NBC, 'CS Being Examined in DC Sniper Case'

[taffer]

Gryphon, I see and respect your viewpoint - obviously it is going to differ because of the culture difference between here in the UK and the USA. We don't need guns for defence (although the actual benefits of having them in the US are not as large as the NRA would have you believe), only for sport and hunting.



To actually have a majority of citizens armed in a country is problematic, as it causes troubles for law enforcement agencies - not every one of those armed will know when to use their firearm lawfully - think of the time it takes a police officer to learn their 'rules of engagement'. A citizen who has not had that training can panic and could end up killing innocent people - it has happened with frightened housewives shooting their husbands coming home late, after thinking there was a burglar.



Even Israel, which has terrorist attacks every day, has extremely stringent gun laws. People rely on the Police for relative security - it is their job, what they are there to do. In the US it should not be very different. To protect and serve, right? To have armed civilians looking for this guy, as I'm sure some are doing now, is going to cause the Police a lot of grief. Let the Police do their job.



I had to go through a long process to get my firearms certificate in the UK, just for .22LR target rifles, although I can add any rifle up to 7.62mm to it. I have to get a separate licence if I want a shotgun though. Did I feel as if my rights had been invaded with the police asking for a complete background check? Not at all, because I understood the responsibility I had to other people to use my firearms safely.



NO-ONE should ever be allowed any sort of firearm without a COMPLETE background check. It may not prevent all gun crimes, but it would be a start.

[Grocer]

-:Nighthawk:- wrote..

I saw a comment earlier about a retired marine or something making comments about the effects of violent video games. Just to reference that, his name is Lt. Col. David Grossman, and his stuff is interesting, though I disagree with some of it.

I work for NYT Television (not in any creative capacity), and we produce Science Times, which airs on the National Geographic channel. We did a short piece on the military using video games to train soldiers, and its not really what people seem to think.



We looked at this marine training exercise, where a marine or a small squad was trying to take a house where some terrorists had hostages (sound familiar?). Each guy would stand in front of a big projection screen, with some mock-up of a gun that had movement controls on it, and they would very slowly go through the motions of taking the house. "I'm moving there now, ok i see somebody, ok i'm going to shoot them, there." The enemy would only fire back if you moved to the wrong place and they never moved around. The whole thing looked like some fancy version of Myst, with bad blocky graphics. Basically, it was just a simulation of moving through a hostile urban enviroment, and had as much to do with modern FPS games as, well, Myst does. The point is that the military doesn't really use video games to teach people how to kill, they use simulations to test knowledge of basic technique, kinda like a flight simulator.

[*****PLUMPY*****]

I live in Montgomery County, Maryland, where 5 of the now 10 shootings have taken place, all 5 were fatal, whereas 2 from other counties survived. I am an avid CS player, and in no way believe there should be some sort of ban on CS, or any other implementation. I do think it should be known that on the Today Show, nobody actually said the killer played counter-strike. The statements were mere speculation, which I find warranted when considering the crisis at hand.



I understand people are angry that the situation is even being associated with CS. I think if you were in my situation you would be more understanding. I find myself looking around when walking in public, watching for unusual circumstances, or suspicious cars or people. My way of life, as well as millions around me, is now changed. Though most people aren't outright frightened, there is an element of fear in the people I live with.



I believe that people who are angry about anything that has been said by the media in this case can go fuck themselves. This killer must be caught, and speculating about his practices is perfectly warranted, in fact I expect, and demand, that it be done to help catch this sick son of a bitch faster.



If you don't live in the Washington DC area, I don't believe you have a say in this. I don't want to see any more comments regarding this issue, unless they are merely expressing their sentements for the victims and the millions of others who have been affected.



One more thing i should mention. The police are nowhere near capturing this criminal, and there is no gaurantee they ever will. I am not optimistic, I am fearful, that more, in fact many more will be killed before this is over. The way in which the killer is working is very smart, he is shooting people from several hundred yards away, in one case more than 300, which is greater than 3 football fields. He is doing it from places where he cannot be seen, and then escaping in a vehicle of some sort. I expect the killings will continue, one every two days or so, and I will be living in fear until they are caught.



-Plumpy

[taffer]

You don't think he will be caught?



He is NOT an expert marksman - otherwise every victim would be dead, with 1 round through the chest or head. Anybody with a decent rifle and scope could achieve the level of accuracy he has at the same distance.



This suggests that he is not infallible. Something WILL give him away - lack of concealement, mannerisms, etc.



There is also the fact he has a mental illness - the Tarot card left clearly shows this. As such, he will not have a clear view of the world, and will make a mistake eventually.



Unfortunately, time is needed in a case like this, and this is something not to hand.



People should try living as normal a life as possible in the area, within reason. Ever thought that he is now enjoying the challenge knowing everybody is looking for him? Feeding off fear?

[stsui00]

mouth wrote..

What an end-all-be-all excuse. It just fixes everything right up, doesn't it? It worked for the LA riots, skinhead beatings, and spousal abuse, so why not for you too?

What are you, my son? I don't need you to repeat whatever I say. And I don't seem to get at what you're pointing at, it's too vague. Perhaps you want to rephrase it? And how does my excuse help me?

Added @ [time="1034375487"]

*****PLUMPY***** wrote..

If you don't live in the Washington DC area, I don't believe you have a say in this. I don't want to see any more comments regarding this issue, unless they are merely expressing their sentements for the victims and the millions of others who have been affected.

Well said, *****PLUMPY*****. Your words have much feeling behind them. I'll stop commenting on this issue and I'd like to send my regards to the families of the victims.

[gluestick]

taffer wrote..

He is NOT an expert marksman - otherwise every victim would be dead, with 1 round through the chest or head. Anybody with a decent rifle and scope could achieve the level of accuracy he has at the same distance.

thats pretty much whats been happening

There is also the fact he has a mental illness - the Tarot card left clearly shows this. As such, he will not have a clear view of the world, and will make a mistake eventually.

theres been lots of people who have had a mental illness and yet were brilliant, cunning, and ruthless



godmode is built in hl, and is in cs as well. its just never used unless you have an extremely bored admin who likes to abuse his powers



a sniper is just a guy who shoots stuff from long ranges. it comes from a group of people who shot snipes, which is a bird. and its harder to shoot a gun than most cs-ers think... movies show guns with no recoil. many people, if they could at all, would need two hands to shoot a pistol, not to mention a rifle.



in this sense i guess cs deludes some younger people into thinking you just line up the shot and press the trigger...

[*M*E*R*I*D*I*U*$*]

My regards to the families of the victims and the people Maryland. However I don't feel gun control is the way. Harsher law's for people who steal guns those are the ones who we should be after those are the people that are really to blame.

Guns don't kill people people kill people

More murders are committed with knives than guns. Fact!

And have you ever tried to eat a cheap steak with a spoon?

[-:Nighthawk:-]

Well, I officially hate IE now, as I lost my big commentary on this subject due to a browser glitch.



Basically, I just elaborated on the gun laws here (we do have full background checks), thanked Grocer for his honest comments, added a bit of thought to them, and then responeded to plumpy and taffer. To plumpy, it was basically thanks for the honest comments of someone directly affected by all this.



To Taffer, it was first off don't tell others to not be afraid when all of us would be somewhat afraid living there, whether we're willing to admit it or not. The second thing was, yes, this guy iss a marksman, hitting all of his victims without a miss, and always in the chest or head. Only the hospital staff's efforts, combined with the fact that this sniper is only using 5.56mm (not designed to quickly kill), has lead to 2 of the victims surviving.



I for one applaud the bravery of the people living in that area, and pray for a quick end to this situation.

[GryphonSDK]

I think I understand where you are coming from, Taffer. I consider gun control a natural response when a small proportion of the population has firearms. When a few people you don't know anything about have weapons, and you don't, they represent a potential threat. The concern, and the threat, are also increased by population density; in other words, urban areas.

As a solution, laws that control or ban weapons create the smallest immediate burden on a non-weapon-owning majority.



The different cultural backgrounds create different expectations. The US has a much larger proportion of rural land than GB, for instance.

To actually have a majority of citizens armed in a country is problematic...

I don't agree. Sane criminals don't go for targets that represent a real threat; they are looking for easy targets. I presume that the majority of citizens (at least here) are law abiding. If most people were armed (and trained in the safe handling and use of firearms - even just the basics) I suspect that crime would decrease quite rapidly.

In the real world, we try to avoid spending our energy on efforts we perceive as waste, and carrying a firearm in a fairly peaceful society is a waste of money and a real inconvenience for most people.



I don't know anything about firearms law in Israel. However, I am under the impression that the settlers seem to have ready access to automatic weapons. Don't the Israelis require military service, with exceptions for concientious objectors?

*****PLUMPY***** wrote..

If you don't live in the Washington DC area, I don't believe you have a say in this. I don't want to see any more comments regarding this issue, unless they are merely expressing their sentements for the victims and the millions of others who have been affected.

I don't live in the DC area, but I think I must discuss this issue.

I respect your opinion but, we who watch from afar must discuss it because we care about what happens to other human beings.

We discuss it because we know it could happen where we are too.

We discuss it because we wish there was something we could do to help stop it.

I agree with you as far as this: it is the responsibility of the residents of MD, VA, and DC to respond to this evil. All that most of us can do is discuss it.



I lived in PG County, MD for about 3 and a half years, and I pray that my old friends, all around the DC area, are kept safe.

My brother lives in Alexandria, VA and I pray that he and his fiancee are kept safe.

I pray that you are kept safe.

[Emericana]

disabled wrote..

if u feed a serial killer some mashed potatoes, and then he goes out and eat someone, do u blame the potatoes for making him a killer?

That was the funniest thing I've read in a long time.

Added @ [time="1034382646"]

The thing that gets me is that they always accuse CS. Maybe they haven't played CS, but just because it uses real life weapons doesn't make it realistic! If you insist that games are the sole reason for all the evils of modern society, why not blame Ghost Recon? Why not blame Operation Flashpoint? Why not blame Swat 3? Anyone who has fired a sniper rifle knows that even these games are not accurate portrayals of how to fire a weapon, and they're advertised as the "realistic" games! Why aren't we blaming Britney Spears for teen sex? Or buffet bars for our nation's obesity? Get real folks.

[blinddonkey]

Edited by [user="62860"] @ [time="1034386139"]

you know, chances are this guy has seen star wars. i bet he shops at the mall too. they should look into correlations there.



they have also started claiming the sniper is using a "millitary" or "assault" weapon. hell, my dad has a mini-14. it's a good gun. if you're going to buy a gun, are you going to buy crap? no. so because some idiot does something dumb, we have to get rid of it. well, making things illegal obviously stops them from happening. oh wait, murder already IS ILLEGAL DAMMIT! dang. i mean, come on. cars kill more people than almost anything else. why don't they get rid of them.



politicizing a serial killers actions into the media's lame-arsed causes is very unprofessional.



you would be surprised to find that in America, the areas with stricter gun laws have higher crime, and in fact, that area of Washington DC at one point had the highest crime rate even though guns were completely illegal.



the dillema: Criminals do not care about the laws. Case in poiint, man shoots people with common gun such as AR-15 or mini-14. these guns are not special, they are so common. and for note, the militia is not police and armed forces. to say that means you don't even know the definition of the militia. read some books not written by liberals.



I love how foreigners get pissed at america for trying to tell them what do do, then they tell us that our constitution is our problem. as if.



how many people that say we need stricter gun laws know 1) what they are and 2) actually know anything about guns? i was raised to respect and revere guns. not to fear them with idiotic ignorance. a gun is no different than a car. cars kill more than guns. a gun can be used as a weapon, but so can a rock. even water is a weapon. so what's the solution? fear and laws? or education and public awareness?

[PK0rZ]

If shoes were illegal and the ground was covered in glass shards and all shopping was done online and robots delivered it to your door all our problems would be solved!



I don't understand how video games are getting a bad rep for things like these shootings AND the sterio type of a video game player is still a nerd with glasses thats so scrawney and unbadass he could never even lift a gun in real life... how can we be both?

[Vaishino]

Thge whole thing about enforcing stricter gun control laws isn't that people use guns to kill people, it's that guns are used to kill people from far away and very easily. Sure it might be easy to kill someone with a car, but not nearly as easy as it is to kill someone with a single shot. The murder rate in America is somewhere around 7 murders per 100,000 people. That's actually a lot. It's decreased since 1966 when the test was first done to find the rate, but the decrease occured due to improved medical treatments and responce times, if you were to factor that in, the rate would jump to 24.8 from around 7.

[OverkillTBP]

Taffer you were pissing me off until your last post, then I actually agreed with you... You posted read the 2nd amendment.



I have and it states



"A well regulated Militia being necessary to the security of a free

State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms shall not be

infringed"



"," meaning also



The right of the "people"



As so, any man has the right to bare arms. You want to argue against that? I found 3 websites explaining in detail why you would be wrong and why the Supreme Court has ruled in favor many times with that right being for the people.



No one knows that he's mentally unstable. Why people keep assuming that is beyond me. I tell you right now, if he hasn't been caught now, and doesn't want to get caught, he won't be. He can stop at any time, and the investigators will be left dead in they're tracks.



He'll get caught if he makes a mistake yes, but how many more is he going to injure/kill before that happens? Hopefully less or none.



The only thing I agree with you on is when you said..



"People should try living as normal a life as possible in the area, within reason. Ever thought that he is now enjoying the challenge knowing everybody is looking for him? Feeding off fear?"



He's trying to make us as a people change. And he's doing just that. And that's exactly what the Terriosts did when 9/11 happened. America changed.



I knew from the beginning the media would blame or mention FPS games in this one. This news post proves I was right.



I also thought when I heard this "I am god" thing that yeah he thinks he's playing an FPS game.



The only reason why the media called him a "sniper" is because of the methods he is using as in hiding and single shots. He definitely isn't great at it though since the kid is alive still and isn't someone else? But 150yrds was it, and he was in the woods when he shot that kid? Not counting wind as a factor or if the kid was moving, you'd still have to know your gun. Making him mentally stable.



But to be honest, more guns laws are the problem. What the damn laws are doing is making it hard for the average decent person to actually own a gun. And the criminals still have they're guns no problem at all. So how the hell are we supposed to defend ourselves if someone wants to rob the place I work at with a gun, 3 days from now, yet I have to wait a few weeks to own a pistol because of background checks?



That's just an example. But it could happen, and I'd be defenseless because of the damn laws.



I don't know... All I know is we've seen worse.



And the media still sucks.



Realize this. But I see more death and destruction on the news then anything else I watch, do or play. News is only news unless its bad news, otherwise it's not worth reporting.

[TypeZero]

you all have made some fantastic points...



im tiring of this pathetic, utterly ignorant trend as well.



no one knows what this person looks like, let alone if its a guy or a woman, yet they're saying "he could..." be playing a game like Counter-Strike? it could be an 86 year old, one armed woman in a wheelchair who's on dialysis and oxygen



thats how much we know about this person...so that equals...oh, thats right, JACK SHIT. but they're profiling away, blaming whatever is convenient.



its so obvious that this whole media situation is a generation gap. their parents didn't know what they were going through back in the 70's/80's, and those kids back then sure as hell cant figure out what we have now. the media is just a blind, raging bull that runs full speed into the first thing that it hears, and then gouges the hell out of it.



im sick of being labeled a potential threat by ignorant fucks going through their mid life crisis. i certainly know how im NOT going to act when i have children...matter of fact, i think i'll listen to them for a change.



<not that my mom didn't raise me correctly, cuz she most certainly did, im just saying in general >