Chapter 8 - Video Games Recruit & Train Killers
The Pentagon embraces the seductive power of the trigger as a recruiting device. Mass murderers practice their craft and become numb to their premeditated killing while playing first-person shooter video games like the taxpayer-funded America's Army game, rated Teen, Blood, Violence. Realizing the potential, the military exploits the technology to recruit and cultivate adolescent killers.
Where does a 14-year-old boy who never fired a gun before get the skill and the will to kill?
From video games and media violence.
Jared Lee Loughner killed six and injured 13, including Rep. Gabby Giffords, in a 2011 Arizona shooting. “All he did was play video games and play music,” said a friend.
Adam Lanza was the 20-year-old behind the horrendous school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut in 2012, which left 20 children and 6 adults dead. Lanza was an avid player of violent video games.
The Marines’ adaptation of Doom, a game Lanza played, helped pave the way for the development of the Americas Army video game. Numerous church leaders excoriated Doom for its Satanic themes. Killology Research Group founder David Grossman called it a "mass murder simulator.” The U.S. Marines appreciated the extraordinary power of the game and encouraged Marines to play it.
Doom was a source of fascination for Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris, the murderers in the Columbine High School shooting. In the video Harris and Klebold made in the basement of Harris’ house, Harris says the shooting will “be like [expletive] Doom” and shortly thereafter describes his sawed-off shotgun as being “straight out of Doom.
Furthermore, Harris named his 12-gauge pump shotgun “Arlene” after Arlene Sanders of the Doom novels.
Evan Ramsey brought a shotgun into his Alaska high school, where he gunned down a fellow student and the principal, and wounded two others. Ramsey said playing video games warped his sense of reality. He was an avid fan of Doom. Ramsey survived the ordeal. In an interview that aired in 2007 with CNN’s Anderson Cooper, Ramsey said, “I based a lot of my knowledge solely on video games. You shoot a guy in Doom, and he gets back up. You have got to shoot the things in Doom eight or nine times before it dies. And I went with that concept on—with—from the video game and added it to life.”
Michael Carneal, the 14-year-old who fired upon a group of classmates at Heath High School in West Paducah, KY in 1997, also loved to play Doom. Authorities noted that his aim was uncannily accurate. He fired just once at each person’s head, as one would do to rack up bonus points in the video game.
In 2003 Devin Moore, an Alabama teen, stole a gun from a police officer and shot three officers, then stole a police cruiser to make his escape. Moore spent much of his life playing single-shooter games. "Life is a video game,” he said after his arrest.
Kip Kinkel frequently played violent video games such as Doom, Counter-Strike, and Castle Wolfenstein. He was the 1998 Thurston High School shooter. Kinkel murdered his parents before opening fire at Thurston High School in Springfield, Oregon, killing 2 and wounding 25.
Norwegian mass murderer Anders Behring Breivik, who killed 77 people in Oslo in 2011, spent countless hours playing violent video games, especially Call of Duty:Modern Warfare. Breivik has described how he "trained" for the attacks he carried out in Norway in the summer of 2011 by using the computer game.
James Holmes killed 12 people and injured 70 others at a Century movie theater in Aurora, Colorado, on July 20, 2012. Holmes loved playing the World of Warcraft video game. It’s what he did.
The military realizes that the skills in the strategy and tactics used in games like World of Warcraft are similar to those commanders on the battlefield use in real combat. With this in mind, the U.S. Army Combined Arms Center-Training has been developing its own Massively Multiplayer Role Playing Games (MMRPGs) to train new recruits.
Where does a 14-year-old boy who never fired a gun before get the skill and the will to kill?
From video games and media violence.
Jared Lee Loughner killed six and injured 13, including Rep. Gabby Giffords, in a 2011 Arizona shooting. “All he did was play video games and play music,” said a friend.
Adam Lanza was the 20-year-old behind the horrendous school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut in 2012, which left 20 children and 6 adults dead. Lanza was an avid player of violent video games.
The Marines’ adaptation of Doom, a game Lanza played, helped pave the way for the development of the Americas Army video game. Numerous church leaders excoriated Doom for its Satanic themes. Killology Research Group founder David Grossman called it a "mass murder simulator.” The U.S. Marines appreciated the extraordinary power of the game and encouraged Marines to play it.
Doom was a source of fascination for Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris, the murderers in the Columbine High School shooting. In the video Harris and Klebold made in the basement of Harris’ house, Harris says the shooting will “be like [expletive] Doom” and shortly thereafter describes his sawed-off shotgun as being “straight out of Doom.
Furthermore, Harris named his 12-gauge pump shotgun “Arlene” after Arlene Sanders of the Doom novels.
Evan Ramsey brought a shotgun into his Alaska high school, where he gunned down a fellow student and the principal, and wounded two others. Ramsey said playing video games warped his sense of reality. He was an avid fan of Doom. Ramsey survived the ordeal. In an interview that aired in 2007 with CNN’s Anderson Cooper, Ramsey said, “I based a lot of my knowledge solely on video games. You shoot a guy in Doom, and he gets back up. You have got to shoot the things in Doom eight or nine times before it dies. And I went with that concept on—with—from the video game and added it to life.”
Michael Carneal, the 14-year-old who fired upon a group of classmates at Heath High School in West Paducah, KY in 1997, also loved to play Doom. Authorities noted that his aim was uncannily accurate. He fired just once at each person’s head, as one would do to rack up bonus points in the video game.
In 2003 Devin Moore, an Alabama teen, stole a gun from a police officer and shot three officers, then stole a police cruiser to make his escape. Moore spent much of his life playing single-shooter games. "Life is a video game,” he said after his arrest.
Kip Kinkel frequently played violent video games such as Doom, Counter-Strike, and Castle Wolfenstein. He was the 1998 Thurston High School shooter. Kinkel murdered his parents before opening fire at Thurston High School in Springfield, Oregon, killing 2 and wounding 25.
Norwegian mass murderer Anders Behring Breivik, who killed 77 people in Oslo in 2011, spent countless hours playing violent video games, especially Call of Duty:Modern Warfare. Breivik has described how he "trained" for the attacks he carried out in Norway in the summer of 2011 by using the computer game.
James Holmes killed 12 people and injured 70 others at a Century movie theater in Aurora, Colorado, on July 20, 2012. Holmes loved playing the World of Warcraft video game. It’s what he did.
The military realizes that the skills in the strategy and tactics used in games like World of Warcraft are similar to those commanders on the battlefield use in real combat. With this in mind, the U.S. Army Combined Arms Center-Training has been developing its own Massively Multiplayer Role Playing Games (MMRPGs) to train new recruits.