Too Young To Kill?

I remembered watching a program on tv last year that was titled "Too Young To Kill," a show about murders where the suspects were people under the age of eighteen. Number five on the list was a young boy by the name of Daniel Petric who took part in what would be called the "Halo Shootings."

Petric 

When the game Halo 3 came out in September of 2007, Petric was forbidden to make purchase of the game by his parents. He snuck out, purchased the game, and upon reentering the house that night, was caught by his parents who in turn took the game away. The game, according to an article, was placed in a lock box where there was also a 9mm handgun. According to the article, a month later, the young man gained access to the lock box and the handgun. He then proceeded to use the gun and shoot his mother, killing her, and his father, severely wounding him. He took the copy of Halo 3 and fled. From that point on, his case became known as the Halo Shootings.

Upon reaching trial, the defense attorney tried to attribute the shootings to the Halo addiction that the young man had. The judge decided that that was not a reasonable excuse or explanation for the shootings. I must say that I agree.

Here is the clip from the episode where his story was featured.

There was obviously much more going on in the child's head that lead him to go so far as to commit the shootings, Halo couldn't have been completely to blame. I was feeling extremely biased about this issue so I decided to take to the highly credible community of YouTube watchers to look at the comments. :) Immediately, it is obvious what the consensus is, most people found it absurd that they were trying to blame the youth's addiction to games on the shooting. It seems so sensational and an excuse for outside influences that may contribute. 

One part of the trial that I found interesting was a comment stated by the defense attorney where he said that the copious amounts of gameplay made Petric unable to understand the finality of death. In the game, when your character dies, all you have to do is hit restart, problem solved. The attorney said this mindset played into account when Daniel shot his parents. He just didn't understand that shooting his parents would be permanent. According to the prosecution, Daniel didn't feel any remorse or ill feelings for what he had done. According to the aforementioned article, Petric even tried to make the shootings look like a suicide by placing the 9mm gun in the hand of his wounded father. 

Petric was eventually sentenced to 23 years in prison with the possibility of parole in 2030. After seeing a case like this, it really makes you think about how large of an impact these violent games really have. Was he really so addicted that having it taken away after only playing it for a short time really enough to set him off? I'd like to think that there is no way that's possible, but there's no telling. Is this shooting a result of the violence he learned in the game? Or is it an amalgamation of bad living situations and an already hampered mental state? That seems more reasonable to me, it's just interesting to see the video games catch the fall as usual.