Back in 2005, California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a bill into California law that would make the selling of certain video games to minors a crime punishable by law and would require compulsory warnings for select games. The bill was passed, but a temporary injunction was issued to keep it from going into effect. In 2007, the law was found unconstitutional, but it didn't stop Schwarzenegger from trying again and just recently it was struck down yet again.

It is likely that the bill has been killed, but it seems Schwarzenegger and other law makers may try to appeal this decision in the Supreme Court. You can read up on it here.

They pressured the industry to adopt a rating system. Wasn't the point of that to make sure that kids couldn't get violent games and the like ? You now, like how if you're 12 you can't see a R rated movie ? They should consider it job done when it comes to games ! (Man that sounds really hilarious.) It's the idiot parents that buy this stuff for their kids.

When blaming the parents, a lot of people usually forget that not all of them have the time to check all the media. Especially now that people need more than one job to pay the bills.

Anyhow, going to jail for selling a game is the stupidest I have seen related to videogames. It's still a succulent scapegoat for the politicians, sadly. Especially considering that EE.UU. is by far the country with the largest jail population in the world, this kind of news alert of how easy it is to end up as a criminal in this country.

What country are you talking about? Do you mean the European Union, where I'd take bets that your ass in your country would be faster in jail than mine in my country? What kind of Youth Protection law have you guys in Spain, btw.?

He's talking about the Estados Unidos, not the European Union.

Estados Unidos = EE. UU. Heard that for the first time. You're right. I fail.

Temptations? :P

Nah, cause I had to look it up myself as well! :)

There's the same abbreviation in Portuguese also. Since both words are in plural (estados and unidos), it is common to use the same letter twice. Buenos Aires is sometimes abbreviated as BB.AA., for instance.

Why the Americans don't start outlawing possession of firearms for private citizens is beyond me.
Doesn't the right to arm one's self, also include a baseball bat. Why use a shotgun? :p

That's easy...

A baseball bat is a melee weapon. When you start to smash your neighbours to mud, most of them have already started to run away...

If you however arm yourself with a precision rifle, you can catch 'em all. This in turn strengthens the economy as you need to buy ammunition again and again (until you are shot by the cops), with in turn creates or holds jobs. The bat however is a one-time-thing, which probably has a "Made in China" stamp at the bottom. ;)

So you see, the good thing is the rifle (or gun), the bad thing is the bat (or knife). :P

Egad, I stand corrected for this micro-economical analysis.

Kinda reminds me of the day of 5 1/4 disks. Those babies can hold out for years. Then the 3 1/2 discs only last for a few months.

Dang capitalists.

By now most American's own so many guns they can rival small rebel groups. I think if Obama would try and take away guns from private owners I think a civil war would start up again.

This won't sound good no matter how diplomatic I can put it, but here goes.

Better a civil war to finally decide once and far all the fate of gun control and get over it, than wondering why a kid packs a semi-automatic rifle and goes DOOM to his school mates or why a two-bit punk mugs your grandma with a .38.

Speaking from a country who outlaws private use of fire-arms...violence will occur naturally to the common populace when they are frustrated or just plain bored. Providing tools to allow such venting to the point where it can clearly endanger another person to me is just plain irresponsible.

And I condone violence.

Because they have good teachers:

A free people ought to be armed. - George Washington

To disarm the people is the most effectual way to enslave them. - George Mason

Laws that forbid the carrying of arms...disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes...Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they serve rather to encourage than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man. - Thomas Jefferson

...since you like the Founding Fathers so much.

Criminals are going to get weapons, often guns, whether they are legal or not.

Agreed. That's why Jefferson is absolutely right. Why Americans would enthusiastically press for losing the right to adequately defend themselves is beyond me.

I doubt the few criminals that manage to smuggle firearms into the country where it is illegal weigh up to the amount of accidents and crimes of passion in a country where it legal to own firearms.

Criminals are going to get weapons, often guns, whether they are legal or not.

I'm happy to leave my armed defense from organized crime to professional security forces such as the police if it makes me a lot less likely to be slain, ironically, by the very handgun I kept in my house for purposes of self-defense (a major source of guns used by criminals in Canada and the US).

If there are armed crooks roaming the streets taking pot shots at people, I for one plan on hiding in the cellar and trying to alert the authorities, not taking to the roof and trying to snipe them.

Not the most popular stance, but personally I agree. A lot of bad shit can go wrong after the first *bang*.

Only those with a lot of money or a lot of power or a lot of access.

Not the average thug.

I have neither of which, but with a little effort I could easily get my hands on a gun.

Prohibition doesn't work - not for drugs, not for prostitution and certainly not for firearms.

Seems to work well from where I come from. Over here, all fire arms are either from the military or police. If you have cash (a lot of cash), it may be acquired illegally from them.

Well, its better than other "terrorist suspected" countries with 14 year-olds wielding Kalashnikovs as if it were their favorite toy. The kids here however do weild machetes or samurai swords in highschool brawls.

A common citizen can't own a gun in Mexico.

Remind me why the drug lords are winning again?

Don't the drug lords also have the police and the government in their pocket? I think that the best you can hope for with citizen gun ownership in such a situation is all-out civil war (and, well, there you have the Zapatistas: "You are in Zapatista rebel territory. Here the people give the orders and the government obeys North Zone. Council of Good Government. Trafficking in weapons, planting of drugs, drug use, alcoholic beverages, and illegal sales of wood are strictly prohibited. No to the destruction of nature.")

You might be on to something there.

If I lived in Mexico or, say, Columbia or Afghanistan (or some other narcorepublic, he says, overlooking BC's chief export), I might feel differently. (As fat as the Hell's Angels are growing here, they don't mess with you as long as you don't try to interfere with their black market monopoly.)

It's easy to get guns if the country next to you gives them away for free with every box of cereal!

I also live in a country where guns are illegal and here there's rarely any gun incidents whatsoever. And when there is it is usually either an ideological assassination or organized crime fighting among themselves. I've never heard of something as stupid as a simple burglar or robber having a firearm in this country. And that is in spite of us having one of the biggest harbours in the world and thus being subject to a lot of smuggling.

Legalize drugs in Mexico already.
In ten years you guys can invade California without much resistance. :p

Yes, finally a good point.

Unfortunately, the drug lords will do anything in their power to prevent this.

Exactly, they could sell them legally, but then they would have to pay taxes and lord knows they don't want to part with a penny of that money.