PRESS RELEASE
Helga Zepp-LaRouche Renews Call for Banning Violent Videos
July 24, 2016 (EIRNS)—Speaking to the U.S. LaRouche organization today, Helga Zepp-LaRouche addressed the terrorist killing of nine people in Munich by a lone shooter.
Helga LaRouche said, "The new surprise is that the killer was not an Islamic extremist; the shooter was a devotee of violent video games," and imitating previous mass shooters also conditioned by long use of those first-person shooter games and videos. Zepp-LaRouche said two actions must be taken worldwide:
- Citing German Interior Minister DeMaziere’s connection of the Munich mass killings to violent videos, an international ban on violent video games, including banning them from the internet, must be carried out.
- International cooperation with Russia against terrorism, as President Vladimir Putin proposed to the UN General Assembly in September 2015.
The Munich teenage shooter, Ali David Sonboly, lured young people to McDonald’s on the 5th anniversary of the mass killing of 77 youths by Anders Breivik in Norway in 2011. The Munich shooter also had material on a mass shooting at a school in Bavaria in 2009. Sonboly offered to buy free food at McDonald’s for anyone who came there.
Helga LaRouche’s call made already in 2007, to "Ban Violent Video Games" must be implemented before there are more "lone terrorist" incidents.
It states:
Helga Zepp-LaRouche: Ban Killer Video Games And Internet Violence!
December 10, 2007
Chairwoman of the Civil Rights Movement Solidarity (BÂ∏So) in Germany, Helga Zepp-LaRouche, issued the statement below on December 8, which has been translated from German.
"Following the recent horrific news reports about young people running amok, killing their fellow students and teachers; young sharpshooters who knock off unknown victims; and young psychopathic murderers who kill other people after perverse film showings, all these incidents demonstrate in a dramatic way, how urgent it is to pass adequate laws to ban and place stiff penalties on the production and marketing of violence-glorifying computer games, as well as the use of the Internet to circulate violence-glorifying materials.
"Finally, the Society for Scientific Discussion Psychotherapy (Gesellschaft für wissenschaftliche Gesprächpsychotherapie e.V., GwG), has come out with a demand for a total ban on these computer games. A representative of the society explained that "killer games are like land mines for the soul." And the GwG demands that politicians act, "before an entire generation of children and teenagers is sucked into a maelstrom of violence." Unfortunately, this is already happening.
"Already in 1972, that is 35 years ago (!), the American Surgeon General, as well as the American Psychiatric Association, explained that there was an indisputable connection between violence in the media and violence committed by children and youth. And in virtually every case in which young people kill their fellow students and teachers with great precision in shooting, it turns out that there is an addiction to violent videos and to Internet sites that glorify violence. It is unfortunately the case, that the better part of two generations of children and teenagers have been exposed to the circulation of this mind- and soul-killing "entertainment."
"The commercial killer videos had their origins in the military training programs, by means of which the U.S. Army used killing simulators, to overcome the natural reluctance of soldiers to kill. The same thing happens with a video game, which makes killing a conditioned reflex. The use of murder simulators for military training corresponds to the bestial concept of the Legionary Army, which was put forward by Samuel Huntington in his book The Soldier and the State, whereby soldiers are to be trained to carry out orders like zombies, who never challenge what they are told to do. If such a conception is barbaric in the army, then for children and youth, who are emotionally much more impressionable, it is an absolute catastrophe. The result is children and youth who are emotionally completely crippled, who can easily resort to aggression, and for whom the uniquely human capacity for feeling, and the ability to experience empathy, are completely absent. In the worst cases, they become autistic, or even murderers.
"The EU Committee for "Human Rights in the Internet Society" is responsible for dealing with these issues, but has up until now failed to provide any effective guidelines for video games and Internet sites. If those who are in responsible positions fail to protect children and youth, they render themselves guilty of the violation of human rights. We demand an immediate ban on killer videos and an effective blockage of the aforementioned Internet sites!"
