Germany; land of schnitzel, steins, and beautiful blond haired, blue eyed women who sound like they’re giving orders when they tell you they love you. It’s also now the setting of a scene familiar to those of us in the US, a homocidal rampage within the halls of a school.
On Monday, in the western German town of Emsdetten, an 18 year old man stormed into the Scholl secondary school and opened fire. He wounded 27 people before he finally killing himself.
Some would attribute such actions to his being disturbed and needing vast psychological and emotional counseling, but the German authorities (who, like, TOTALLY heart America), have decided that violent video games are what led to the youth’s total meltdown and subsequent attack.
Hit the jump for some choice cuts from the article while I go cross Germany off my list of possible countries to move to when the US is nuked by North Korea.
[UPDATE: It’s also been brought to my attention that you can find more information in this article. It seems to be more in depth than the one I originally linked to, and it has more information on the debate that is raging on in Deutschland.]
Wolfgang Bosbach, the deputy head of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats (CDU) in parliament, said it was time to consider banning games that simulate wanton killing.
“We need effective guidelines to protect children from exposure to different types of media, but we don’t need (simulated) killer games that can lead to brutalisation,” Bosbach was quoted on the Netzeitung news Web site as saying.
Mr. Bosbach does not, however, advocate a country full of people who can tell the difference between fantasy and reality, as that might eat into the lies he tells people in order to be re-elected. For instance, Mr. Bobasch denied the existence of Werewolf Hitler! Is that the sort of man you want heading Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats?
The opposition Greens warned against banning violent computer and war games.
Volker Beck, a leading Greens member of parliament, said it would be better to focus the debate on the proper use of computers and not jump to conclusions before it was clear what motivated [the killer] Bastian B.
Actually, I don’t have anything snarky to say about this quote. It’s right on the money. If we have any German readers who I didn’t totally offend with my Werewolf Hitler (and the upcoming Zombie Hitler) tirade, I hope you vote for the Green party. They seem to know what the hell they’re talking about (and I hear the Christian Democrats drink the blood of gypsies!).
