The Oklahoma State Legislature has defeated House Bill 2696, which sought to fight childhood obesity and bullying by imposing an added tax on all "violent" video games.
The bill, proposed by state Representative William Fourkiller, would have levied a 1% excise tax on the sale of all video games rated by the ESRB at "Teen" or above, with the proceeds split evenly between government programs designed to curb bullying and encourge children to be more physically active.
While preventing bullying and childhood obesity are certainly noble goals, it's clear that Fourkiller was placing an undue blame on video games as the root cause of both problems. Take the release his office sent out to announce the legistlation, which tied school shootings to violent games and contained this choice quote from the good Rep. Fourkiller: "I think it's reasonable to require an industry that profits from violence to help prevent it."
Nothing like willfully failing to distinguish between fictional depictions of violence and actual, honest to goodness violence, am I right? Either Fourkiller honestly believes the game industry profits every time a child punches someone, or he thinks games should be held to a standard that violent TV shows, movies, and books aren't beholden to.
Thankfully, saner heads prevailed and the bill was defeated, thanks in part to a campaign by the Video Game Voters Network. In response to opposition, Fourkiller then proposed the creation of the oh-so-loaded Oklahoma Task Force on Video Games' Relationship to Obesity and Agression. Once more, his proposal failed.
You know what? I'd like to author new legislation that bans Rep. William Fourkiller from public office, as his violent last name could insight children to commit quadruple homicide.
