Assassin Gamer Slays 16-year old in Switzerland

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December 6, 2007—On November 23, a young Swiss boy who spent hours on videogames "shooting virtual targets," killed a 16-year-old hairdresser's apprentice at a bus stop with his Army rifle (these are kept in the home in Switzerland), Nouvelle Solidarite reported from Paris.

After the killing, the Sunday paper Sonntagsblick indicated that police discovered a room full of video games in his flat, especially 'shmups' (short for 'shoot-em-up'). Several witnesses said he would spend hours "shooting virtual targets."

The youth had already been caught by the police in 2006, throwing a Molotov cocktail at the entrance of the Swiss Exportation Organization (OSEC) in Zurich, during the demonstrations against the World Economic Forum.

Lyndon LaRouche's political collaborator and friend Jacques Cheminade, who reported this story and just came back from Switzerland, explained that it is not only a development similar to that of many other places, but that it is being exploited to question the Swiss concept of popular militias. Now that there is more and more social violence in Switzerland like in any other place, part of the media and the Greenies say that it is too dangerous for Swiss citizens to keep Army rifles at home, and that the old concept of militias should be re-examined.

Others are picking up LaRouche's approach and material, and instead of blaming the rifles, are calling for banning violent video games and a change of social priorities. There is a faction fight inside the Swiss psychiatric institutions on this issue.