Photo: EW.com
Ah, the never-ending tale of how video games fuel a nation’s inclination to violence and illegality. An Illinois lawmaker is again bringing it up, with an announced move to push for a ban of the Grand Theft Auto video game's fifth iteration.
Democratic State Rep. Marcus Evans says that the number of carjackings around the Chicago area is on the rise, and he believes there is a real connection between this and the fact that youths are playing GTA V. As such, the sale of this and other violent games must be banned.
According to Gaming Bible, Evans was approached by community activist Early Walker a while back, after Walked started the Operation Safe Pump program. It sees Walker and security teams patrol gas stations and parking lots, keeping an eye out to prevent car thefts. The type of carjacking preferred at these locations is known as slider crime, which sees the future car thief take advantage of the owner’s momentary inattention (while they’re pumping or paying for gas, for example) to slide into the vehicle and drive off.
Both Evans and Walker are convinced that GTA V is where these car thieves get their inspiration.
“Grand Theft Auto and other violent video games are getting in the minds of our young people and perpetuating the normalcy of carjacking,” Evans says in a press conference, as shown in the ABC News video below. “Carjacking is not normal and carjacking must stop.”
“Representative Evans and I have researched and concluded that these very young offenders of carjacking are greatly influenced by the Grand Theft Auto video game,” Walker explains, as cited by the gaming publication. “I truly believe that there is bipartisan support to ban this game from being sold in Illinois.”
The move to ban the title will be proposed as an amendment to a 2012 law that prevents certain video games from being sold to minors.
Without getting into the whole “do they or do they not” issue, let’s end on this note: banning something has never had the expected results, never in the history of mankind. There is no reason why banning video games should be different. At the same time, maybe politicians should direct some attention to the loss of income associated with a certain ongoing international crisis and a bunch of other issues and see if those are related to the rise in the number of carjackings.
According to Gaming Bible, Evans was approached by community activist Early Walker a while back, after Walked started the Operation Safe Pump program. It sees Walker and security teams patrol gas stations and parking lots, keeping an eye out to prevent car thefts. The type of carjacking preferred at these locations is known as slider crime, which sees the future car thief take advantage of the owner’s momentary inattention (while they’re pumping or paying for gas, for example) to slide into the vehicle and drive off.
Both Evans and Walker are convinced that GTA V is where these car thieves get their inspiration.
“Grand Theft Auto and other violent video games are getting in the minds of our young people and perpetuating the normalcy of carjacking,” Evans says in a press conference, as shown in the ABC News video below. “Carjacking is not normal and carjacking must stop.”
“Representative Evans and I have researched and concluded that these very young offenders of carjacking are greatly influenced by the Grand Theft Auto video game,” Walker explains, as cited by the gaming publication. “I truly believe that there is bipartisan support to ban this game from being sold in Illinois.”
The move to ban the title will be proposed as an amendment to a 2012 law that prevents certain video games from being sold to minors.
Without getting into the whole “do they or do they not” issue, let’s end on this note: banning something has never had the expected results, never in the history of mankind. There is no reason why banning video games should be different. At the same time, maybe politicians should direct some attention to the loss of income associated with a certain ongoing international crisis and a bunch of other issues and see if those are related to the rise in the number of carjackings.
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