Penn & Teller on Game Violence
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Gamepolitics has links to the recent game violence episode of Penn & Teller’s Bullshit on YouTube. The infamous duo attacked the topic with their usual M.O.: lots of hard facts, an equal amount of foul language (no nudity this time, oh well) and, for those who stick with it to the end, a moment of sober reflection and a truly moving moment of television.
Facts I learned that I didn’t actually already know, which I’ve tried to verify (with mixed results):
1. 665 high school students have died playing football since 1931. This is true according to a report by the National Center for Catastophic Sports Injuries, but it is actually a little bit bullshit itself, since fatalities per year have dropped considerably since 1931 because things have been done to reduce these “catastrophic injuries”, so going back all the way to 1931 inflates the number a little. Nevertheless, 7 kids died playing football in 2008 and that doesn’t include another 7 fatalities where football was considered an indirect cause (actual causes in these cases are things like heat stroke and heart problems). So that’s 7 kids dead because they were attacked by another kid who was told to do so by a grownup in charge as part of a friendly game. I’d say the number of deaths/year is, on average, probably more than the death toll from school shootings which, at best, can be considered a very indirect result of playing violent videogame.
2. The FBI and Secret Service have found no connection between school shootings and videogames and the only common thread they could find among school shooters is that they are male and depressed. I’m not sure where they got this info from. This “Threat Assessment” released by the FBI in 2007 mentions violent videogames numerous times in terms of profiling possible school shooters. Its possible that the “male and depressed” bit was found in a study that wasn’t trying to find a videogame connection.
3. The largest school killing spree (44 dead, 58 injured) was committed with explosives in 1927 by a 55 year old man. According to Wikipedia, Andrew Kehoe did it because he was upset about property taxes. I shudder to think how bent out of shape he got about zoning regulations…. So it is true, but Penn’s use of that fact to illustrate that not all school killings are done with guns was a bit pedantic to say the least.