Sorry, but if you have to be – or ‘have got to be’ as you state – a grammar Nazi here, then you should keep in mind that “y’all” is also a contraction, not an idiom. You might want to check on your definitions of linguistic terminology as well as the commonality of such words as “y’all” in order to be more clear about the differences between ‘regional’ and ‘standard’ varieties of a language.

The NRA wants us to suspect the quality of the rivets on the Titanic rather than the appropriateness of ramming an iceberg at full speed.

Aaron Kashtan : I don’t disagree that the article could have continued to encompass that, but I disagree that it should have. The whole point of this piece, I think, is to remove video games as a scapegoat option entirely. Furthermore, it’s not intellectually honest to conclude that increased gun-control would solve everything in the US. Other countries have lower gun-deaths and stricter gun policies, but their population is that of New York city or less (e.g., Norway) and they’re even smaller than some states. Even Canada, comparable in size, has maybe 1/9th the population. While it’s debatable whether or not nation size and population is a determining factor effectiveness of gun-control, an article where the goal is to defend video games against constant NRA rhetoric is not the place for that discussion.

Either way, it was a good read. It teases at some delicious points without straying too far from its thesis.

* Mortal Kombat doesn’t involve guns, it involves unrealistic fantasy martial arts. America is not plagued by spree karate kicks

* Splatterhouse is an ultraviolent game where you fight and hack up fantasy monsters, not people

* Bulletstorm, going off wikipedia, _is_ a game with guns but it’s again over-the-top fantasy violent with silly jokes and against fantasy baddies

* Grand Theft Auto involves shooting people and taking their stuff and is notorious for letting you murder prostitutes for money, a thing that really happens to real women.

So of four games he names, only one bears a resemblance to violent acts that happen in real life. Grand Theft Auto is the only one you could really argue would make someone think of acting the violence out on real people, since that’s what you do in the game. And AFAIK, nobody has found a casual link yet and researchers have indeed had a look.

(Okay, he names five, but the fifth is a fucking Flash game you play for free – it’s not part of the video game industry. And barely anyone had heard of it until now)