Missouri rep wants violent-game tax

violent video games are not to blame for the violent acts we've seen in this beautiful country of mine. dumb/unaware parents? and store clerks are to blame for kids getting violent video games and here's my example:

yes b/c the mental health industry (industry mind you) is totally trustworthy... Check out the movie Psychology: Industry of Death if you want to see what they are actually about.

Sure lets do it with games....and lets  also put a tax on guns and ammo....the internet....tv...movies....music....and anything else that a mentally disturbed person may view that could potentailly cause an issue to help fund mental health programs..........idiots

Thank God thus was defeated for future reference  this is called an unconstitutional excise tax and it's just an excuse to beef up their medicaid budget holes, they have no right to slap unconstitutional excise taxes on ANY product since they've been unconstitutional for over 200 years! It's another political ploy to thieve more of our hard earned money!

This tax would be like telling us that people that play violent games are mentally ill. Nope, were just bored.

i'm pretty sure if violent video games caused mental instability and led to massacres like conneticut there would have been a massacre a day in each country for the last 20 years. politicians are all the same tragedy happens they find a scapegoat and cash-in.

So sick of all the exploitation of the shooting tragedies lately...:/

It would seem that some people in government wish to turn a tragedy in to a witchhunt without proof that video games had anything to do with the tragedy in the fist place. 

Tragedy exploitation.  Usual politician trying to gain attention and get something out of it.  Video games earn millions and someone wants to cash in.  

Anyone can see it.  

If violent video games had any negative effect on a what I assume was a "normal mentally healthy human being" beforehand then I wouldn't ever want to attend a MLG event. This irks me to no end because they're singling out video games in general. I've been playing video games for most of my life and have had my fair share of violent videogames/ media and I'm not wanting to go out and exactly copy everything from the game. I guess the reason for that is because I have common sense and know it isn't real. If someone tries to imitate anything from any video game from Pokemon on down to Call of Duty then that person was, I'm just gonna say disturbed, to begin with.

What about the violent movie tax or the violent book tax or the violent news tax?

Im Bi-polar and putting money into treatment is not a bad thing, would you care about your child reading an edgy book then suddenly feeling different about the world they live in and suddenly having opinions ????? 

Because of that having programs that teach kids to defend themselves against negative undertones in a modern society is NOT a bad thing.Yet I think parent's should be educated about this stuff cause it's not the GAMER archetype that will save us from this but the Intelligentsia that will open our minds to this Reform Ideal.

It's just the idiots exploiting the Sandy Hook tragedy to leverage their BS!

Exploitation of a tragedy to line their pockets! Kiss my ***!

Cause we don't pay enough taxes as it is.

Oh really, the extra proceeds would go to psychiatric 'victims' of exposure to violent video games? And how many of those are there in the state of Missouri? Or anywhere, for that matter? Hasn't there been all kinds of research done already - which has turned out zilch in the way of positive evidence for video games in particular warping fragile gamers' minds? America definitely has a problem with raving lunatics owning assault rifles - so take them on, don't go the old blame games, music, movies route.

Of course, we now know taxes aren't implemented for the sake of keeping America's poor and needy alive - the traditional conservative argument. America spends zilch on social security and nearly half its gross annual product on military/corporate subsidies - go figure.

So what you're looking at here is an extra tax on virtual violence, that will allow the federal government to cut back on public expenditure in (psychiatric) health care. Which revenue it can then transfer to the corporate-military complex for ACTUAL for-profit killing in far off nations most Americans can't even point on the map.

Yet more evidence that the society we are born in has zilch to do with 'freedom' and is an absurd totalitarian nightmare on par with the former Soviet Union. And everything I see and hear to me suggests we are in the final days now.... 

That is an illegal tax, it would not be allowed in any of the 50 states supreme courts. The tax proposal would have to be greatly reworded and either broadened around all forms of gaming media or an increased focus as to what the taxes collected would be used for. 

This is more grand standing, more political showmanship then anything that would actually be implemented.  Not just second amendment rights, game media is widespread beyond state and federal  jurisdictions  it would also be impossible to implement. This is why you have never seen a tax on curtailing specific content in any media known: news, music, books, magazines, etc. 

In other words it is a waist of time for you, me, our politicians, tax dollars, and anyone with common sense. 

An extra six cents added to the price of your games for extra funding into mental health care and you're complaining? This isn't to scapegoat games, but rather to try and do something about these mass murders... Jesus I've never seen such a massive row over six cents.

This is a great idea.  Take money from citizens buying a product and spend that money on programs that have nothing to do with the original product.  How about we tax vegetarians 1% and donate the money to fighting heart disease?  Why don't we tax anyone that owns a bicycle and spend the money on streamlining the DMV?  Pointless, impulsive reaction to an event that had absolutely nothing to do with gaming.

Seriously, a 1% tax? Maybe that was what it was about all along

I don't understand this, how the hell doctors can find out mental health conditions associated with "exposure" to violent video games" !!

One quick solution. If you know your kid has mental problems, dont let them play or see anything violent...The "hear no evil, see no evil, do no evil" is for monkeys that don't know any better. The average human is smart enough to know they will die in real life if they imitate games, and the average human has a built in survival instinct not to die. So, if a kid is missing this instinct, then he's mentally ill, much like some tourettes children are forced to repeat words they hear.

Uh oh!  I've been exposed to violent video games for the past 15 years :O 

What are the mental health conditions associated with "exposure" to violent video games? I think before the merit of the bill can even be discussed, certain key terms must be clearly defined.

*sighs* Why oh why.

Oh sure our economy is down the dumps and alot of people are struggling just to keep a roof over their head. Taxing us even more for our form of entertainment to escape reality and vent anger would totally help -_-

This is so pointless that it's comical.  An "exposure to violent video games" fund?  REALLY?  Granted, more research is going to be done, but all the research so far has conclusively shown that games do NOT cause violence in real life.  Talk about jumping the gun.

Don't get me wrong.  I love America and my country, but there is way too much mob mentality going on here in the US about this.  What happened to making informed decisions?  What happened to basing law off of fair and reasoned judgement?

Since when did we jump back to knee-jerk reactions to everything?  Who is going to burn next for being the witch at fault for all our woes?  I'm sad for what we are letting ourselves become.

I remember when some morons were pushing for a soda tax.  That didn't go very far and I don't think this will either.

Guess what this doesn't prevent!

Hey Mr Rep and congree how about you guys pay tax's  the game industrry and us gamers who have common sense on your stupidity every time you cop out blame the game industry and  us gamers how does that sound?

I want the Top 1% taxed  if you ask him that watch as he defend the rich instead of defending the people who help get him elected why ? who payed for his campaign .

They should tax stupidity.

Its just like the old people in Washington to NOT focus on the actual problem of mental heath problems in people and instead they WORNGFULLY blame something that is not even related to mental heath.

Like I said before, generalizations are very dangerous.  Saying that gamers are mentally unstable is just like saying that gun owners are crazy or saying that Muslims are terrorists.  This kind of generalization just create stereotypes and conflicts.  Gamers are just normal people, end of story.

Well...this is very plainly insulting.....to all gamers who enjoy video games.

If they don't already tax alcohol to pay for domestic abuse programs, depression programs, alcohol liver disease awareness programs, and programs to promote anti-drinking and driving (am I missing anything?), they need to get on that, then.