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Mass Shooting Reported at Madden Video Game Tournament in Florida (polygon.com) 1293

Multiple people on live streams and social media reported a mass shooting at a Madden NFL 19 tournament in Jacksonville, Florida, this morning. The Jacksonville County Sheriff's Office confirmed that law enforcement was en route to the scene but had no further information early this afternoon. From a report: In the video, two competitors are playing when someone starts screaming off camera. As the first of nine shots break out, they abandon their stations and others are heard fleeing. Then a man is heard crying out, "What did he shoot me with?" Three more shots are fired and screaming can be heard. This weekend at Jacksonville Landing downtown was the first of four qualifier events for the Madden Classic series sponsored by EA Sports. CNN: "Multiple fatalities at the scene, many transported. #TheLandingMassShooting," according to Jacksonville Sheriff's twitter page, which urged people to "stay far away from the area" as the area is not safe at this time. "One suspect is dead at the scene, unknown at this time if we have a second suspect. Searches are being conducted," according to another tweet from the sheriff's office In a statement issued moments ago, EA Sports Madden NFL said, "This is a horrible situation, and our deepest sympathies go out to all involved."

Top competitor Drini Gjoka, who was at the event and reported the terrifying scene, said, "The tourney just got shot up. Im leavinng and never coming back. I am literally so lucky. The bullet hit my thumb. I will never take anything for granted ever again. Life can be cut short in a second.

Update: LA Times reports that the shooter was a gamer who was competing in the tournament and lost, according to Steven "Steveyj" Javaruski, one of the competitors.
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Mass Shooting Reported at Madden Video Game Tournament in Florida

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  • by Highdude702 ( 4456913 ) on Sunday August 26, 2018 @02:40PM (#57198460)

    From TFA:

    Update: The Los Angeles Times reports that the suspect was a competitor at the tournament who had lost.

    Also, there seems to be a problem with Florida. Maybe we should build a wall around there?

    • Re:Two things... (Score:5, Interesting)

      by Aighearach ( 97333 ) on Sunday August 26, 2018 @03:16PM (#57198736)

      Unlike many States, most people in Florida were born somewhere else. Putting up a wall would obviously improve that situation for Florida but now we'd be stuck with the people who otherwise would have moved there. Just look at the news! We should be thanking Florida for being appealing to these people.

  • by GerryGilmore ( 663905 ) on Sunday August 26, 2018 @02:47PM (#57198530)
    ...for years that "Guns don't kill people; video games do!" Looks like they're right for once.
  • What kids need (Score:5, Insightful)

    by myid ( 3783581 ) on Sunday August 26, 2018 @04:05PM (#57199116)

    1) Kids should be taught to have a conscience.

    2) Kids should be taught self-control. (If you're angry, then count to 10 or 100 before you say anything. If you're losing control, then walk away so you don't hurt someone.)

    3) Kids need to see their parents acting ethically, and using self-control, as a good example.

    4) Kids should be taught that if you lose a game or a job or a girlfriend etc., then it's not the end of the world. Young people need to be told that; they haven't lived long enough to experience loss and recovery from loss.

    When they're extremely upset over something transient, they should be told, "A year from now, this won't matter. Five years from now, you won't even remember it. If you can't see this, then just trust me on this one." That's what my parents told me, and they were right. I remember them reassuring me with these words, but I don't remember what I was so upset about.

    5) I wonder if shooters like this grew up surrounded by crowding and/or constant loud music. I can't imagine a kid who plays on swings, makes forts out of snow or cardboard boxes, and lies on his back looking at clouds, growing up to be a killer.

    • Re:What kids need (Score:5, Interesting)

      by willy_me ( 212994 ) on Sunday August 26, 2018 @05:08PM (#57199438)

      I can't imagine a kid who plays on swings, makes forts out of snow or cardboard boxes, and lies on his back looking at clouds, growing up to be a killer.

      I can. Rural environments, or at lest smaller communities, generally have higher cases of murder per person. (FYI, I am from northern BC, Canada.) And it is different from large cities where murder is often gang related and motivated by profit. In those small farming communities you get crime motivated by pure evil. Like the serial killer pig farmer in Abbotsford and whoever is killing the female hitchhikers along highway 16. I can not believe that having limited contact with people when growing up is a good thing. Some people are just broken. It is difficult to discover this fact and manage it when a child is growing up with limited human interaction.

      Someone should do a study to see how many of these shooters are an only child. In my experience, kids from large families are more balanced - I assume because of all the shit they went through growing up they learned to deal with their emotions. But I also know a guy from Alaska who didn't see another non-family human for the first 6 years of his life. He turned out great so who knows...

    • Re:What kids need (Score:4, Informative)

      by Mal-2 ( 675116 ) on Sunday August 26, 2018 @05:21PM (#57199548) Homepage Journal

      5) I wonder if shooters like this grew up surrounded by crowding and/or constant loud music. I can't imagine a kid who plays on swings, makes forts out of snow or cardboard boxes, and lies on his back looking at clouds, growing up to be a killer.

      Right. [wikipedia.org]

  • by Mal-2 ( 675116 ) on Sunday August 26, 2018 @08:05PM (#57200314) Homepage Journal

    Guns don't cause violence, but they do escalate it once someone decides to go that route.

    It is notable that Brazil has strict gun control laws, which it actually enforces [bloomberg.com], yet it has a murder rate per capita that is ten times that of the U.S. It also has a major problem with "leaked" guns -- many of which are coming from the police. Clearly the cause of their problem is systemic, but maybe ours is too.

    • by djinn6 ( 1868030 )
      I think the problem is cultural. Americans glorify violence and generally avoid talking about other forms of conflict resolution. There aren't many movies where the bad guy isn't killed or at least beaten up.
  • by MrKaos ( 858439 ) on Sunday August 26, 2018 @09:06PM (#57200538) Journal

    This is a good example of what happens when an entitled disordered personality gets their hands on a weapon and perceives a slight against their egoic self. Since their own internal dialogue is already oriented around complete self destruction the best way for them to commit suicide is to get the police to do it for them, whilst taking those who inflicted the perceived injury with them.

    This is because if they were to just commit suicide there would be no notoriety and attention from their actions. I counted the discharges and it sounded like a hand gun with a nine round magazine, a reload with a fresh magazine, then another 3 shots. More than likely the shooter pre-meditated a variety of scenarios where this *could* occur otherwise why bring a loaded firearm with a spare magazine? I doubt it was a rifle of some description.

    This is the danger of Narcissistic Personality Disorder when it is hovering just below the the threshold of becoming Anti-social Personality Disorder. Those people walk around life always looking for ways to create destruction for everyone and looking at this guys eyes and face in the picture he just reeks of someone who can't sleep at night because his own unconscious self is barraging him with thoughts of what a loser he is. More so look at the facial expression of the Bills player - this is someone with enough social intelligence to pick up that there is something wrong with this kid. I know this is after the fact however it is possible to tell all this from a photo.

    So when he lost at the one thing where he thought it was his domain, it pushed him over the edge he knew he was precariously resting on. The thing you can't obviously see is he was looking for a scenario to generate the worst possible outcome so that a notorious death was the one thing he could do so that people would pay attention, after all killing himself means nothing, killing others in the process confirms his own self destructive nature.

    How do I see this? I have been writing a book on this subject because it is a common problem that generally only manifests as psychological abuse. At 24 he didn't have enough social experience to defend himself from the perception of the abuse repeated from his childhood nor the impulse control to stop his own destructive nature manifesting.

    Yes, you can blame the parents too. At least one was abusive and the other enabled the abuse, possibly tried to compensate and they projected their own toxicity into this kid, from which they will draw their own supply for the rest of their lives. I'm going to predict, he was probably a quiet kid, didn't make much trouble, no one really noticed him. Never had a criminal record, no history of violence, very few friends, probably all on line.

    This, I feel, is the core issue with the weapons violence in the US, it is a manifestation of mental health issues like these. Start fixing the mental health issues and you will see a reduction in gun violence.

  • by e3m4n ( 947977 ) on Sunday August 26, 2018 @09:33PM (#57200652)

    So for over a decade there has been the argument that violent video games make people more violent. And tons of arguments for or against. However, I want to use existing arguments to point out something equally stupid; if you do not mind. Yes, I am hijacking this thread.

    For over 7 decades the US government and the DEA have been calling cannabis a 'Gateway drug'. Why? Not because of any scientific research, but pure statistics.
    An overwhelming majority of heavy users of drugs like heroin, admit to using 'marijuana' at some point in time. So these people jumped to the conclusion that cannabis is a gateway drug. Following that logic, why isnt alcohol, cigarettes, or coffee also a gateway drug because 100% of heroin users also used these as well.

    So lets use this same, already government sanctioned, presence. If 100% of these mass shooters also admitted to playing video games, should we label video games as a 'gateway' to mass shooting? the precedence is definitely there.

  • by TheDarkener ( 198348 ) on Sunday August 26, 2018 @09:59PM (#57200730) Homepage

    This gun debate is getting really old, and it's never going to be "won" by either side. Just like abortion, women/gay/minority rights. It all just gets recycled into one big round after another. Talking heads will use majority opinion to get elected on these issues for years to come... ..Unless human beings wake tf up and realize they are responsible for their own actions. Period. It's not a "fair" world out there, there are plenty of crazies and just plain evil people out there that want to do harm (I would mostly gather because great harm had been done to them at some point in the past). So you have to be able to defend yourself. But the point is to raise as many children up to be ethical and respectful people.

    TL;DR: Respect is what's missing.

    • This gun debate is getting really old, and it's never going to be "won" by either side.

      No it has well and truly been won by the people in countries which have been living fine for many years mass shooting free since the government took our guns. At this point most of us are just laughing at the other "It is my second amendment right to die senselessly" side.

  • by nehumanuscrede ( 624750 ) on Sunday August 26, 2018 @10:18PM (#57200786)

    A lot of people seem to have some extreme anger issues.

    Once they're raging, things can go stupid quickly. Doesn't even require a gun.

    As an example, drive on our freeways from time to time and watch how stupid people can be once the anger takes over.

    I think that's what sets America apart from the rest of the world. We're very quick tempered over minor stupid shit. The overall attitude is just angry.

    You may / may not agree with me but if you spend six months or more away from the US, it will be one of the first things you notice when you get back.

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