A link that can kill

It's not guns.  Blame video games. Or so say the top brass of the NRA. But guess what!  The NRA and many video game manufacturers work together.

The video game industry was drawn into the national debate about gun violence last week when the National Rifle Association accused producers of violent games and movies of helping to incite the type of mass shooting that recently left 20 children and six adults dead at a school in Newtown, Conn. ...NYT

Wayne LaPierre had to know about this, right?

As Electronic Arts prepared to market Medal of Honor Warfighter, the latest version of its top-selling video game released in October, it created a Web site that promoted the manufacturers of the guns, knives and combat-style gear depicted in the game.

Among the video game giant’s marketing partners on the Web site were the McMillan Group, the maker of a high-powered sniper’s rifle, and Magpul, which sells high-capacity magazines and other accessories for assault-style weapons.

Links on the Medal of Honor site allowed visitors to click through on the Web sites of the game’s partners and peruse their catalogs.

“It was almost like a virtual showroom for guns,” said Ryan Smith, who contributes to the Gameological Society, an online gaming magazine. After Mr. Smith and other gaming enthusiasts criticized the site, Electronic Arts disabled the links, saying it had been unaware of them. ...NYT

And the NRA did know all about it.  The ties between the two industries are filial -- or closer.

The Connecticut shooting is not the first time violent video games have been blamed for causing violence, including mass shootings. A similar outcry followed the 1999 shootings at Columbine High School in Colorado by two teenagers who played Doom, then a popular video game.

Last year, a Norwegian who killed 77 said later that he honed his shooting skills by playing many hours of Call of Duty. ...NYT

A link that can kill?  A partnership that did kill.  Children.  Over and over again.  And it gives us proof that unregulated capitalism can and does kill: people, governments, democracy, and our freedom.

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Guns have done very well during the days following the Connecticut shootings.

While the NRA made the news rounds this weekend, Brownells, the company that calls itself the world's largest arms supplier, reported it sold three and a half years' worth of AR-15 ammunition magazines in just three days — conveniently, the last few shopping days before Christmas. ...Daily Intel

Hey!  Daily Intel assures us that "guns still aren't the problem," so "we can all feel extra safe this holiday."