More On NIU Shooting & Jack Thompson's Involvement

[Craig]

The NY Post claims that the Northern Illinois University shooter, Stephen Kazmierczak, was more than a little into playing Counter-Strike for at least a short time while in college.

Stephen Kazmierczak, 27, played the wildly popular game Counter-Strike while studying sociology at Northern Illinois University in 2003 and 2004. “He played a lot of video games, especially Counter-Strike, really loud,” said dorm mate Ben Woloszyn, 24.

So, of course, this prompted Jack Thompson to send a letter to the NIU president, damning video games and blaming them for the horrific deaths that occurred there last week. Here is the letter in its entirety:

John B. Thompson, Attorney at Law
1172 S. Dixie Hwy., Suite 111
Coral Gables, Florida 33146

February 16, 2008

John G. Peters, President
Northern Illinois University
1425 W. Lincoln Hwy.
DeKalb, IL 60115-2825 Via Fax to 815-753-8686

Re: Part of the Explanation for this Awful Disaster

Dear President Peters:

First of all, my condolences for this terrible loss. I have had the disturbing privilege of representing a number of families devastated by these types of incidents. I represented all six parents of the three girls killed by a 14-year-old video gamer in the Paducah, Kentucky, school massacre. I currently represent the families of three policemen in Alabama who were slain by a teen who trained to kill them on the cop-killing simulation video game Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. This case was featured on 60 Minutes. See
CBS News | Can A Video Game Lead To Murder? | March 8, 2005*10:25:30.

The day after the NIU tragedy this week, I was on the Fox News Channel predicting that the killer on your campus would be someone who was immersed in violent video games, as this is a common thread in almost all of these incidents. I mentioned in the interview the mass murder simulation game, Counter-Strike. It was the game of choice by the killers in the two worst school shootings in history—Virginia Tech and Erfurt, Germany.

Sure enough, the New York Post reports today the accuracy of that prediction. I attach herewith the Post article.

Governor Blagojevich was on Fox hours later echoing my specific concern about the linkage between violent video games and school killings.

I have addressed roughly 200 college campuses about this problem. I am more than willing to come to your campus, free of charge of course, to explain to the students and faculty and surrounding community why these games, played by students, pose a public safety hazard. Brain scan science recently coming out of Harvard explains it well. There are multiple reasons why these evil events happen. Immersion of young males in murder simulation as a form of entertainment is one of the more powerful reasons.

Blessings,

Jack Thompson

And the debate goes on...

[UI]

Here's to hoping Thompson gets assassinated, with his death being blamed on videogames.

[vipertcu]

lol @ mass murder simluation. what a jackass

[K_Dog]

interesting word manipulation
"mass murder simulation game"

This is kinda like saying most the people involved in violent crimes have eaten at Micky D's so certainly Micky D's causes people to commit crimes. The sad part is the non gaming public will buy this hook line and sinker.

[Dopefish]

If a 27 year old decides to kill because of a game he played, so what? Don't blame the game maker. There are deeper issues involved than that. Don't make every adult gamer suffer because some jackasses go and decide to do stupid stuff.

You can't solely pin the blame on one specific thing.

This guy just abuses laws and rights and is only out to stop video games. He could care less about the families or victims or anything. He just wants to stop what he doesn't like.


Edit:
Jack Thompson, if you would like to represent me, I got a DUI a few years ago and I believe it was because I learned how to drink and drive from a mass-drinking-and-driving simulator that I trained on. If you want to help me sue the maker of the simulator, get in touch with me.

[DSR]

Originally Posted by Dopefish

Jack Thompson, if you would like to represent me, I got a DUI a few years ago and I believe it was because I learned how to drink and drive from a mass-drinking-and-driving simulator that I trained on.

Are you sure it wasn't because you're an alcoholic?

[CoffeeShark]

I've been trained to kill people in reality, and in videogames, and let me tell you, it's a hell of a lot different playing CounterStrike than picking up a real weapon and aiming at a live person.

Fuck Jack Thompson and the horse his mom screwed to come up with his ass.

[Kage]

So take the percentage of how many people actually play video games, and how many of them are murderers or overly violent. im sure you will find a very high amount of people who are not any different because of "mass murder simulators". i dont know why, but everything this guy says just makes him sound like a D-bag. he goes on to brag about how many news channels he has been on. whoopdie doo, has he actually won any cases against video games? Sounds unlikely.

Did they actually find any reasoning behind why the shooter started going bizonkers, or was it just random?

[CoffeeShark]

Originally Posted by Kage

So take the percentage of how many people actually play video games, and how many of them are murderers or overly violent. im sure you will find a very high amount of people who are not any different because of "mass murder simulators". i dont know why, but everything this guy says just makes him sound like a D-bag. he goes on to brag about how many new channels he has been on. whoopdie doo, has he actually won any cases against video games? Sounds unlikely.

Did they actually find any reasoning behind why he started going bizonkers, or was it just random?

off his meds. nothing to do with gaming, or movies, or Ozzy songs, or whatever else everyone has blamed it on in the past.

[CoffeeShark]

I bet he played some Madden, too, why aren't we blaming John Madden for it? Same correlation factor (zero).