Call of Duty Named Prime Suspect!



Two UK newspapers The Sun and The Daily Express have placed the blame for last week's tragic school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut entirely on the shoulders of violent video games such as Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 and Dynasty Warriors.

20 children and 6 adults were gunned down by a 20 year old, who had previously shot and killed his own mother. He eventually turned the gun on himself.

The UK Tabloid The Sun, while not exactly famed for its subtlety features the cover headline "KILLER'S CALL OF DUTY OBSESSION", and is a two page spread that notes that the killer would play Activision's shooter for hours in his mother's basement named “BLACK OPS BUNKER” by the newspaper.

The source of this information comes from plumber Peter Wlasuk, who visited the killer's home previously:
"The boys were fans of the military. They had posters all over the wall in the basement. They had one poster of every piece of military equipment the US ever made.
It was a huge poster with every tank every made. The kids could tell you about guns they had never seen from the '40s, '50s and '60s. The kids who play these games know all about them.
I'm not blaming the games for what happened. But they see a picture of a historical gun and say 'I've used that on Call Of Duty'".

Ironically, the headlines follow the positive coverage of the video game by The Sun. As Eurogamer pointed out:
"In a preview published in September The Sun said Black Ops 2 was “set to be the shooter of the future”.
On 9th November The Sun ran a piece plugging an Activision event in London that let Call of Duty fans play Black Ops 2 ahead of release. “Thousands will be able to do battle through Multiplayer mode, as well as checking out the arsenal of new weapons and drone attacks on offer,” The Sun said.
Then, in a report on the game's launch on 13th November, The Sun delivered its verdict on Black Ops 2, saying, “Graphically, the game is sublime, something the series' reputation is built on. It's not subtle or tactile. It's pure, unadulterated warfare.”
Meanwhile, fellow UK tabloid The Daily Express has decided that Koei Tecmo's historical action series Dynasty Warriors is at fault, although it gave no reason for arriving at this assumption".

According to the paper: "Chillingly, his favourite video game was said to be a shockingly violent fantasy war game called Dynasty Warriors which is thought to have given him inspiration to act on his darkest thoughts".

This is clearly a tragedy that should be learned from, but are video games really to blame? Post your thoughts in the comments below.