Missouri Proposes Tax On Violent Video Games

Thanks, lawmakers, for making honest people like myself having to pay more money for a video game because some mentally ill person went out of control. And people wonder why piracy keeps going up.

wildmario - don't confuse mental illness which characterizes things like schizophrenia, depression, psychosis, etc, with cognitive conditions or disorders like aspergers syndrome, autism, etc. Entirely different things.

Sorry, but lawmakers are basically profiting off the Sandy Hook tragedy from this proposal. It doesn't matter how you spin it; if they are going to put a tax violent video games to fund for treatment as you stated in the reply, then it just shows that they didn't really give a damn about the people who suffer from a mental disorder, cognitive disorders, or whatever. It's just trying to make themselves look good.

Politics 101. There is no right and wrong. Only improvement of self-image.

Nick Tan for Prez!

Yes, this is a ****ing brilliant idea because video games are the cause of all the world's violence and mental problems. Might as well make them the cause of famine and rape and all the other thing plaguing this planet. Quick fact: I play video games where I shoot people to NOT go out and do it in real life. So let's just avoid the fact that the individual that did the shooting had serious MENTAL problems. I know the guy killed himself and people were robbed of justice but the douchebag that did it is still to blame. Why no tax on violent movies? Yeah, the stupidity here pisses me off. Damn, didn't mean to rant.

Let's also tax R rated movies, adult novels, comics, cartoons, explicit music, and knife factories. THEY ALL CONTAIN VIOLENCE! This damned country needs to get it's priorities straight. We need to stop worrying about grocery bags clogging drains and video games and start worrying about real issues like stop printing money, pay off some national debt, secure the border. Oh wait, that makes sense.

"We have decided based on nothing that violent video games cause spree killings. Should we ban them, Johnson?"
"Sir, why ban them when we can just make money off them?"
"Caring AND fiscally responsible... Dammit if that hasn't just earned you a promotion, Johnson."

I missed the part where the money goes to a good cause, ill just commit seppuku now.

It's not a good cause. It doesn't exist.

Excuse me, what they think is a good cause. They're not planning on keeping it is what I mean.

I think I understood you.

After a second look, I guess I'm not surprised, since this is coming from the state with the third worst education system in the country.

I doubt it will go through, I would be surprised. I would specifically start having people in other states buy my video games for me and just gift them to me.

On an added note, I like how the tax money made from this is going towards projects and other groups that help the mentally ill. You mean to tell me no one gave a damn about the mentally ill until now? SHOCKING NEWS! While we're at it, let's tax pornography so that the money can be used to cure STDs from people who are addicted to pron!

My pet lobster is addicted to prawn.

Don't porn addicts generally stick to the very safest of sex practices? As a general rule it follows that they would be unlikely to have STIs.

Would this include all sports games as well? Those are pretty violent. Especially football games.

This whole legislation is garbage and is attempting to use tragedy as another way to earn tax revenue. People still buy cigarettes despite higher taxes, so if it's purpose is to keep it out of the hands of people who "shouldn't have them" (like children and cigarettes), making people pay a little more for them isn't going to stop anything.

"We here at the Missouri State Government have recently passed a new law stating that all State legislators are to receive a new 2013 Ferrari free of charge. Since we were elected democratically, you the taxpayer automatically agreed to this. Thank you all for your cooperation and understanding during these troubling times." -Missouri State Government

Genius...because firearms clearly have absolutely nothing to do with gun violence...

America has no-one to blame but themselves and certainly not entertainment mediums.

Exactly, let's outlaw virtual weapons, but keep the ****ing real ones. Brilliant.

Oh, hey, a girl is waving at us. We should wave back. *waves at Jessica*

Two things might happen in this situation. One, they'll pause and look at you, then go back and cheering for their ridiculous idea. Or two, they won't pay attention to you until you do something crazy like flashing everyone. Of course you won't, because you're a better person. What I'm trying so say is it doesn't matter what we do. Nobody will care about this in a few months.

2 problems: The tobacco tax dollars are almost completely redistributed to nothing they should be supporting in spirit, this bill will probably end up the same, and then the tax will limit the capacity of the industry. This could seriously frustrate the entire industry just because it exists, we could see even more ejections from the industry than we've seen in the last couple years.

The NRA game released on iOS is actually rated as non violent, and has a minimum age requirement of as young as 4. It isn't rated as violent because there's no blood, no swearing, no sexual content and no violence directed at human beings (you shoot targets). So it's not surprising they support the bill, it doesn't affect their game at all.

This tax would be a "content-based" restriction on free speech and probably (hopefully) unconstitutional in the United States.

I put a post on my blog about this. It's there instead of here due to length restrictions for article comments.

The reasoning makes "sense", it's people that don't play games that think that it causes violence. Yet Canadians play as much games (per capita) and I can't recall the last mass shooting in Canada but you know, video games!