"At a gun legislation strategy meeting held at the White House recently, United States Vice President Joe Biden suggested there would be "no legal reason" why taxing violent video games such as 'Mortal Kombat' would be an issue."
The suggestion came from a Reverend Franklin Graham who attended the meeting with 19 other religious leaders.
Here I will present my first question. Why would a meeting on gun legislation be held in a closed room at the White House by Joe Biden with 20 religious representatives? Are guns now considered a religious staple in the U.S? Secondly, what is the logic behind this train of thought? There isn't any, is the answer to that question.
Biden spoke after the meeting suggesting that proceeds from the tax would go towards the victims of gun crimes and their families. That's great, how noble of you VP Biden, but I don't quite understand why millions of people should be forced into donating money purely for purchasing a form of media, in which there is no supporting evidence in its responsibility for the gun massacres so prevalent in your country's history.
Anyway, what has a game like Mortal Kombat got to do with gun crime? For those of you that don't know, Mortal Kombat is certainly a violent video game, which involves the excessive beating and mutilation of your opponent with the help of mythical creatures and ninja like characters. Now if you can find someone who was decapitated by a giant man lizard or had their spine ripped out by a ninja with his bare hands, then get your dollar signed bags out and I'll cough up.
Video games are protected in the same way that all other media is under the First Amendment of the U.S Constitution. So if violent video games get taxed, does that mean that films and T.V shows will too?
Let me take you back to the Aurora shooting of 2012 in the state of Colorado where James Holmes, killed 12 people in a cinema during a showing of the latest Batman film 'The Dark Knight Rises'. Holmes used an array of weapons ranging from tear gas to a 12-gauge tactical shotgun. Allegedly Holmes referred to himself as 'The Joker', the most famed villain in the comic's history. Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but going by Biden's logic (and I use the word logic very loosely here) it is Batman that is responsible, and so the only 'logical' direction to take is to tax all purchases of the films in the Batman series. BatTax.
Well, so far, the two best suggestions to tackle gun crime is the idea proposed above, and a very instructive video, which i present to you here, on how to survive an active shooting. This is quite frankly, ridiculous.
I would also like to note that in 2012, incase you spent the year with your head in a bucket, Adam Lanza was responsible for the second deadliest shooting massacre in U.S history, with this;
I have an idea. It's a bold one, you could almost say profound. Maybe, just maybe the problem lies with guns. Yes. The actual guns themselves.
It is an outside bet, but I am certainly willing to take it.
