Missouri lawmaker calls for extra 1% tax on 'violent' games

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First, there will have to be an empirical definition of "violent video games." Then we will have to figure out why all the Republicans are seeming to become purveyors of the very "Nanny State" they used to be so fervently against...
Is it me or does it seem that the Right is shifting ever closer to the opposite end of the political spectrum. Interesting, isn't it?

Blaming Hollywood violence for actual violence is just ridiculous...unless you're a child who has no concept of reality, but we already have measures to prevent children access to violent media.

But has it ever occur to people that the media basically operates like a business? The kind of shows, movies, and games that are available to the market are based on what the majority of consumers demand. This is why there is far too many reality TV shows than what my tastes can handle.

You could blame McDonald's for the obesity epidemic but no one in their company is forcing you to buy their burgers anymore than the video game industry is forcing you to buy a specific violent video game.

And if you are against violence in the media so much, then why do you absorb violent news stories like the mass shootings like a sponge? If violence in the media exists it's because the consumer demand it. Media is still an art form after all.

That would be like buying an awful painting you know is awful at auction and then blaming the artist for your decision to purchase it.

Everyone is just trying to point fingers at each other. Apparently we NEED to act, so it's every ideologues Christmas morning.

Does anyone else note that the courts would probably strike it down? Seperate Tax scheme for a type of speech, even commerical speech, is not going to fly.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strict_scrutiny

Depending on what state and/or Federal circut you're in, you might be able to squeeze out some sort of "assessment" on the retail locations or each game, but I doubt even that would survive a real challenge.

I just went out and bought four Call of Duty games this weekend - OK but I live in South Africa and nobody here thinks videogames are linked to gun violence here because the people who own guns and perpetrate violent crimes don't have access to videogames - in fact, I find it quite interesting that people in so-called developed countries make that association. Surely the gaming nerds (like myself) are sitting quietly (or perhaps not so quietly, I tend to complain a lot) in their rooms playing the said violent games and the kids who don't have entertainment but have access to guns are the one's actually committing the crimes? I mean, I would have thought that the problem is the access to guns, not the fact that we have videogames in which you can pretend to shoot people - and may I add that shooting in video games is nothing like shooting in real life (from what I've heard, I've actually never fired a real gun) - there is no recoil, no smell, you aim with your thumbs if you're playing on a console and your mouse if you're playing on a PC... I'm not defending violent games (I wouldn't want young kids to play CoD for example - it is too gruesome IMHO for someone under 16) - I actually want to know what the association is that people are making - it must be different across the seas to here

What counts as a "violent" video game? I can hardly think of any video games that don't involve the player character fighting against enemies. Or do they have to be human enemies? What if you are fighting them with a weapon that vaporises them instead of leaving a corpse? What if they look kinda like humans, but are actually demons or aliens? What if you perform extremely brutal acts on the enemies, but only to knock them out, not to kill them? What if you are destroying enemy vehicles and never see the people who are inside them?

The average age of an American video game player is thirty-one.
More than half of gamers are female.
I don't see a lot of thirty-something women going on shooting sprees.

A tax on "violent" video games? And how much safety will such a tax produce. Probably none.

It is just an excuse to raise taxes on purchases.

Bogus.

ruveyn

Your average republican: Guns don't kill people. VIDEO GAMES KILL PEOPLE.

A "sin tax" on video games.
That's BS.

I'm surprised they would tax anything violent.Cock fighting was legal there in some counties pretty recently.And they have one of the cheapest cigg taxes around,and cheap gas.I always stop and fill up.Plus they are a real gun-ho state.In one town city council voted that they could come armed to council.A week or so before a naked guy on bath salts tried to break in and the cops came and tasered him.This is most likely the lawmaker who is the exception to the rule in Mo.

I agree with Riley Freeman of the Boondocks. It is not video games that cause violence, but lack of video games that causes violence.