Trigger Happy
Mortal Kombat. Grand Theft Auto (1997), a game in which the player steals cars, runs over lines of Hare Krishnas and shoots cops, was described by the British Police Federation as “sick, deluded and beneath contempt,” and in the summer of 1999 a member of Parliament wrote to the prime minister asking if anything could be done to limit sales of the horrorthemed game Silent Hill, whose story centers on the disappearance and torture of a young girl.
In the United States, the increasing number of school massacres is leading many to blame videogames directly for childhood violence. In spring 1999, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, two Columbine High School teenagers in Littleton, Colorado, shot twelve students and a teacher before committing suicide. The media quickly reported that they were avid players of videogames Doom and Duke Nukem. The previous year,
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