In Southington, CT, a group of citizens are banding together to offer returns on violent video games in the wake of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting that occurred on December 14.
People will be able to go to the Southginton drive-in from 9 a.m. to noon on January 12, and drop off violent video games, CDs, and DVDs. Not only will the items be taken, but they will also be destroyed. People also have the option of dropping items off at the Board of Education, the chamber office, the Southington YMCA, or the United Way of Southington if they cannot make it to the drive-in.
'We want to give them [the children] an outlet for something they can do or a fun family activity,' Charlie Cocuzza, of the chamber, said yesterday.
Southington SOS, a group organized after Hurricane Katrina, is sponsoring the event. The group is in partnership with such groups including the YMCA, Southington Chamber of Commerce, and Southington Town-wide Effort to Promote Success.
The group stressed on January 2 that they do not believe that violent video games, music or movies were responsible for influencing 20-year-old Adam Lanza in taking the lives of 26 people at Sandy Hook Elementary. They do believe, however, that violence in media can create anxiety, anger, and fear.
'We’re concerned about our kids getting desensitized,' Myers said, 'desensitized to violence and desensitized to other risky behavior.'
'Besides prayer and action to help the immediate victims, you have other underlying factors,' said Dick Fortunato, a freelance writer and member of Southington SOS. He went on to say that the growing trend of guns and violence in our society is an increasing problem.
All around, the idea is that parents should talk to their children about violence in the media, and helping them distinguish reality from fiction, and right from wrong. Unlike many groups, the SOS isn't a spearhead group condemning games, but saying that they may lead to certain behavior--much like alcohol leads to drunkenness and violence, but is still tolerable.
The group is a middle- and high-school initiative. Elementary schools will be left out of the discussions.
For more information, you can read the article by Farrah Duffany for Record-Journal here.
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