Current Events 1

One of the current events which attracted attention to the issue of violent videogames and its influence on people was shooting in Norway, in 2011. A Norwegian citizen, Anders Breivik, dressed as a police man shot down about 70 people. Breivik claimed that he was practicing the murder by playing videogame.

On Friday, 22nd of July, couple tens of minutes, after Breivik published his manifest "2083-Europian declaration of independence“, there was a bomb explosion in government district of Oslo. After the explosion 8 people were found dead and other 90 were wounded. However the bombing was not enough for Breivik, and he moved to the island Utoya, which lays around 40 km from Oslo. At that time, on the island, there was Norwegian Labor Party's camp with about 600 participants in age of 14-17. During the next hour and half, Breivik was shooting everyone in his eye's sight leaving 68 dead. Most of the people tried to hide, run, or even swim away, some of them pretended they are dead already. Breivik, however needed to make sure everyone lying on the ground is dead so he gave everyone on the ground one more shot to the head.

Shortly after the shooting, police arrested Breivik, who yielded right after he was captured. During the series of trials Breivik was asked how he learned to shoot. He answered that he was playing Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. In the last of the series, Breivik was found sane and therefore guilty for murder of 77 people. He was sentenced to 21 years in prison; however he might have to stay there longer if he will still deem danger to society.

                               http://technology.inquirer.net/files/2012/04/Anders-Behring-Breivik.jpg

Sources: "Experts: Norway Mass Killer Anders Behring Breivik Likely Not Insane despite Committing Deadly Bomb-and-shooting Rampage." CBSNews. CBS Interactive, 27 Apr. 2012. Web. 12 May 2014.

Parkin, Simon. "Don't Blame Video Games for Anders Behring Breivik's Massacre." Theguardian.com. Guardian News and Media, 22 Apr. 2012. Web. 11 May 2014.

Pidd, Helen. "Anders Breivik 'trained' for Shooting Attacks by Playing Call of Duty." Theguardian.com. Guardian News and Media, 19 Apr. 2012. Web. 12 May 2014.

Sutter, John D., Let Us Know What You Think about Video Games, and Violence in the Comments Section Below. Also Check Our Our New Video-comment Feature. "Norway Mass-shooting Trial Reopens Debate on Violent Video Games." CNN. Cable News Network, 20 Apr. 2012. Web. 12 May 2014.