Just before the anti-gaming lobby gets hold of the wrong end of the twig in the case of deceased Finnish school-shooter, Pekka-Eric Auvinen here are a few facts regarding the case.
The 18 year-old shot five boys, two girls and the headmistress of Jokela high school, 50 kilometres north of Helsinki, dead. He shot himself and later died in hospital.
He posted his intentions on YouTube under the user-name, Sturmgeist89.
In his various manifestos, he did mention 'computer games':
±"Interests and Hobbies: Existentialism, Freedom, Truth, Misantrophy, Social / Personality Psychology, Evolution Science, Political Incorrectness, Women, BDSM, Guns (I love you Catherine), Shooting, Computer Games, Sarcasm, Irony, Mass / Serial Killers, Macabre Art, Black Comedy, Absurdism"
You will also see that he mentions movies:
±"Movies and Shows: The Matrix, A View To A Kill, Falling Down, Natural Born Killers, Reservoir Dogs, Last Man Standing, Full Metal Jacket, Dr. Butcher MD (aka Zombie Holocaust), Saw 1-3, Lord Of War, The Deer Hunter, True Romance, The Untouchables, 28 Days Later, 28 Weeks Later, Idiocracy, They Live, Apocalypse Now, End Of Days, The Shining, The Dead Zone, Dr. Strangelove, House MD (TV), Monty Python, TV Documentaries Relating To History"
And music:
±"Music: KMFDM, Rammstein, Eisbrecher, Nine Inch Nails, Grendel, Impaled Nazarene, Macabre, Deathstars, The Prodigy, Combichrist, Godsmack, Slayer, Children Of Bodom, Alice Cooper, Sturmgeist, Suicide Commando, Hatebreed, Suffocation, Terrorizer"
And even literature:
±"Books: Fahrenheit 451 (Bradbury), 1984 (Orwell), Brave New World (Huxley), The Republic (Plato), all works of Nietzsche"
He didn't appear to like full-stops...
He did appear to like Darwin:
±±"And remember that this is my war, my ideas and my plans. Don’t blame anyone else for my actions than myself. Don’t blame my parents or my friends. I told nobody about my plans and I always kept them inside my mind only. Don’t blame the movies I see, the music I hear, the games I play or the books I read. No, they had nothing to do with this. This is my war: one man war against humanity, governments and weak-minded masses of the world! No mercy for the scum of the earth! HUMANITY IS OVERRATED! It’s time to put NATURAL SELECTION & SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST back on tracks!"
So, before the outcry regarding the phrase "Computer" and "Game" appearing in the rantings of a school shooter, can the anti-games lobby start demanding bans for, let's pick... Plato; it is, after all, the oldest influence. Then maybe we can move onto Ray Bradbury or George Orwell? SPOnG believes these are even taught openly in schools.
Or maybe we can look at the over-all picture?
± Source: Fairfax Press±± Source: Odd Culture