Like movies, books and music beforehand videogames are often blamed for practically every evil and every minor infraction, but this may just be one of the most idiotic cases I’ve had the displeasure of reading: a 9-year old boy from Orlando, Florida took “an unloaded handgun, a magazine with six bullets inside, a steak knife and a small-handled sledge hammer” into his elementary school. His father has blamed Minecraft.
The young boy told three of his friends that he had items, and they promptly alerted the school. The boy was searched and items in question found.
Thankfully the gun had the firing pin removed, but the weapon had been stored in a drawer that was clearly within reach of the child, and worst still the boy also clearly knew where to find a magazine filled with bullets, or, worse still, he knew where to find the bullets and that he needed to place them in the magazine.
Exactly how did this child manage to get his hands on a gun, steak knife and hammer without his parents being aware? I say it comes down to bad parenting, but the father is blaming Minecraft, of all things.
According the father: “They use hammers to dig and knives and guns to protect themselves from zombies.”
Which is interesting because there’s no guns in Minecraft. And I’m not even going to touch the one about digging using a hammer. Now, Minecraft isn’t a non-violent game, that’s for certain, but it has the “E” rating emblazoned on the box for a very good reason, and is even being used in schools for Grade 1 Students to play because it’s good for conceptive learning.
Had the child attempted to use his fists to chop down trees or even taken a shield and sword to school then maybe, just maybe, I could have drawn a tentative link between his actions and Minecraft, but he didn’t.
Sure, there are enemies to be fought within Minecraft, but above all else the game encourages creative construction, it encourages you to have fun and build amazing things, not to take guns to school.
More than anything I believe this kid was simply trying to show off to his buddies. I don’t think he had any intention of using them, although obviously I have no way of knowing this. I think he was a 9-year that was trying to do something cool by bringing a gun and other things to school, and that the parents are at fault for failing to teach their son about such things.
His father is looking for a scapegoat and nothing more, and even in this he failed miserably by picking Minecraft. Had the kid been playing GTA V then maybe I would have viewed the case in a different light, but he wasn’t, and even then the father would still have been a twat for letting his kid play it.
The youngster has been charged with possession of a firearm on school grounds, possession of a concealed weapon, and possession of a firearm by a minor. He has been ordered to stay at home in confinement, and the judge ordered his parents to keep weapons away from him.
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