8-Year-Old Who Shot Grandmother, Marie Smothers, After Playing 'Grand Theft Auto' Won't Face Charges

Huffington Post

An 8-year-old boy who intentionally shot his grandmother after playing "Grand Theft Auto" will continue to live with his family, a Louisiana judge ruled Monday.

Under state law, the child can't be charged for shooting 87-year-old Marie Smothers, CNN reports.

"It's not a crime if he's under 10 years old. We're still trying to figure out how to help this juvenile and his parents," said East Feliciana Parish District Attorney Samuel D'Aquilla. "It was determined that he did the shooting and it was an accident. He thought it was a toy gun, a play gun."

The shooting took place in a mobile home near Slaughter, La., last Thursday. Smothers was watching TV and caring for the boy, who was playing video games right behind her. At some point, the boy picked up a .38-caliber handgun and shot Smothers from about four feet away.

The unidentified boy has reportedly been handed back and forth between the parents and his grandmother. Law enforcement officials have said that he and Smothers had a "normal, loving relationship."

"Grand Theft Auto" is rated "M" for mature audiences and recommended for teens and adults aged 17 and older.

I suppose it's an unspoken understanding that the gun belonged to granny. The fact that it was accessible to an 8-year-old, to me, seems like a much greater offense than letting the kid play adult video games.

But, this is Louisiana, after all.  What can you expect?

Did Video Games Play a Role in the Connecticut Shooting?

I have to say, any discussion of the tragic shooting in Connecticut that leaves out gun availability and gun control is a bit lacking, yet what the Lt. Colonel said about video games was compelling.

What do you think?  Please leave a comment.

Charlie Brooker on Women in Video Games

From the Guardian comes this from the ever perceptive Charlie Brooker:

Last month the creators of the game Hitman drew widespread criticism for a grisly promotional trailer that showed the main (male) character slaughtering a group of S&M killer nuns. Since this was merely the logical conclusion of a deeply boring trend for rubberised female assassins that's been going on since the 1990s, some gamers were surprised by the outcry, and became indignant and defensive, as though someone had just walked in and caught them masturbating to the same goat porn they'd been innocently enjoying for decades, and judging them and making them feel bad.

When they're not 7ft-tall high-heeled dominatrix killers, women in games tend to be saucy background-dressing or yelping damsels in distress. A rare exception is Lara Croft, the female star of Tomb Raider, who – in Pac-Man terms – is Ms. Indiana Jones. But whoops. Last week the forthcoming big-budget Tomb Raider reboot made headlines after its executive producer apparently told the gaming site Kotaku that players would feel an urge to "protect" Lara after she faces a series of ghastly trials including an encounter in which she kills a would-be rapist. The subsequent outcry necessitated a speedy clarification from the developers about precisely what kind of game they're making.

The irony about the Tomb Raider fiasco is that when you actually look at what's been revealed of the new game thus far, the creators' intention is clearly to transform Lara Croft from a heavily armed big-titted wank-fantasy into a grittier and more plausible heroine. It's an "origin" story in which an inexperienced 21-year-old Lara crashlands on a remote island and has to fight the elements as well as the baddies in order to survive. Whether it's essentially I Spit on Your Grave in pixels remains to be seen, but the "new" Lara looks less stereotypical than 99% of female game characters.

Read it all here

Golden Eye 007 - The Video Game

Who plays these games, I mean besides adolescent boys? Do gun-rights folks play them?

Rage - The Gun Show Video Game

Incredibly well-written dialogue, but I can't help but wonder if this is legitimate fun or not. Is it permissible to watch action movies and still consider this too much? It does seem to be the evolution of what we've been watching on the big screen for decades. What do you think?

What about young kids? Is this harmless entertainment for them? By looking at this kind of violence don't you think something might be damaged in a kid's psychological and cerebral development? What's your opinion?