Unsurprising and predictable from Thompson. Nobody knows what caused
the shootings but hey if he can sniff a big lawsuit against video
games companies he will push his agenda.
From Game Politics courtesy of the Melon Farmers:
Jack Thompson Sees Violent Video Game Link in NIU Campus Shooting
Anti-video game violence activist Jack Thompson appeared on (where
else?) Fox News this morning and once again tried to draw a link
between violent video games and a deadly school shooting. In this
case, Thompson related games to yesterday’s rampage at Northern
Illinois University.
Although we didn’t catch the segment, Thompson e-mailed his comments
to GamePolitics, attaching a screen shot from the Fox interview:
I was on the Fox News Channel this morning because of the possible
violent video game connection to this latest massacre at Northern
Illinois University.
In the e-mail, the embattled attorney related his violent video game
crusade to his ongoing struggle with the Florida Bar:
I am certain that the past and future survivors of these incidents
will not fully understand why The Florida Bar is seeking to destroy a
latter-day Paul Revere… for his telling the truth about companies and
lawyers that are spawning, for money, these types of events.
GP: The facts are not yet in on the NIU rampage, of course, but that
has never stopped Thompson from rushing to blame video games in the
past. GamePolitics readers will certainly recall Thompson blaming the
2007 Virginia Tech massacre on games even while police were still
securing the campus.
Among the few details known so far is that the shooter, Stephen
Kazmierczak, had a stellar academic record. Press reports describe
him as a 27-year-old graduate student, so he was well past the age
where any type of video game content restriction would come into play.
UPDATE: Fox is now reporting that Kazmierczak was not taking his
medication for an unspecified condition and acting erratically in
recent weeks. So, once again, a disturbed person goes on a rampage
with a gun, not a video game.
UPDATE 2: GamePolitics Correspondent Andrew Eisen has pointed us to a
video of Thompson’s Fox appearance (below). Thompson rambles a bit,
loses his train of thought midway through and even makes reference to
a chapter that didn’t make it into his not so highly-regarded 2005
book, as if to say, “look, I predicted this!”
