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[max.thunder]

US Vice President Joe Biden is set to meet with video game industry leaders this week to discuss the link between violent video games and gun violence as part of a wider task force into gun control measures.

The task force, formed by President Barack Obama in response to last month's mass shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, is aimed at coming with solutions for curbing gun violence in the United States.

According to Reuters, the White House has confirmed that Biden will also meet with representatives from the National Rifle Association (NRA), victims' groups, hunting groups, and gun owners to discuss possible policy changes to reduce gun violence, including proposed legislation to ban assault rifles.

Biden will reportedly meet with representatives of both the entertainment and video game industries to specifically investigate the role of violent media--including films and video games--in mass shootings. The task force is also set to look at access to mental health and disability services, and meet with parent, teacher, and education groups.

Obama has ordered the task force to report back by the end of January, ahead of the annual State of the Union address.

An NRA spokesman confirmed to Reuters that the group's top lobbyist, James J Baker, will attend Biden's task force meeting on Thursday this week.

Last month, NRA executive vice president Wayne LaPierre stated that violent video games are partially to blame for the Newtown shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary, which left 20 children and six adults dead.

West Virginia Senator Jay Rockefeller also entered the discussion when he introduced a Bill to Congress that would direct the National Academy of Sciences to investigate how violent games and other such programming affect children.

Source

Hope that this won't end in a censorship of some videogames

[Olanov]

Lol, blame the videogames, ya.

[Fireboyd78]

Oh great, let's just blame the video games now. Because if you play a violent video game, you're playing a murder simulator and instantly become crazy. People need to quit blaming video games for every little problem we have..."OH NO DRUNK DRIVING IN A VIDEO GAME, HOW DARE YOU INSULT MY SON WHO WAS KILLED BY ONE BLA BLA BLA" or "OH GOD THERE WAS A MASS SHOOTING, IT MUST HAVE BEEN VIDEO GAMES!"

Just when you thought it was all over with Jack Thompson...

[0takumetalhead]

That's like saying that you drive over civilians cause you play Carmageddon >.>
I'm personally getting nuts about people thinking that videogames causes the violence.

[Coyote]

Of course they are the cause… both movies and video games help stuff like that happening. They are not a problem for you, nor for me, because we're all normal. But there's people who already have mental issues out there and if they get stuff like this in their hands it will just encourage them to make massacres Of course that's only partially the video game's or movie's fault, because something is already wrong with those people, but how else do you want to stop the games falling in that kind of people's hands?

It's a difficult subject… but they definitely affect these kinds of people.

[max.thunder]

No control of firearms, that's the main problem and damn conservatives of NRA don't want to change nothing because of the 2nd amendment. They instead blame the videogames and metal music.

[Coyote]

It's like "dandelion weeds" or whatever you call them, you can't just cut off the top, because it will grow again, you need to go to the source of the problem, which in this case are the mental problems of certain people. The bad guys will always find a way to get guns. Video games are certainly not the reason for this, but they definitely enhance this problem…

And after all, what will happen anyway? This is a problem that affects only one single country on this planet, and that is Usa. So I doubt any games will be banned here…

[T.K.]

I've been following politics really closely lately, and I'll go ahead and say this:

Nothing will happen to the video games, and I imagine SOME measures for gun control will be put in place, and that's just a hopeful thing, since the NRA is the lobbying squawk box for gun manufacturers, and will attack ANY possible reasonable measure for gun control AT ALL.

[Olanov]

Niko sums it up perfect.

[0takumetalhead]

No control of firearms, that's the main problem and damn conservatives of NRA don't want to change nothing because of the 2nd amendment. They instead blame the videogames and metal music.

The irony is that the rap culture has more violence then metal, there are almost no known riots on big metalfestivals. Sure there are still the occasional drunk idiot but chanses for getting stabbed is way lower then when being on a rap fest.