Florida-based lawyer Jack Thompson has launched his latest attack on the interactive entertainment industry, telling the media that Grand Theft Auto was used by a Massachusetts teenager to prepare for a planned massacre at his high school. Sixteen year old Tobin Kerns was arrested after police discovered that he planned to kill students and teachers at his school on the anniversary of the 1999 Columbine massacre next April, and then to kill firefighters and police who responded to the emergency calls.
According to Thompson, detectives in the case told him that Grand Theft Auto was one of Kerns" "favourite games," and he has told the media that he believes the boy used the title to prepare for the planned massacre. "The technique of killing civilians and then first-responders when they get there is the primary scenario to win in all the Grand Theft Auto games," he is quoted as saying in newspaper reports over the weekend, before going on to accuse GTA titles of being "killing simulators actually used by gangs."