I don’t know about you, but I’ve developed the habit of counting shots when I’m watching a movie. Just to see if a particular firearm is of the “unlimited ammo” variety. Like Commando or First Blood.

And no, I don’t want my son playing games like these either. If he wants to get any shooting in we can take the Daisy to the backyard and aim for cans.

I don’t know that there’s any single solution to it other than treating it like a fad. I feel the same frustration you do there. Censor? No. Parenting classes? That’s not going to work.

How about only allowing parents to buy one M-rated game a month! Or when the game isn’t being played it has to be stored in a locked container apart from the console with the game case open and the disc outside of it? Heh.

I’m still reading “On Combat” by Lt. Col. Dave Grossman (he of the Sheep, Sheepdogs, and Wolves legacy). In there he details why military training doesn’t generally produce psychopaths, but that video games can.

The soldier is taught how to “turn it off”. I was taught in the Marines that we killed with one hand while saving lives with the other. Civilians were never to be fired upon. There were things you simply did not do. And when the platoon leader said stop, you stopped.

Video games teach the shooting part, but they don’t teach the “stop” part. I’m playing BioShock right now and of course, like every other game you kill everything that comes on your screen. This can also include 6 year old little girls (I play the harder way and let them live rather than kill them).

My problem is that I can’t decide what to do about it. I can’t, in good faith, use the force of the govt to shut down the industry or censor them, nor can I use the same force to require parents to… well… be parents.

I won’t let my kids play these games in my house. I will also teach them discipline, especially in regards to firearms, in hopes that I can influence them enough. They’re both girls, so hopefully it won’t be as big of a challenge.

As for the reality of guns, well let’s just say the Brady Bunch and Victim Promotion Center only know what they see on the latest Die Hard movies.

I love it when I see someone get shot with a .38 Special and they get thrown back 20 feet and their chest literally explodes. Or the good guy shoots two pistols in two hands, hitting their targets 80% of the time. No wonder people have such a misconception about firearms!