Sanders v. Acclaim Entertainment

The issue at hand with Sanders v. Acclaim Entertainment was the widow and stepchildren of William David Sanders, a teacher killed during the Columbine High School shooting. They made a claim of negligence and strict liability against Acclaim Entertainment for creating/providing certain violent video games that the shooters had engaged in often. The Supreme Court then had to determine if the video games made violence pleasurable and attractive and if they had trained the shooters how to use weapons effectively and thereby causes them to go out and commit acts of violence. Link 1

This case was fairly easy to handle and was solved quickly. I agree with the courts decision in Sanders v. Acclaim Entertainment. Although the complaint was well thought out, there was no way to prove that the video games promoted such violence. This takes us back to Brandenburg v. Ohio as well. That case taught us you couldn’t get in trouble if it didn’t spark an imminent lawless action there were no repercussions. I do not believe that video games promote an immediate action. Although Sanders did not win, there were many valid points made about the defendants. “Defendants knew they would promote copycat violence…they failed to exercise reasonable care to inform consumers of the dangerous condition of their product…scientific research shows that children who witness acts of violence tend to recreate it.” Link 2 These are all valid points and very true but I still believe there is no way possible to prove the video games made by Acclaim Entertainment promoted violence or an imminent lawless action. They produce games and movies for the purpose to entertain. Think about all the games they produced, Acclaim Entertainment had no reason to believe that a shooting would stem from their form of entertainment. This is a hard subject to hit on because you can’t prove anything. If we were to look at outcomes or happenings, there is no possible way to determine they stem from our resources. It is not possible to relate the shooting to exposure of the video games and movies.