Boy Kills Mom and Wounds Dad Over Halo 3 Forbidding

[The 1 2 P]

Another shooting, another video game linking. But this time it hits much closer to home because it isn't a direct result of playing a violent video game. Instead, it's a direct result of not being able to play a violent video game: http://www.cleveland.com/news/index.ssf/2008/12/boy_killed_mom_and_shot_dad_ov.html

Everytime I read these kind of stories I continue to wonder the same thing: what the fuck is wrong with these kids these days?

EDIT: Update on last page.

[Half Japanese]

There's definitely more at work here than some crazy teenager or violent video games. It sounds like he was somewhat repressed growing up (seriously, his parents wouldn't allow a 17-year-old to play an M-rated game?). I'm not playing blame the victim here, but my first thought after reading the article is that the kid probably snapped and said to himself "you know what, fuck it, I've had enough". People that shelter their children so heavily are asking for rebellion, often in a far more extreme fashion than what might have manifested otherwise.

[Smashed Brother]

Reading about stupidity such as this makes me think that the Earth should just blow itself up and start all over again. Christ...

[Fuyukaze]

I never want to have kids. Ever. Let a damn game get so important you blow your parents heads off?

[motley6]

There's definitely more at work here than some crazy teenager or violent video games. It sounds like he was somewhat repressed growing up (seriously, his parents wouldn't allow a 17-year-old to play an M-rated game?). I'm not playing blame the victim here, but my first thought after reading the article is that the kid probably snapped and said to himself "you know what, fuck it, I've had enough". People that shelter their children so heavily are asking for rebellion, often in a far more extreme fashion than what might have manifested otherwise.


Are you kidding?

[Gameguy]

I'm kind of wondering why a minister would have a gun.

[Cryomancer]

I will somewhat agree with the poor decision making for the simple fact that he locked it in with a gun, when obviously the kid could find the key when he wanted to. He opens it to get the game, and finds a gun too, i guess coupled with the other stressors mentioned in the article and the obvious poor judgment that goes with wanting to play halo, he thought it would be a good idea to give himself extra insurance he could play...or something.

Ok basically i wanted to make a halo slam. (seriously kid, get timesplitters or something instead). Also if you read the older article it links to, it mentions that his dad and him shot guns together recreationally, so no wonder he could find the key.

[Xander]

He killed his parent for more than just not being allowed to play Halo. There is probably a whole backstory we do not know.


coupled with the other stressors mentioned in the article and the obvious poor judgment that goes with wanting to play halo

Made me laugh :).

[Iron Draggon]

picked up Handgun +1

shot Parents -2

FIND A MEDKIT!

[TheDomesticInstitution]

Are you kidding?

Yeah he's kidding. You don't really think he believes that severely sheltered children can become ticking time bombs and behave in completely illogical ways?

[megasdkirby]

http://img65.imageshack.us/img65/7176/large16petric1ip2.th.jpg (http://img65.imageshack.us/my.php?image=large16petric1ip2.jpg)

He really does look like a douche bag, doesn't he?

Come on, death penalty! Or prison rape!

I'm sorry for being vulgar, but he deserves a painful punishment for what he did to his family...all OVER A FUCKING VIDEO GAME.

[TheDomesticInstitution]

I'm sorry for being vulgar, but he deserves a painful punishment for what he did to his family...all OVER FUCKING SNOWBOARDING AND A STAPH INFECTION.

*Fixed


Actually near the end of the article his dad says it was probably due to a snow boarding accident and a staph infection.

[SegaAges]

You know, this stuff didn't happen back in the day when it was acceptable to smack your kids around.

I am not talking about beating the crap out of them with a baseball bat, I am talking get your belt off when they talk back and give them a good walloping.

Kids need to respect their parents, and have just a slight amount of fear about them. No fear = no worries when you have a gun (that is sarcastic).

But seriously, we need to go back to the day of spankings and belt whoopings. Put these punk kids in their place.

[super nes]

Well now hes definitly not going to be able to play it.

[c2000]

Judging by the amount of jackasses I come across while playing Halo online with friends (mostly shouting teenagers that start 'face-****ing' you when they killed you) I'm not really surprised by anything anymore..

[megasdkirby]

You know, this stuff didn't happen back in the day when it was acceptable to smack your kids around.

I am not talking about beating the crap out of them with a baseball bat, I am talking get your belt off when they talk back and give them a good walloping.

Have to agree.


Kids need to respect their parents, and have just a slight amount of fear about them. No fear = no worries when you have a gun (that is sarcastic).

You know, I just realized something. How come a MINISTER has a GUN in his house?

[heybtbm]

Well now hes definitly not going to be able to play it.


Thread over.

http://img132.imageshack.us/img132/8038/winnerko9.png

[Daria]

His father forbade the games, saying that were too violent and sexually explicit.

I don't recall there being any sexual content in Halo.

[98PaceCar]

You know, this stuff didn't happen back in the day when it was acceptable to smack your kids around.

I am not talking about beating the crap out of them with a baseball bat, I am talking get your belt off when they talk back and give them a good walloping.

Kids need to respect their parents, and have just a slight amount of fear about them. No fear = no worries when you have a gun (that is sarcastic).

But seriously, we need to go back to the day of spankings and belt whoopings. Put these punk kids in their place.

QFT. But it also seems like there is more to the story that we aren't hearing.

[Ponyone]

Not like any of this is funny, but I just found it kind of comical he tried to flee the house with halo 3 game in hand. Like, he just shot his parents, and the only thing on his mind is a little team slayer. Nice.

[swlovinist]

He killed his parent for more than just not being allowed to play Halo. There is probably a whole backstory we do not know.

agreed. My main job is a counselor by day. I can tell from my personal experience working with families you there is ALOT that we dont know about this case. In my opinion, the whole video game tie in here is not a vaild one, it could be the straw that broke the camels back.

Again, just my opinion but I think of the following when I hear of this tragedy. My heart goes out to the father and his family. What a horrible thing to deal with and a nightmare to think of as a new parent.

There is probably some major communication issues with the family. Obviously this is an example of an environment in which a the teenager possibly had majorly repressed emotions or had some major issues with the parents. Who knows what else was going on behind closed doors that you dont read about. This was probably not caused by one incident, or a sledding accident. This, in my opinion, was caused by an accumulation of events over a long time.

The teenager may have an undiagnosed mental health disorder. It would be interesting to see his behavior at school, previous run ins with the law, other behaviors of concern.

Not saying it for sure in this case(I am a christian myself), but SOME people of faith sometimes avoid mental heath in general or only use it as a last resort. Some sects of certain faiths are sometimes even told not to go to mental health centers and to only rely on the church or God to fix everything. This can be a slippery slope for some, and can lead to undiagnosed mental health issues going unattended for a long period of time.

There could have been some other warning flags that were not noticed, or not taken seriously.

I can tell you how many families that I work with in which a red flag goes off with a behavior, and the family does not want to face it seriously/and or at least have someone get an mental health evaluation. While I understand that dealing with a possible mental health issue is hard for many(epically parents), a mental heath issue gone unattended/undiagnosed is much much worse.

[SegaAges]

QFT. But it also seems like there is more to the story that we aren't hearing.

I doubt there is more to the story.

It seems dumb that a kid would flip out over a game, right?

Like the kid who ran away because he couldn't play CoD. This stuff is starting to happen more and more, and it is getting worse.

I think a portion of it is that kids are put in time out in their room with their games instead of making them go out and select the switch you are going to hit them with. if they pick a small switch, they get hit until they go out and get a bigger one.

My parents gave me some good wallopings, and I really was a good kid. Yes, I had issues later on down the road, but that was when I was an adult and out on my own (my problems happened during college when I was out on my own trying to pay for college while I was there).

These 14, 15, 16 year olds need to be taught their place. These kids think they can say and do whatever they want, and if the parents just discipline them with words, then they will only get worse as they grow up.

I have seen a 16 year old kick a hole through a door, break a kitchen table by breaking the legs on the table, breaking every single chair except for one for that table, multiple holes in the walls, multiple other random items broken, just because he wanted to go to Burger King. I am not kidding either.

What these kids are doing is having temper tantrums. Some will kill you, but you need to stop them from even getting to that point. If you kid has violent tendancies, maybe you should figure out why and either put them in the looney bin early, or get them some help that is NOT XANAX or whatever that pill is.

Parents can always control their kids, but if the parent does not start controlling their kid early, well, then they might do something dumb like completely destroy the dining room over burger king (literally the entire dining room), or kill you because you tried to take away their Halo.

Sure, the kid is a piece of &@$# that deserves to rot in jail. I will never take the blame away from that kid, as I have also seen people (who are good friends of mine) that did not have the best upbringing, but somehow managed to turn out very well.

You can't go around shooting people for something stupid. This is why I can't stand guns. This reminds me of an awesome line from the movie 5th Element, "What you create, you use to destroy."

[Icarus Moonsight]

QFT. But it also seems like there is more to the story that we aren't hearing.

Like maybe, the kid was a complete and total idiotic fuck-up before/without games being involved? Just a guess.

[koster]

I don't recall there being any sexual content in Halo.
That doesn't stop some Halo players from creating some (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fboh1Rs7QLM)...

[TheRealist50]

http://img65.imageshack.us/img65/7176/large16petric1ip2.th.jpg (http://img65.imageshack.us/my.php?image=large16petric1ip2.jpg)

He really does look like a douche bag, doesn't he?

Come on, death penalty! Or prison rape!

I'm sorry for being vulgar, but he deserves a painful punishment for what he did to his family...all OVER A FUCKING VIDEO GAME.

He looks like he'd become a peedo at the age of 40. There's something about those beady little eyes that screams "here kiddies, I want to show you something"

[98PaceCar]

I doubt there is more to the story.
It seems dumb that a kid would flip out over a game, right?


It is extremely dumb, but this is why I say there is more to the story than what we are given by the media. Sure, the incident at hand was probably the final straw but there had to be other things that pushed this kid to the breaking point. Probably just poor parenting or even the new method of hands off parenting that seems to be so prevalent in our society. I don't absolve the kid of his part in this because there are very few people in the world that truly do not understand the consequences of killing someone, but I do think that the way he was brought up had to play a role in getting to this point. The media is just using the video game tie in to sell the story and make it glamorous.


Like the kid who ran away because he couldn't play CoD. This stuff is starting to happen more and more, and it is getting worse.

I think a portion of it is that kids are put in time out in their room with their games instead of making them go out and select the switch you are going to hit them with. if they pick a small switch, they get hit until they go out and get a bigger one.

My parents gave me some good wallopings, and I really was a good kid. Yes, I had issues later on down the road, but that was when I was an adult and out on my own (my problems happened during college when I was out on my own trying to pay for college while I was there).

These 14, 15, 16 year olds need to be taught their place. These kids think they can say and do whatever they want, and if the parents just discipline them with words, then they will only get worse as they grow up.

I have seen a 16 year old kick a hole through a door, break a kitchen table by breaking the legs on the table, breaking every single chair except for one for that table, multiple holes in the walls, multiple other random items broken, just because he wanted to go to Burger King. I am not kidding either.

What these kids are doing is having temper tantrums. Some will kill you, but you need to stop them from even getting to that point. If you kid has violent tendancies, maybe you should figure out why and either put them in the looney bin early, or get them some help that is NOT XANAX or whatever that pill is.

Parents can always control their kids, but if the parent does not start controlling their kid early, well, then they might do something dumb like completely destroy the dining room over burger king (literally the entire dining room), or kill you because you tried to take away their Halo.

Sure, the kid is a piece of &@$# that deserves to rot in jail. I will never take the blame away from that kid, as I have also seen people (who are good friends of mine) that did not have the best upbringing, but somehow managed to turn out very well.

You can't go around shooting people for something stupid. This is why I can't stand guns. This reminds me of an awesome line from the movie 5th Element, "What you create, you use to destroy."

I agree with you completely. I also came from a time where if you did something wrong, you got punished properly for it. Even in school. I was sent to the hall for licks after class on more than one occassion. Taught me that there are consequences for my actions and if I didn't want to face them, I didn't need to take that particular action.

Kids nowadays (and for some time now) have been friends or even fashion accessories to their parents and they have grown up with no sense of how to act in the real world due to their parents not wanting to hurt their self esteem or risk the child being upset over something. The sense of entitlement that has been put into them is so great that they are basically crippled in any sort of situation where they are not getting their way (much like the destroyed dining room you spoke of).

It's a sad statement about where our society is, but we will see more of this before it gets any better (if it ever does get better).

[mailman187666]

the thing is with news stories like this one, there are always huge factors the newspapers/internet doesn't tell you. Mainly is because they want to get the story out to the public before anyone else can. I had a newpaper article written about my dad a few years ago...I won't get into what it was about....but he was basically a victim to fraud by a scam artist. The newspapers only heard certain portions of what was currently being addressed at the time and made him out to be the criminal and didn't address every aspect about what was going on. This article could very well be leaving out key ingredients to this story that would completely change our views of what is happening. 9 times out of 10, somebody who shoots there parents has some kind of a huge backstory to them being mentally ill, abused, molested, whatever you can think of. In fact, most people don't show signs of having mental illness until they are 17-23. This kid could have seemed like a regular kid before hand but maybe the symptoms just started up recently and since he is undiagnosed, its not a key factor into this article. Just the line that says he showed no emotions in court until the pictures of the mother came on the screen shows that there is indeed mental illness there. The copy of Halo 3 is really irrelevent, I think its just part of what justified the actions in his head when killing his mom. It could have been Pokemon, it could have been a pair of rollerblades, it could have been his favorite cup he likes to drink soda out of. Halo 3 was just an innanimate object going along for the ride in all the steps to this kids insanity.

[SegaAges]

the thing is with news stories like this one, there are always huge factors the newspapers/internet doesn't tell you. Mainly is because they want to get the story out to the public before anyone else can. I had a newpaper article written about my dad a few years ago...I won't get into what it was about....but he was basically a victim to fraud by a scam artist. The newspapers only heard certain portions of what was currently being addressed at the time and made him out to be the criminal and didn't address every aspect about what was going on. This article could very well be leaving out key ingredients to this story that would completely change our views of what is happening. 9 times out of 10, somebody who shoots there parents has some kind of a huge backstory to them being mentally ill, abused, molested, whatever you can think of. In fact, most people don't show signs of having mental illness until they are 17-23. This kid could have seemed like a regular kid before hand but maybe the symptoms just started up recently and since he is undiagnosed, its not a key factor into this article. Just the line that says he showed no emotions in court until the pictures of the mother came on the screen shows that there is indeed mental illness there. The copy of Halo 3 is really irrelevent, I think its just part of what justified the actions in his head when killing his mom. It could have been Pokemon, it could have been a pair of rollerblades, it could have been his favorite cup he likes to drink soda out of. Halo 3 was just an innanimate object going along for the ride in all the steps to this kids insanity.


Whoa, these are different things here.

http://www.designcouncil.org.uk/DCImages/About%20Design/Business%20Essentials/Invention/Anywayupcup%201%20MED.jpg
Don't touch my cup!


And if it was rollerblades, he could just skate away:
http://images.scholastic.co.uk/assets/a/08/c8/boy-on-roller-blades-phoenix-school-25524.jpg
Look at him go!

[MachineGex]

Parents give their kids everything they want these days. Then they wonder why the kids don't know what the word "no" means. Parenting starts the day the child is born. Children have a hard time these days dealing with "no" because they have never had to deal with it before. My son knows that "no" means "no". I better not have to lock up a toy from keeping him from playing with it.

[TheRealist50]

Parents give their kids everything they want these days. Then they wonder why the kids don't know what the word "no" means. Parenting starts the day the child is born. Children have a hard time these days dealing with "no" because they have never had to deal with it before. My son knows that "no" means "no". I better not have to lock up a toy from keeping him from playing with it.

I agree, the sad thing is that this kid is 17 years old too. At that age, shouldn't you have a little more common sense? apparently that is just asking for too much these days I guess.

[Cornelius]

Just because it has been one-sided on the 'hitting your kids is okay/good' side, I'll chime in and say it isn't okay. If you have to hit your kids to gain their respect or get them to do what you want or for whatever reason, then you are failing as a parent. It shows a lack of parenting skills or an unwillingness (laziness) to put in the effort to parent well. Not only that, it just plain doesn't work any better than other discipline methods and can (I was spanked very rarely and don't think I'm any worse off for it) cause serious issues. And this isn't just me talking. This is the conclusion of large and exhaustive bodies of research evidence and experience.

I don't get what being a Minister has to do with owning or not owning a gun. Christians aren't exactly pacifists these days. Even a pacifist could own and use a gun with no contradiction. I'm very pro gun control myself, but I still think there are legitimate reasons to have a gun, minister or not (e.g. sport shooting, hunting, collecting, etc).

[SegaAges]

Well, some people need sense smacked into them, because that is the only way they will listen.

Just because your parents never touched you does not mean that the method worked for everybody. As smacking your kid around may not work for everybody either.

Given the situation (whether there is more to it or not), it is safe to say they did not touch their kid. That means that the don't hit your kid method obviously didn't work with them.

We can all say what we want, but unless we are raising children ourselves, who are we to judge. Wait, The kid that is not even my son knows and respects me more than his own father. Hmm, not his father, but me, I am even potty training this kid. I am father #2 to this kid, and now when the kid gets hurt goofing around, he will literally run right past his own father and come to me for comfort.

No, I have never knocked anybody up, but I am helping raise a child because I care that much about this family. If this kid never needs to get touched, so be it. If this kid needs a good spanking to learn, that is how he learns.

I put my real life experiences into many of my posts, my friends. I don't talk about doing or not doing heroin, because I have never done it. I say this kid needed to get hit early to show him what the hell is up (the kid that murdered his father, not the one I am helping raise).

Hitting a kid is NOT ABUSING THE KID! Most people seem to think they are one and the same.

[Cornelius]

It is extremely dumb, but this is why I say there is more to the story than what we are given by the media. Sure, the incident at hand was probably the final straw but there had to be other things that pushed this kid to the breaking point. Probably just poor parenting or even the new method of hands off parenting that seems to be so prevalent in our society. I don't absolve the kid of his part in this because there are very few people in the world that truly do not understand the consequences of killing someone, but I do think that the way he was brought up had to play a role in getting to this point. The media is just using the video game tie in to sell the story and make it glamorous.



I agree with you completely. I also came from a time where if you did something wrong, you got punished properly for it. Even in school. I was sent to the hall for licks after class on more than one occassion. Taught me that there are consequences for my actions and if I didn't want to face them, I didn't need to take that particular action.

Kids nowadays (and for some time now) have been friends or even fashion accessories to their parents and they have grown up with no sense of how to act in the real world due to their parents not wanting to hurt their self esteem or risk the child being upset over something. The sense of entitlement that has been put into them is so great that they are basically crippled in any sort of situation where they are not getting their way (much like the destroyed dining room you spoke of).

It's a sad statement about where our society is, but we will see more of this before it gets any better (if it ever does get better).


Parents give their kids everything they want these days. Then they wonder why the kids don't know what the word "no" means. Parenting starts the day the child is born. Children have a hard time these days dealing with "no" because they have never had to deal with it before. My son knows that "no" means "no". I better not have to lock up a toy from keeping him from playing with it.

I agree with these completely, except I don't think that causing physical pain as a punishment is more effective than other methods of punishment, or better parenting before punishment becomes necessary. Dog trainers don't even hit the dogs, because it simply isn't as effective of a training method.

edit to add punctuation for clarity.

[Cornelius]

Hitting a kid is NOT ABUSING THE KID! Most people seem to think they are one and the same.

Nobody here has said that. I certainly don't think so (as long as the 'hitting' is done in a controlled manner). What I did say is that it is no more effective (and often times less) than other methods that don't have associated risks of emotional problems later in life.

And since you bring it up, I am raising a child myself and am the primary care provider.

[Cornelius]

Given the situation (whether there is more to it or not), it is safe to say they did not touch their kid. That means that the don't hit your kid method obviously didn't work with them.


It does not, however, mean that they were doing a good job of parenting. No body is saying that just because you don't hit your kid means you are a good parent.

[98PaceCar]

I agree with these completely, except I don't think that causing physical pain as a punishment is more effective than other methods of punishment or better parenting before punishment becomes necessary. Dog trainers don't even hit the dogs, because it simply isn't as effective of a training method.

It's not so much about physical pain as it is (and I'm stuggling with the right way to say this), the child understanding that the parent is the one in charge. I don't think either SegaAges or myself are advocating abuse or hitting the child for every single infraction that occurs, but there are times when even the threat of physical punishment is enough to make someone think twice about their actions.

I stated that my parents and schools practiced corporal punishment, but in all honesty after the first or second time of seeing that my actions do have consequences, it was enough to curb my behavior. It was never a case where if I did something wrong, I got licks. Now if I did the same thing wrong after being warned, sure, I was in for it.

[eskobar]

I hate the press does not say only "Halo 3" ... they say "The violent videogame Halo 3". I hate when everything to blame is because of videogames, the kid is criminal with or without halo.

I agree that violent games should not be played by children but he is 17, he knows what is good and what is bad since 5 ... and in this particular game, i do not see the game as too violent or something that encourages to kill anyone just to play it.

[exit]

I doubt there is more to the story.

It seems dumb that a kid would flip out over a game, right?

Like the kid who ran away because he couldn't play CoD. This stuff is starting to happen more and more, and it is getting worse.

A kid running away from home is a completely different situation, it happens all the time ( who didn't want to run away from home as a kid at one point) and is usually always because of a stupid reason, so I really don't see how that's relevant to someone offing their parents. For someone to just go and murder their parents, there's usually always some kind of back story, the Halo 3 situation really does sound like the breaking point in whatever went on.

I do agree that some of these kids just need a good slap in the back of the head, some parents either lose complete control of their kids, or simply just don't give a shit about what they do. At work I've seen kids completely ignore their parents when they tell them to do something, so instead of doing something more drastic, they just stand there and continue to let their kid make them look like an idiot. I've also been involved in a situation where this kid ran completely rampant around my department and even slammed his brother into our glass cases. So what did his mother do? She yelled at me for telling her how to raise her child and said I should have told her, meanwhile she was nowhere to be found at the time and the kid was still knocking shit over right in front of her as she was yelling at me.

While I wasn't exactly beaten down when I misbehaved, I've received more than a few slaps from my mom and she always made sure to let me know my place. Most parents today don't know how, or when to control their child and it's more than likely because their parents didn't control them either.

[kupomogli]

I don't think kids should be beaten. But I do think that they should be hit if they don't do what you say and they do it more than once. If you don't show them that they need to stop doing it after you already tell them, then they'll just keep doing it.

Maddox doesn't have the older picture up anymore, unfortunately.

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b334/kupomogli/beatkid4.jpg

[evil_genius]

I'm kind of wondering why a minister would have a gun.

haha good point

[kedawa]

I never understood the whole spanking thing. If you want to inflict harmless pain, it's best to put pressure on the base of the fingernail/thumbnail where there are a lot of exposed nerves. It hurts like hell, causes no physical harm, and won't give the kid a complex later down the road. Beating the bottoms of the feet is also effective.

[Skelix]

Great now with the Democrats in office they will ban video games AND guns. Execute the little bastard and be done with it. Set an example for the next shitbag who wants to misuse a firearm (especially over something trivial like a video game)




Edit: And wtf is wrong with a minister having a gun? Can he not hunt? Is he not allowed to protect his family? Or to go target shooting? Just because you own guns doesn't mean you rob convenient stores or gang bang.

[mezrabad]

Wow, what a miserable tale.

"Close your eyes, I have a surprise for you?" (or something like that) then Blam! Blam! Blam!

What the hell?

I can't imagine what the father is going through. I mean, loving your kids isn't really a conditional thing, you just do, unconditionally. The grief of losing a spouse coupled with the grief of the son having killed her. I would go nuts with grief and anger. My rage would want vengeance but I wouldn't be able to kill my boy over it. What a horrible thing to have to live through.

[jdc]

Instilling respect at home isn't necessarily the answer. I'm a 49 yr old married father of a 7 yr old.....and a 23 yr old, who as of this year has moved into his own starter apartment. The 7 yr old is still "controllable" for lack of a much better word (its the Christmas retail season and I'm tired...lol).... but the 23 yr old was a different matter. He was good kid up until he was old enough to go over to his friends houses in the evenings. When they hit their teens, kids choose which crowd to run with. They go out in the evening and hang out with these other teens. It seems to be the popular mindset these days to respect nothing, sometimes including yourself. Peer pressure is a very powerful thing and good kids can be easily led like lemmings to adopt the mindset of the group. We watched our teenager turn from a "boyscout" into an absolute asshole. To use a common term, he ran with the "wigger" crowd, which isn't exactly the best crowd that he could have chosen. Disrespect, lying and stealing was the norm and stuff like hygiene and appearance got worse and worse. This kid had never had a hand laid to his backside. He was always "talked to" or reasoned with. Maybe this kid saw a couple of suckers in his mother and I. I like to think so. Our 7 yr old makes me smile. He is a passionate gamer (he prefers the retro consoles) and the easiest way to make him buck up and listen is to threaten to hide the controllers. If only everything was so simple....lol.

[jdc]

Quick little anecdote about my 7 yr old. I actually DID take away and hide the controller for the N64 a few nights ago, since he's nearly finished Paper Mario....but I forgot to tell his mother that gaming was off limits. The little monkey waited until I went out and went downstairs and grabbed a worn out 3rd party backup controller from my stash of "shouldn't throw it out quite yet" stuff.

[Giskard]

You know, this stuff didn't happen back in the day when it was acceptable to smack your kids around.

I am not talking about beating the crap out of them with a baseball bat, I am talking get your belt off when they talk back and give them a good walloping.

Kids need to respect their parents, and have just a slight amount of fear about them. No fear = no worries when you have a gun (that is sarcastic).

But seriously, we need to go back to the day of spankings and belt whoopings. Put these punk kids in their place.

Ummm . . . people have been killing other people for a long time. And, no matter how we punish our kids, they will continue to kill other people.

[The 1 2 P]

How come a MINISTER has a GUN in his house?

Maybe he planned on using it on his son if he ever got hostile.


I don't recall there being any sexual content in Halo.

You obviously missed out on the second version of the Legendary edition of Halo 3. There was a whole new single player campaign mode between the Chief and Cortana called "Hot Slurpee".


And if it was rollerblades, he could just skate away:
http://images.scholastic.co.uk/assets/a/08/c8/boy-on-roller-blades-phoenix-school-25524.jpg
Look at him go!

LMAOROFL

[ThoughtBomb]

GAINED THE LEAD.

LOST THE LEAD.

UN-FREAKEN BELIEVABLE!

I'm sorry, I just had to.

[Icarus Moonsight]

Used to say, "The thicker the head the harder the ass needs to be kicked to reach the brain."

I've seen light torture being used on kids rather than spanking. Specifically, being forced to kneel, bare floor on dry rice (RICE not ICE!). Others include; being sent off to fetch your own beatin' switch and tickle torture (until uncontrollable urination begins). The latter is real effective in the company of peers...

"HA HA! Your mom made you piss your pants!" LOL

[Gameguy]

Edit: And wtf is wrong with a minister having a gun? Can he not hunt? Is he not allowed to protect his family? Or to go target shooting? Just because you own guns doesn't mean you rob convenient stores or gang bang.
I just found it a bit hypocritical, that's all.

I assumed ministers believed strongly in following the bible, that would include "Though shalt not kill". Willing to kill to protect your family goes against that, same with hunting.

Target shooting could still be acceptable(I guess), though not allowing his son to shoot graphical representations of humans in a game is too violent, yet shooting an actual gun in real life is ok?




As for spanking, the only thing wrong with doing that is if you're trying to teach your kid that "violence is not the answer, there's always a non-violent alternative to a problem". Clearly spanking goes against this, and it's hard to respect a hypocrite once your old enough to realise what one is.

I don't remember being spanked(I could have been when I was really little, I really am not sure as I don't remember that far back), and I turned out fine. I never did drugs, never smoked, I rarely ever drink anything with alcohol(I'm above the legal drinking age but I just don't desire to drink), I never stole anything, I was taught to be polite and respectful, and to be thankful for what I have. I was also taught to be strong minded and avoid peer pressure, I don't do things just because someone tells me to, I think why I should be doing something.

[SegaAges]

EDIT: We have made valid points, with everybody having good points to it, so I will leave it at that

[heybtbm]

DP is officially turning into Gamefaqs. It's like a bunch of 12-year-olds came in and took over. What the hell is going on?

[MachineGex]

I never understood the whole spanking thing. If you want to inflict harmless pain, it's best to put pressure on the base of the fingernail/thumbnail where there are a lot of exposed nerves. It hurts like hell, causes no physical harm, and won't give the kid a complex later down the road. Beating the bottoms of the feet is also effective.

The above was quoted from Dwight Shrout's "Guide to Beet Farming & Child Rearing".

[motley6]

Yeah he's kidding. You don't really think he believes that severely sheltered children can become ticking time bombs and behave in completely illogical ways?

oh Good. For a second there I thought that he was trying to rationalize the murder of a parent by equating the words "repressed" with a father disallowing the play of a certain video game that he finds immoral. Whew! Good thing we are on the same page now!

[RyanMurf]

Wait! but did he ever get to play the game?

[SegaAges]

Wait! but did he ever get to play the game?

He played the "outside" version.

http://media.techeblog.com/images/_outside____1.jpg

[Skelix]

So in reality it seems like adulthood is dumb luck? Looking at jdc post I think back, I hung out with a bad crew did bad things (we never killed anyone). But was probably jail/prison bound.

But most of that crew including myself, turned into decent contributing members of society.

But there were bad situations that could have resulted in vary different outcomes, over drugs, fights, vanalisms etc.

So maybe it's growing out of the 15-25? (I was good at 23 jdc).

The only thing I can think of was I joined the military?

[rpepper9]

Well now hes definitly not going to be able to play it.

Actually he will probably end up in juvie hall, where free time will probably involve some sort of recreational video game playing.

[Giskard]

Actually he will probably end up in juvie hall, where free time will probably involve some sort of recreational video game playing.

He will probably go on trial as an adult considering he is 17 and this is a serious crime.

[Gentlegamer]

He played the "outside" version.

http://media.techeblog.com/images/_outside____1.jpgB.S.! There is definitely a monthly fee. Several, in fact.

[SegaAges]

B.S.! There is definitely a monthly fee. Several, in fact.

Yeah, that must have been an ad for when they did the beta test or something.

[DeputyMoniker]

I never want to have kids. Ever. Let a damn game get so important you blow your parents heads off?

You used to be a kid. At what age did you blow your parents heads off? ;)

[The 1 2 P]

Quick update: http://www.gamepro.com/article/news/208566/judge-video-games-not-a-defense-for-parents-murder/

Basically the judge told this punk ass kid that his "video games made me do it" defense-argument won't work. He will be sentenced soon.

[darkslime]

I'm sure there's something else behind this and the media is just blaming it on video games because they get more page hits and this would not be as big of a story if instead they said the kid was abused or something.

[UK Collector]

http://img65.imageshack.us/img65/7176/large16petric1ip2.th.jpg (http://img65.imageshack.us/my.php?image=large16petric1ip2.jpg)

He really does look like a douche bag, doesn't he

Yeah he looks like a wrong'un. Sometimes you can just tell.

[TheGam3r]

That kid is a D*****ag for killing his parents over a video game.

Would i murder my mom/dad if they took away my games.Nope.

what happend to the good old days when Video games did nothing wrong and no deaths of real-life people that were blamed on video games.

[geneshifter]

That kid is a D*****ag for killing his parents over a video game.

Would i murder my mom/dad if they took away my games.Nope.

what happend to the good old days when Video games did nothing wrong and no deaths of real-life people that were blamed on video games.

I think that there are too many kids nowadays that are left home alone while both parent work as opposed to the good old days where someone was home raising the children.

In that situation, the child will internalize and latch onto things in his/her life that gives them some sort of feedback like games, music, etc... This is when you get crazy kids. Every aspect of their lives is a derivative of something that happened in a game or something seen in a movie. I feel really bad for those kids who never were given a chance by their parents.

As far as this kid goes, looks like life without parole.