Sigh. Okay, here it is, people. We pretty much all saw it coming. As soon as it was made known that the National Rifle Association would be holding a press conference today, palms were applied to faces withĀ mutteringsĀ of, “Oh jeez, maybe the world really will end.” It had been making the rounds that the NRA would likely blame violent video games for the Sandy Hook tragedy, because of course, so everyone prepared for the worst when Wayne LaPierre, executive vice president and CEO of the organization, began speaking. Let’s just say, things went about like folks expected it would.
To say the entire press conference came off like something The Onion might present wouldn’t be an inaccurate statement. Not only did LaPierre fail to acknowledge that maybe the accessibility of weapons is a problem, but he lazily blamed a series of video games, followed by movies, for these kind of horrifying events. “There exists in this country, sadly, a callous, corrupt, and corrupting shadow industry that sells and sows violence against its own people,” he said. “Through vicious violent video games, with names like Bulletstorm, Grand Theft Auto, Mortal Kombat, and Splatterhouse.”
He then went on about a game called Kindergarten Killers, which is apparently a Flash game out there on the web from ten years ago and plays out like the name implies, calling the media “lazy” for not finding it as well. The reality of the situation, of course, is that Kindergarten Killers has absolutely nothing to do with shooting beyond a tangential similarity, but whatever. It wasn’t our press conference.
Perhaps the most insulting suggestion from LaPierre is that it takes a “good guy” with a gun to stop a “bad guy” with a gun, so we should obviously post armed guards at schools. The only way to solve gun violence is to have more guns to protect against guns, you see. If we didn’t have guns, then guns would just be everywhere. Trust us.
Also, the press conference ending with the statement that “this is the beginning of a serious conversation,” but they’re not taking questions? That’s… not what a conversation is. At best, it’s a monologue, or perhaps a diatribe. Just sayin’.
(image via Don O’Brien, h/t to Jason Anderson, as he’s pointed out that the image is actually from the National Recovery Administration)
- No, let’s talk about talking about video game violence
- Angry mob mistakenly blames Mass Effect for school shooting
- When you think about it, Link’s really just a huge jerk
