Following the tragic Newtown, Connecticut shooting on 14 December 2012, which left 20 children and six adults dead, a neighbouring town is planning to collect and destroy violent video games, CDs and DVDs.
Volunteers will assemble in Southington, nearby Newtown, on 12 January in order to get rid of any violent games that parents or children want to alleviate themselves of.
If a video game is handed over and destroyed, the family will receive a gift voucher to a local restaurant, an amusement park or a bowling alley.
“We want to stop the violence in our community,” Southington board president of the chamber of commerce said Charlie Cocuzza said. “Those games can cost $60 or $70. So we want to give families a certificate to do something fun and family-oriented, something where they can spend a couple of hours together instead.”
The Southing SOS community group is in charge of the initiative, and while the plan to destroy the games may seem extreme, the organisation made it clear that they’re not linking violent video games to the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting.
“We’re not saying the use of video games causes people to become murderers, but there’s evidence that it causes increases in aggressiveness, fear, anxiety and desensitization about actions of violence,” said director of community services Susan Saucier.
Source: Courant
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While they’re at it, they better get rid of all their tv’s or violent tv programs, movies, newspaper outlets. etc etc its the media that make it so big by reporting it and make the killer and his spree infamous, and yet video games get blamed all the time…