, I didn't really find gore or violence all that interesting, mostly because it wasn't forbidden from me.

My younger cousin, on the other hand, is rather obsessed with violence. His mother is rather over protective, and attempts to shield him from the horrors of the world. As such, he spends most of his time online playing horribly gorey flash games.

The point being, his father was probably a strict asshole to him about violence. And because he couldn't have it, a mediocre game with some violence probably got him all stiff in the pants.

The fact of the matter is, the kid wasn't raised with the maturity to deal with violence, because his parents never wanted to deal with the issue in a direct or mature manner. So the kid went off without any guidance on the issue, and this is what happens.

The problem was the gun. Why the hell was a 9mm in a family home? This is a great reason to outlaw guns.

If you outlaw guns, only outlaws will have guns.

 

[jerreece]

[citation][nom]Blessedman[/nom][/citation]

That's just ridiculous. Do you know anything about religion?

You'd gain a lot more ground by saying, "I've played violent video games for years, and never even had the urge to become violent toward real people."

There's more likelihood that this was a parenting issue, than a religion issue. If this kid felt so "cornered" as you'd suggest, he probably wasn't taught properly by his parents to deal with the consequences of his actions. He wasn't taught against real life violence, and that life is to be respected.

Regardless, this is a very sad story. This kid obviously has some psychological issues that need to be resolved if he's willing to kill his parents over a simple video game. There's some unhealthy addiction going on there, which would point out to us there's something else going on in his life that forces him to seek a life within Halo 3 rather than real life.

 

[Tindytim]

God forbid that parents set limits and rules for their kids. That's gonna turn them into mass murderers. Deny that kid a Maserati for his birthday - he's gonna go nuts! Deny him his favorite dessert as punishment, oh no, that's grounds for killin'. You can tell that half of these posters are adolescent fools who have no perspective and think their parents su ck cause they set limits.

So you're blaming the kids? Where would they learn such behaviors?

If children learned from a young age that media violence is fantasy, and inappropriate in reality, we wouldn't be having this issue. But rather than letting kids see early on that gore and violence isn't all that interesting in and of itself, parents decide to try to close their children off from something that inevitable.

Instill your children with some common sense, and some knowledge about reality, and we won't have these issues.

Do us a favor, don't ever have kids if you're going to let them run wild and free. Cause that's exactly what's going on in London and they've got a big problem with street crime at night. Bands of these yobs/teens with knives are running wild intimidating adults and authority figures. What they need is a good old- fashioned @ss handling by the cops.

So you think police should beat up children?

They need to be locked up and rehabilitated.

 

[mdillenbeck]

Even though I am an atheist, I find the criticism against religion misguided and misplaced. It is not "as simple as that" to blame religion - in fact, it is no better or worse than to blame violent video games.

Also, without greater information, I find it a bit premature to blame this even on bad parenting. There is nothing bad about a parent restricting violent video games, nor is it unreasonable. Furthermore, no other information was given on their parenting style. (Of course, if any of the posters are friends of the family and have greater insight, I hope you will post why you found them to be bad parents.)

I find it interesting that the "kid" (I use that loosely as I do not consider a 17 year old a kid - by that age, one should have a fair degree of maturity... of course, in the USA we absolve anyone of any responsibility until they are at least 18, keeping them mentally immature through most of their adult life) recently had a severe injury. Is it possible that his snowboard injury had resulted in undetected neurological damage which changed his personality or impaired his moral judgment?

What I find most sad is that most posters seem to feel it is a minor's right to have access to whatever form of entertainment they want. While most people think of government aid when talking about US citizen's "sense of entitlement", this belief that a minor is entitled to buy and play whatever games they want captures the greater "sense of entitlement" within our society.

 

[Guest]

As I posted earlier in the thread

Its either

A. He had something up in his head

B. Parents were abusive or HIGHLY/overly protective

C. Parents were overly protective but were good parents... but were negligent and didn't stop him from aquiring these issues from the media/ also messed up friends


It all comes down to that some aspect of the parenting

Or some imbalance in the kid

As simple as that

If it was an imbalance no one is to blame

If it was the parents... yeah they can be blamed... but theres still kinda like a... "wtf? Why would you wanna shoot someone factor" unless of course he was being abused, which, by the sounds of it wasn't the case

 

[aj6065]

haha, I love how the minister/anti-violence-father owns a pistol. And "hey, hears an idea honey! I'm going to hide our son's game right next to our gun. I'm sure that even though he already went sneaking behind our backs to get this horrid game, he won't try it again and accidentally come across our gun."

oh, and why is this just being reported now, 1 year later?

 

[Guest]

Child, parents, blame? This is just symptomatic of a larger disease...

Kid shoots parents over Halo, store employee gets trampled to death opening the store for over-zealous shoppers...someone wake me when its over.

 

[crom]

And the prosecution would like to call Master Chief to the stand...

 

[blackwidow_rsa]

the kid needs to be locked away in a psych ward. he clearly has self control issue. stop looking for fault at religion, parenting or the game.
lots of other kids gets restricted, punished and maybe even beaten but they dont end up killing their parents. if his parents were so bad he couldve called social services, lived with other family, etc. he didnt even realise by pulling that trigger that he has no future left.

 

[NuclearShadow]

Clearly someone who is capable of doing such a act has mental problems. Videogames are certainly not the blame here and I bet the kid had violent acts before this just not as severe. This could have all been avoided if he was given the proper help and its no surprise that he comes from a religious family and didn't receive the help he needed.

 

[Tindytim]

What I find most sad is that most posters seem to feel it is a minor's right to have access to whatever form of entertainment they want. While most people think of government aid when talking about US citizen's "sense of entitlement", this belief that a minor is entitled to buy and play whatever games they want captures the greater "sense of entitlement" within our society.

I don't remember anyone stating that, would you mind pointing out where anyone said minors should be able to see any form of entertainment?

the kid needs to be locked away in a psych ward. he clearly has self control issue. stop looking for fault at religion, parenting or the game.
lots of other kids gets restricted, punished and maybe even beaten but they dont end up killing their parents.

And some do, and some kill other people. Unless it was the injury that cause mental damage, or some sort of mental illness that was somehow dormant, it's the parents fault. Children raised with an understanding of what is fantasy and what is reality don't kill their parents without good reason.

if his parents were so bad he couldve called social services, lived with other family, etc. he didnt even realise by pulling that trigger that he has no future left.

You having no idea what you're talking about. It's rare that an abused child will call child services, or want to call child services for that matter. They believe to be dependant on their abuser.

 

[TCeleste]

I'm waiting for Jack Thompson to come out of the woodwork to defend this kid. Fortunately, Jack is disbarred. And ironically enough, he's also from Cleveland!

 

[Tindytim]

PS:What the heck does having a gun have to do with anti-violence? I'm certainly anti-violence, but that doesnt stop me from having a brown belt (Trying to find time to finish my studies) in juijitsu. There's a huge difference from violence, and protecting yourself from violence. (If you want proof, look up case info on the time Washington DC attempted to ban hand guns.)

1. No one can take your jujitsu from you and use it to harm others.

2. Guns kill people. Last I checked, one of the ten commandments was "Thou shall not kill". Learning a Martial Art would allow you to get out a situation without killing someone. You'd have to attempt lethal attack in order to kill, guns are quite the contrary.

3. Why did the pastor have a gun? This boggles my mind. I don't have a gun, and I don't need a gun. What need does a pastor have for a gun? Did he live in a neighbor hood so bad that he would risk going to hell to protect himself?

 

[Tindytim]

But, guns certainly provide a very serious job hazard to the tons of theives, burglers, arsonists, sexual assaulters, and murderers in the world.

They also provide serious living hazards for house wives, store owners, patrons, and law abiding citizens.

I don't need a gun to kill a man, and I have no problem with responsible people owning guns. But what the hell was he doing with a gun? This incident proves he wasn't responsible with his weapon, and that he shouldn't have had it.

If this kid was completely normal, why did this happen?

 

[Tindytim]

The biblical laws don't instruct us to be leaves, blown where humanity sees fit in it's violent and brutal wisdom. The bible is infact full of history accounting battles and wars that have ended in bloodshead that are documented as being blessed by or instructed by the Lord.

And you believe this pastor was told by a deity to kill others if it meant defending himself?

 

[Tindytim]

Not everyone goes directly for the headshot, despite what your counterstrike: source wisdom will tell you.

Keep your day job, you suck as a psychic.

Anyone who carries a gun should (And in some states are required) go through the proper Hand Gun self defense training. And no instructor in their right mind is going to train you to shoot to kill unless you're going to be trooping around Iraq.

And shooting someone in the heart does what?

The head isn't the only place for a quick kill, and just because you don't instantly kill someone doesn't mean it isn't fatal. I can shoot someone in the stomach and let them slowly bleed to death.

Yes but the difference is that criminals will always obtain firearms, legally or illigally

I agree with you, if you cared to look at my posts on the first page. I think you have me confused with a bleeding vagina liberal. While I don't think owning a gun is a good idea, the prospect of anyone owning a gun is a deterrent to outlaws who own guns irrelevant of the law, whether or not they actually have guns (versus knowing no one else has one).

However, this incident proves that the Pastor was not responsible with his weapon. He should have known that his son was mentally unstable, and his son shouldn't have known the combination. He was negligent.

And my original point is, anyone can use your gun once they have it in their hands. If your trained, no one can take that away from you, and no one can use that against you. Pulling a gun usually escalates the situation, especially if other guns are involved. If I was attacked, I could probably diffuse the situation without harming either of us.

 

[Tindytim]

And then the hand gun issue came up, where I'm willing to agree to disagree.

While you may disagree, I believe we agree.

I don't believe the kid should be let run free, but I don't think you should blame the child. We can curtail the bad behaviors of a child without blaming them for shitty parents. Blame only serves as the indicator of the failed link, and how to prevent the problem in the future.

We need more open and hands-on parents.

 

[Guest]

Why is some people calling bad parenting?, they are parents, why they cant ban the frikin game? Its their house, and they pay for it so? Beside killin his parents because of a games proves he had some serious psicological issues. so WTF!

 

[Guest]

17 old is a grown up. He chose to kill, now it is his time to die. Easy!

 

[B-Unit]

MDillenbeck started strong, but lost me after the first paragraph. A properly instilled sense of respect for other human beings would have prevented this. Personal experience tells me that lesson is taught while young by being bent over your parent's knee. Don't get me wrong, child ABUSERS need to be locked up or perhaps even killed, but a spanking is far FAR from abuse.

I wouldnt say religion is to blame either, I was raised in a Christian home, but as I grew up, I decided that 'faith' vs scientific fact was a battle the Bible could never win. However, I gained a very strong morality through it.

Bottom line, the kid is going to have to live with the fact he killed his mother for the rest of his life. Who's to blame? I blame America. Im only 25 years old, and I would give my left nut to live with the greatest generation. This country has turned into a cesspool of lawyers and corporate swine who's only real interest is lining their own pockets at anyone else's expense. The media, whom they own, have pushed forward a 'soft' culture who will never push back against the ultimate control they hold over us. If you dont control your children, they will never learn to control themselves.