Penn&Teller did an excellent job last night. For only having half an hour in which to present both sides of the argument, there wasn’t really much missing…although I think I would’ve left out FatGunLovingFireTriangleGuy, in favour of…anything else. He really offered nothing more than ‘look at this kook. This is the other side. What a fucking kook.’

Bringing up the older school massacres was good, and…Jack Thompson was oddly useless. And, yeah, eerily emotionless. The man has problems.

I do think they missed a chance to make an even bigger point with the combination of the Columbine footage [overused, but necessary considering the topic] and the kid firing the weapon. The relative juxtaposition of those two clips very nearly makes the point all by itself, but sometimes words can really drive it home.

The point they could’ve made, that they didn’t even touch on [verbally, anyway]? The concept that videogames train you to use the weapons accurately and efficiently. The Columbine Kids, as evidenced in the videos, spent a lot of time working on their aim. The crying 9 year old couldn’t even hit the target, even after all that time spent playing.

And, as worried as they seemed to be, I’m guessing that the kid’s mom, as cool as she seemed, kinda wanted to do this to her kid. To really teach him a valuable lesson.

Everything else was great, though. They covered the whole fantasy vs. reality thing, the social aspect, the conclusion-driven research. I liked the fact that they mentioned how oddly educational Grand Theft Auto is — but not in the ‘killing hookers for their money’ aspect. How hard it is to get out of a gang once you’re in, and how there are consequences for your actions. The cops will come after you. You will be killed. They may be slightly unrealistic lessons, but it’s still a lesson in the consequences of actions. And slightly relevant to real life.

I was expecting it to be funnier than it was, but maybe they were just taking it slightly more seriously than they usually do. That might be a good thing. As very silly as it seems, it is a serious issue. And, no, not because ‘we have to protect the children’.

Or, actually, yes. That’s exactly why it’s a serious issue. The whole excuse of ‘for the children’ is the serious issue. That people keep justifying the stupidest fucking bullshit for the children is the issue.

Just fucking stop it, okay?