TAGS: Southington CT, Southington SOS, violent video game, video game burning, Sandy Hook Elementary School, Newtown, violence in media, videogame debate, shooting video games
SOUTHINGTON, CT -- A citizen group calling itself Southington SOS said it plans to sponsor a public burning of videogames deemed "violent" on Jan. 12. The mass burning will be staged in response to the mass shootings on Dec. 14 at Sandy Hook Elementary School in nearby Newtown.
Southington SOS is offering gift certificates in exchange for donated consumer game software, as well as CDs or DVDs with content deemed "violent." Members of the Greater Southington Chamber of Commerce are donating the certificates.
SOS is a coalition of local civic organizations. A spokesman said it does not claim that videogames caused the massacre at Sandy Hook, but asserted that violent games, films and music lyrics do condition children to "acts of violence."
A statement from SOS charged that a "continuous stream of violence and killing [in popular media] has contributed to increasing aggressiveness, fear, anxiety and is desensitizing our children to acts of violence including bullying."
Sandy Hook pupils returned to classes for the first time on Jan. 3 in the neighboring town of Monroe. Sandy Hook Elementary remains quarantined as a crime scene. According to some reports, the facility may never reopen.
