guns and violence

Like most of Gen Y (and late Gen X) Anders Behring Breivik grew up in a virtual fantasy world on the Internet and calls to ban the violent virtual games he played appall Dakota because these games meet a need for violence in the people playing them and it was a real-life gun than Breivik used, not a virtual gun.

“If we need to ban anything it should be gun ownership,” says Dakota, “but this isn’t going to happen for the same reason that we don’t ban all the other things that motivated Breivik to carry out his diabolical mission – Christianity, nationalism, conservative politics, etc.”

“And, if the banners out there want to point a finger at violent virtual games then they should also look into all of the violent books, movies and music that Breivik had also consumed – along with all the violence in our daily newspapers and television news.”

“Breivik definitely grew up in a virtual fantasy world on the Internet – but then so did everybody of his generation, and most of my generation, too” says Dakota. “Sure, we’re addicted to Harry Potter, Da Vinci Codes, Arthurian legends and magical role-playing games with fantastic avatars that are as far removed from our real lives as you can get, but that’s a healthy outlet – not a cause for concern.”

“I won’t tell you what my avatar is because you’ll laugh at me,” says Dakota, “yet when I am in my online fantasy world nobody laughs at me – and I bet nobody online laughed at Breivik, either, when he was calling himself Charlemagne or whatever playing online war games such as Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 or the World of Warcraft.”

“Those who think that Breivik carried out his online fantasy world into real life are missing a vital point in his manifesto,” explains Dakota. “Actually, it was the reverse. Breivik appears to have formed his murderous plot before playing violent computer games, not after playing them.”

“He wrote: ‘I just bought Modern Warfare 2, the game … It is probably the best military simulator out there and it's one of the hottest. I see MW2 more as part of my training-simulation than anything else’,” relates Dakota, “and he used the people he played with online in a huge harvesting of email addresses for the distribution of his manifesto – sent by him just hours before he embarked on his attacks.”

“Breivik actually used Modern Warfare 2 as a training simulation because one of its missions allowed players to join a group of Russian ultranationalist terrorists with assault weapons in slaughtering civilians in an airport,” says Dakota. “Yet he gained his real shooting skills from actively hunting with high powered weapons – so are we to ban hunting, too, and shooting clubs?”

“In fact, why don’t we ban army training?” asks Dakota. “I believe people with a violent streak are just as easily found in the military as they are in the fantasy world of online games.”

“Modern Warfare 2 was released in late 2009 and is the second best-selling game of all time in both Great Britain and the USA,” says Dakota. “There are millions of people around the world playing this game or others like it right now, and sure there is going to be a rogue among these players who goes berserk in real life, but that is no reason to ban these fantasy games.”

“Apart from short-term effects, there is really no conclusive evidence that multiplayer violent video games cause real-world aggression and I really do believe that these games meet a need for violence in the people playing them,” says Dakota. “Not only does it keep inwardly violent people off the streets but it also serves as a reason for these people to withdraw from a society they cannot relate to.”

“As Breivik said about World of Warcraft, playing it was a good cover story to explain to family and friends why he couldn’t interact with them – they understood the addictive nature of the game,” explains Dakota, “and this applies to all Internet activity, really – I can’t tell you how many times my mom and other oldies tell me to ‘get a life’ and ‘get real friends’ but they just don’t understand that the virtual world is far more exciting than real life and it’s a welcome escape from it, too.”

“Does living in a magical fantasy world make us dysfunctional and indifferent?” asks Dakota. “No, of course not, but if you’re that way to start off with, like Breivik was, then violent games that dehumanize victims and make a virtue out of gratuitous killing are just going to be an extension of your own nature – they can’t make you that way.”

“However, that Breivik knew he was committing a ‘heinous act’ and advised his followers: ‘Once you decide to strike, it is better to kill too many than not enough, or you risk reducing the desired ideological impact of the strike … Do not apologize, make excuses or express regret for you are acting in self-defense in a pre-emptive manner’ appears to me that he was not entirely desensitized by these games to the realities of killing.”

“Video game addiction may be seen as a modern day disease – and gamers may be seen as alienated loners or social outcasts living in a fantasy world,” says Dakota, “but banning these games, or monitoring Internet use more closely, is not the answer – Breivik was a one-off, not typical of a gamer and his fantasies were fuelled from real-life international events, not the Internet.”

Read more by Dakota:
Was Breivik a secret Israeli operative?
The ethics of politicizing children
Dating psychos like Breivik
Breivik’s social contract betrayal
Breivik’s July 22 Sarajevo Code
Breivik the white knight
Breivik, Christ’s Knight
Stepfamily loners
be proud of your race!
immigration promotes white shame?

See also:

Age Secrets of Anders Behring Breivik
Breivik’s Aquarian Humanity?