Anger over ‘toy’ guns on iPhone:
John Beyer of mediawatch UK added: “In view of recent events in Northern Ireland and elsewhere, I think anything that glamorises guns and shooting is in extremely poor taste.
With all due respect, John, I don’t think anyone could reasonably make a link between these and compared to the number of gun deaths in the world, you’re really making a mountain out of a molehill. I was in San Francisco when the shootings occurred and the point was made to me that in Northern Ireland, these shootings are extraordinary, in New York, they’re “Tuesday”. Yes, symbolically, the shootings are a terrible blow to Northern Ireland and a very personal tragedy for those involved but let’s not be silly.
Or…if we are going to pursue this to the illogical extreme, let’s just ban all games and entertainment where firearms are used.
Feel better?
Guns don’t kill people – people kill people and if not with a gun then they will find something else, our houses are full of weapons !
I have been shooting for years with scouts and in gunclubs, we teach the scouts to respect the weapon.
Banning games with guns is not the answer, better education and more for people to do in deprived areas is.
Guns kill, but so does the truth … oh, wait. Sorry, I forgot where I was for a moment.
Banning games with guns is a daft idea. Shooting people who commit crimes with guns is a much more productive solution.
1. This is software, it’s not guns. Spout the pro-gun bullshit elsewhere, IMHO, RMcQ.
2. I’m actually in agreement with the original quotation. Guns suck, and these apps do ‘glorify’ them and make them ‘cool’. They aren’t cool. They are designed to kill people and animals, and I would have hoped we would have evolved past this in the 21st century.
However, as Apple can’t even bother preventing apps like “Cute Asian Girls”, we can’t expect them to be a bastion of good taste or sensible judgement.
Doesn’t mean we have to like these apps, or buy them though. And sadly, the original quotation will do nothing but get them free advertising. (Opps, did I just advertise Cute Asian Girls? My mistake).
I think there are two points to be had here.
1. That gun crime is more prevalent in New York than Northern Ireland – I agree – yet gun crime is also more prevalent in Northern Ireland than the rest of the UK.
2. That playing games / with toy guns, in some way glamorises or encourages real gun use at a later date. That I don’t agree with. If that were the case games like Mario Kart would be banned incase people started dropping banana skins out of their car windows.
In response to John, I don’t agree that firearms are something we need to ‘evolve’ past. They are simply a tool, they are designed to fire, their use is left to the judgement of the user. In many cases, they are a valuable tool, such as pest control, in other cases they are less helpful.
And yet, you can “de-glamourise” something. Look at drink driving – once acceptable, now seemingly a mere rung up the ladder from child molesting. Cigarettes. Once commonplace, lighting one up in a public building would practically get you lynched now.
I think there can be no doubt glamourising guns leads to gun crime. The question is, is it worth curtailing the personal freedoms and liberties of responsible adults in order to achieve some hard to quantify gain for society? It’s a tough one, for sure.