A Murder-Suicide at UCLA Campus? This is not Supposed to be Normal- How did we Get Here and What Do We Do About It?

Another tragedy has occurred on one of our college campuses in America. This time a shooting has taken place on UCLA’s campus. After millions of dollars have been given for the purchase of games like Grand Theft Auto, should we be surprised at what has been repeatedly played out over and over again virtually, is now being acted out in reality?

According to CNN, 911 calls were made reporting “gun shots in building 4 of the UCLA Engineering Facility”. As local police units and S.W.A.T. teams systematically cleared the building, sources are stating that two bodies have been found. What is being reported as a murder suicide, has caused the entire campus to be on lockdown and all classes cancelled for the day. People cannot tell the difference between what is virtual and what is reality. Imagine sending your son or daughter to receive an education and they are receiving text alerts on their phone of an active shooter on campus.

Two students shared how they continually received messages from campus security alerting them of the danger. “Shooting at Engineering 4, go to secure location and deny entry. Lock down now.” This was just one of the messages the student body of UCLA received during these events. Throughout the alerts they felt “in the loop” of what was going on”. These shootings that are taking place within our schools are not supposed to be normal. The question is, why we are seeing these shootings?

During World War I, military members reportedly had difficulty killing another human being. By the time World War II became a reality, those same difficulties were not as prevalent. Fast forward to today, and we can clearly see an amount of technology that wasn’t conceivable during the eras of WWI and WWII. “Every single day, people are training, the training that America realized it needed to have, in order to succeed in World War II, we now have, in our living rooms.” Video games such as Grand Theft Auto portray real life imagery of what is termed as “active shooter”. According to ign.com, there are “33,834,423 Global Players, playing 2,330,825,301 hours in 224 Countries”. The report continues to show that 341,913,222 weapons are owned by these global players in this game. These statistics are based on 2014 stats.

When the imagery hit news media screens across the nation as an active shooter took to the hallways of a Navy Yard in Washington, D.C., it was the same. Reportedly, this shooter would play Grand Theft Auto for repeated hours while others would bring food to him as he continued to play. It matters what we allow into our eyes. Matthew 6:22-23 says, “The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are healthy, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eyes are unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!” Companies like Pizza Hut spend millions of dollars on marketing campaigns to make their product look the most alluring when seen. It is no surprise when someone suddenly has a taste for pizza after seeing one of their commercials. Why are we surprised when horrifying events like these are acted out in reality after acting out murder for hours on end in video games?

Sadly, enough, we do have to prepare for these types of realities. How do we defend ourselves? How can we help others if we find ourselves on a school campus, or in an office building with an active shooter? The City of Houston responded by releasing a video to answer those very questions. With the tagline of “Run. Hide. Fight.”, the video portrays what could take place in an environment of an active shooter and how to carry out the wisdom of “Run. Hide. Fight”. We cannot be consumed by fear. Fear is the absence of faith.

See the full report of what is taking place on the campus of UCLA, the dangers of video games such as Grand Theft Auto, how we can effectively respond to situations that harm the lives of others, and so much more. Also shared in this segment: active shooter, murder, death, the eye gate, text messages, university, school, campus, crisis, trigger, role playing games, and shooting. Greg and Steve shared in this segment.

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WATCH! A murder-suicide on UCLA campus? Does the endless hours of violent video games have any cause in this?

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