I'll take "A Lack of Parenting" for 500, Alex.

I came across this story via StumbleUpon today. I haven't blogged much all summer and it looks like a good way to kick things off.

I call bullshit. First off, this thing doesn't even resemble a proper gun. The trigger is on the front grip, which basically hoses everything a seasoned shooter is used to. If you hold this with your right hand at the back, and left hand in front as would a right handed shooter, then it can be aimed naturally, but the trigger must be pulled with the left hand. Changing hands means that the trigger can be pulled with the right hand as a shooter is accustomed, however it requires that aiming be done left-handed.

Quoted from the site:

"Great, this is what we need. Children with guns learning how to aim and shoot. Then we can sit back and wonder what is happening to our country with kids killing kids......what's next? Could we make it squirt blood, too?"

This thing doesn nothing to teach kids how to aim and shoot a firearm and I'm not even going to touch on the impracticality of a video game controller that shoots blood at your TV set. Case in point: Below is a video of a player using the Wii Zapper.


You can see that he's holding it at his side and following the cursor on the screen with his eyes as he aims the "gun." He is not sighting down the barrel such as you would with a real firearm.

This next video shows the use of a real firearm from the user's perspective. Notice that there is a little thing we like to call "recoil" that forces the user to properly handle the gun in order to keep it under control.


Clearly, the two are very different, so no we are not teaching children how to "aim and shoot." If these parents are so concerned about the state of their children, why not think about raising their kids themselves instead of relying on society to do it? My favorite quote from the article:

"I think it's irresponsible for Wii to come out with a controller that looks like a gun so kids can play games simulating shooting. What kind of message are we sending as parents when we buy these things for our kids?"

They make it sound as though a man in a black suit is forcing them to buy a Wii Zapper and give it to their children. Want to send your kids a message? When I was six years old, my Dad took me into the back yard and handed me an old single shot .22 caliber rifle and a handful of hollow-point ammunition. He set up some jugs filled with water a few yards away and taught me to aim and fire. When I finally hit one of the jugs, it exploded all over the yard. Of course, being six years old, I thought that was the coolest thing ever. That was when Dad set the rifle aside and gave me the gun speech. There are are only two rules regarding firearms that anyone needs to know. You always treat a gun as though it were loaded, and you never point it at anything you don't want to blow up all over the yard. By 10 years old, not only did I have an impressive armament of air guns to complement my .22, my brother and I were also free to roam the woods behind our house with them. Not once did we shoot at each other or anyone else.

This all boils down to teaching children about responsibility. Video games and toy guns don't turn normal children into crooks and murderers. Parents who are too lazy to spend time with their families and teach them about responsibility and consequences do.