America's media are always quick to discount the impact violence in movies, television, and video games has on society.
It therefore will be interesting to see what the response will be to a Hartford Courant report Sunday that police found thousands of dollars of graphically violent video games in the home of Newtown shooter Adam Lanza:
In some quarters, Nancy Lanza, 52 at the time of her death, is viewed as a villain, a gun-obsessed mother who allowed her disturbed son access to firearms and let him fester in the basement playing violent video games while she traveled and enjoyed night life. [...]
During a search of the Lanza home after the deadly school shootings, police found thousands of dollars worth of graphically violent video games.
And detectives working the scene of the massacre are exploring whether Adam Lanza might have been emulating the shooting range or a video-game scenario as he moved from room to room at Sandy Hook, spewing bullets, law enforcement sources have told The Courant.
There's more:
In 2006, Adam entered Newtown High School, a 376,000-square-foot building that sits like a fortress off Berkshire Road. More than 1,700 students enjoy such amenities as newly renovated athletic fields, a cutting-edge library and the state's largest school auditorium.
When Adam Lanza entered the school, he began to spend time with Richard Novia, a former corporate security director and licensed private investigator who served as security chief for Newtown schools. [...]
Novia said he was also surprised that Nancy exposed her son to firearms.
"It's a serious mistake, first of all," he said. "If you have a child in the home with mental disorders, or learning disabilities, to have involved him with guns in the first place would be bad."
Novia owns several firearms and has taught shooting classes, and he carries a concealed pistol at certain times. He said that even shooting with Adam in the controlled environment of a shooting range was a mistake for his mother, given Adam's psychological conditions.
"For healthy people, this is a perfectly fun activity," Novia said of activities at the range.
He said the guns and the violent video games Adam played may well have been an unhealthful combination for a troubled boy.
With all the attention the media have given to guns in the months following this tragic incident, there's been precious little to the violent video games our youth are exposed to.
Maybe this report from the Courant will change that, although I'm doubtful.
At press time, of major news outlets, I could only find the New York Daily News covering this story. Britain's Daily Mail has as well.
It will be interesting to see how much attention this gets in the coming days, or if the gun-hating media will keep it buried.
Stay tuned.
Post facto question: Why has it taken over two months for this information to come out?
If they had found a book by Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Mark Levin, Ann Coulter, or Glenn Beck, I bet we would have heard about it weeks ago with it making headline news across the fruited plain.
But the presence of thousands of dollars of graphically violent video games?
The New York Post filed a report on December 19 titled "Killer’s Basement His Eerie Lair of Violent Video Games." But the source was an unnamed "person familiar with the layout" of Lanza's home.
It took two months for some news outlet to confirm this with the police?
