To fight the nonexistent scourge of video game induced violence, Representative Diane Franklin (R, MO) introduced a bill to tax violent video games. But wait, it gets even sillier. Guess how the bill defines violent. If you said “in a way that could be struck down by the Missouri Supreme Court on a void for vagueness ruling”, you are correct.
From the proposed bill: “the term ‘violent video game’ means a video or computer game that has received a rating from the Entertainment Software Rating Board of Teen, Mature, or Adult Only” That means that , if successfully passed, Teen-rated games like The Sims 3, Starcraft 2, EVE Online and Tropico 4 would all be taxed in Missouri on account of how unrepentantly violent they are. [PC Gamer]
The bill, if passed, would impose an additional 1% sales tax on all games rated Teen, Mature, or Adult, which is damn near all of them. The bill designates the money be used “for the treatment of mental health conditions associated with exposure to violent video games”. And those mental health conditions are what exactly?
Here are a couple of photos from her Facebook page, by the way.
Fortunately, similar bills proposed in Oklahoma and New Mexico recently were struck down. The sad thing about all this is that, besides being foolish and ineffective, Representative Franklin will probably get reelected on the claim of being “tough on crime”.
Won’t somebody think of the children? By that I mean my kids in The Sims. I deleted the pool ladder again. Next thing you know, I’ll be deleting pool ladders in real life.
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Because sweeping generalizations, overreacting and still managing to ignore the actual problems in the process makes everything better always. I doubt this will pass but honestly I thought this was stupid, especially because of The Sims, and figured I would share it. Although admit it... you've killed off your Sims before just because you could, haven't you?
