Good work, Jack. Thanks to lying scumbags like you, criminals can now successfully convince people that they aren't responisble for their crimes.

Aren't Molotov cocktails really easy to make? I thought they were just alcohol, a rag, and fire. Are they claiming that they didn't know how to throw a bottle before playing the game?

I've played every GTA aside from GTAIV and the GBA game and I don't recall any directions in how to make one, did either of those two tell someone how to make a molotov cocktail?

Not like making one is something that's a hard to find secret. I don't need a game to find that out nor do I even have to look it up, it's pretty damn easy to make.

oh FFS.

you can USE molotovs in Gta, you can USE a plane, you can USE a machine gun. It DOESNT TEACH YOU IN ANY WAY HOW TO MAKE THEM.

tha fact that a molotov is a bottle, a fuse and something that burns means it hardly needs a video game to work out.

Its like saying gta TAUGHT me how to punch somebody.

FFS this is the problem with loud mouthed ASS hats like JT making so much noise and NOBODY in the game industry coming out to shout them down. Just us defending it. well its only gonna get worse. No smoke without fire is what ppl think.

pfff tools, and gta never goes into detail on how to make a molotov it only ever lets you use them

yay this is what happens lionel hutz is allowed to pass the bar! (search for info on the simpsons if you dont get the refernce)

I think they are referring to the concept that playing GTA gave them the idea of doing it to real cars. Still doesn't justify what they did, lots of people will do things like that in GTA and not do it in real life, in fact, the vast percentage of people can do so.

My question is, where are the parents, why are kids playing an M rated game? Did the parents buy the game for the kids? Why didn't the parents watch their children's gaming habits, as the government and other experts repeatedly suggest?

I can't say for certain without more evidence, but it sounds to me like a bunch of kids left with a console as a 'digital babysitter', and no-one monitoring what they were doing or playing. If that console had been a TV and the parents had simply left them unsupervised like that, then no-one would even question the idea that the parents had neglected their children.

... wowww

what is this world coming to when people say that a video game TAUGHT them to put gasoline in a glass bottle and toss it? i could have done that in my garage before i even heard of gta.... not that i'd want to >.>

Guess we have people like JT to thank for this kind of crap, because of people like him, criminals have no need to accept personal responsibility!

Seeing as how molotovs in the GTA games are already pre-made, I doubt it.

So... you make molotov cocktails by buying them, fully functional from the word go, out of the back of a Rastafarian's car pending a phone call?

I wonder how long it took them to get their "like" rating up to 70%.

You know where I learned to make molotov cocktails?  TV and movies form the late 80s and early 90s.

Another place you can learn is THE DICTIONARY:

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Molotov%20cocktail

I think you'd have to be stupid to not be able to make these...  These kids just said GTA4 becasue they knew it would up their chance of being in the news.  Get caught? Might as well get famous!

Plus everyone knows that if you want really good Molotov cocktails, zippo lighter fluid is a must.  The naptha burns like crazy and also inflicts chemical burns.

Additionally, you can add (as preivously mentioned) dissolved styrofoam for a better burn, or kitchen dishwashing detergent for a better "sticky" fire (similar to napalm).

Incidentally, I learned all these things from a combination of science classes (did chemistry at uni), random info on the internet and science shows where they blow cool shit up... = P

Having knowledge is one thing and it doesn't really matter where you get it from.  Doing something with the knowledge is your own personal responsibility.  The book didn't make you throw the molotov, the game didn't make you throw it, the class didn't make you throw it.

I hope the little bastards get everything coming to them.

Wow, I love the county where I live.

In Soviet Russia, video games blame YOU!

Great, now they're not only arsonists who blame video games, but they're liars. Yes, GTA has molotovs. However, you can't make the molotovs yourself, they're premade for you. If anything films are more likely to have demonstrated how to make one as you usually get a close up of a rag stuffed in a bottle with a flammable liquid inside like vodka or gas. They're probably just trying to get out of it because they know people like Jack Thompson and Leland Yee exist.

Kids have been vandalising cars pretty much since they existed. The excuses change, the behaviour doesn't.

....Seriously?

I hate this Country.

-"A fanatic is one who can't change his mind and won't change the subject." -Sir Winston Churchill

The mere fact that they had to "learn" to make molotov cocktails shows their level of intelligence.

Actually, as far as I can tell, neither the article nor police actually place the blame on GTA, they merely reported the suspect's claims to have learnt it from GTA (Although apparently, they don't actually know how to make a proper molotov anyway, since they used plastic bottles, so that's yet another hole in their defense). It makes no mention of how seriously their claim is being taken, but hopefully it isn't believed by anyone.

Make them pay for the damages, confiscate their console/computer, kick them in the bllocks, slap the parents in the face & throw the lot of them into the street for public ridicule.

I know you lose a lot of nuance in text, perhaps the police aren't as gullible/negligent/corrupt/stupid as people think, perhaps the quote should read like this:

Officials said the teens -- ages 15 and 16 -- told authorities they learned "how to do it" *SNIGGER* from playing the video game *SNIGGER* "Grand Theft Auto." *RAUCOUS LAUGHTER*

i learned about moltovs from the A-Team.

Here are we -- and yonder yawns the universe.

After reading this I dont know who is dumber the police, the kids or Jack Thompson...

So... GTA taught them how to do it, and not Rodney Corronado going school to school teaching students how to make bombs, and telling them that it's OK.

---You are likely to be eaten by a Grue.

I bet the cops believe them when they tell them 'GTA taught me how to do it', or at least they don't instantly dismiss the idea. Why, because odds are they don't play grand theft auto and don't know that the game doesn't teach you how to make it.

However I bet the cops still place all the blame on the kids and not the video game.

HAHAHAHAAAA! COME ON! REALLY? Oh fer the love of god, just shut the fuck up! How hard is it to make a molotov cocktail? All you have to do is know that

-flamable liquids are flamable

-glass containers can be used to carry flamable liquids

-a piece of cloth can be used as a fuse to light the liquids.

That's it. How hard is that to figure out? Took me less than three seconds. I didn't need "instructions" from GTA.

-Entertainment isn't the reason the world sucks. It's the reason we know the world sucks. For information on games and psychology, look up: Jonathan Freedman(2002)Block & Crain(2007)Grand Theft Childhood, by Harvard researchers Larry Kutner&Cheryl Olson

I wonder if a computer forensics lab went through their computers to see what evidence is there?  More likely, they visited some web site about bomb making or maybe got their hands on the anarchist cookbook.  We had this interesting case in my computer forensics class which was a suspected domestic terrorism case.  The guy visited a CRAP load of bomb making, drugs(mostly weed), websites (also had a nice collection of fantasy/sci-fi art on the system).  If I was the police there though, I would search their systems, at least then you could likely show that "GTA made them do it" is false. 

We should blame Jack Thompson for this. After all, it would make more sense than blaming a game if you think about it. They could have got the idea to blame the game from Jack.

Once again, a bunch of youths do shit that has happened since the 40's, hell probably even longer. However instead of "fighting against the man", their excuse is "video games made me do it". These morons probably think they have a get out of jail free card, and Jack Thompson will probably defend them...trying to push his ridiculous agenda (that is if he wasn't in such bad standing with the courts).

Honestly, I am 25 years old. I played GTA since it came out...I have never committed a murderous or violent act. Hell millions of people who have played it have not committed violent acts, yet a bunch of morons who lie out of their arses say that GTA taughts them how to make and use a molotov...bullshit. All that game teaches you is that it is a shiny icon that you pick up in an alleyway or ontop of a building.

They learned it from GTA?  Well, wikipedia told me that you make a molotov cocktail by filling a glass bottle with gasoline, sticking a rag in, lighting the rag, and throwing it:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molotov_cocktail

It also taught me that thermite is a combination of rust and aluminum:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermite

and that I can make napalm with equal parts gasoline and styrofoam:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Napalm

It is clear what must be done: ban all forms of learning except what the state/church/emperor controls directly!

Since when did they include the anarchist coockbook with GTA?

Like other people have pointed out, how does pressing a button to throw them teach how to make one?

And honestly making a molotov is hardly rocket science. I mean how difficult is it to get a bottle, fill it with some flamable liquid, stuff a rag into the top, and then light it? It doesn't take a genius to figure that one out.

Why is nothing anyones fault anymore? Why do we let people get away with lame excuses like this?

If anyone is dumb enough to belive those kids then they should be shot. Seriously.

These teenagers actually tried to blame GTA for "teaching" them how make Molotov cocktails?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molotov_cocktail

This is so much more fufilling. You can even check out the inspiration behind the Molotov moniker now associated with the weapon.

However, considering that these infantile numbskulls used Sprite bottles for their design, I'd venture to say that a computer (and a joystick for that matter) might be above their intelligence level. Just saying.

When one of my friends was 12 he got in trouble for making a molotov with some friends in a back alley and the cops came and everything.
When my friend was 12 GTA1 was not even out.  It was not a game, it was his own stupidity and peer pressure.

When the kids today and take responsibility for their own actions and stop being jackasses, then all this crap can stuff.

Muhahaa!

In Finland, we are tought how to build Molotow's Coctails (Molotovin koktailit) while in school. Just a part of every history lesson. ;)

And no. GTA does NOT show you how to do it.

Eh I knew how to make one before I played GTA? 

yeah right, because they teach you how to make molotov cocktails in gta?

sweet mother of...

Now seriously, how the FUCK did GTA teach them how to make molotov cocktails?

"I'm not responcabel fer my comuter's spleling errnors." -- Xlorep DarkHelm

You don't even MAKE molotov cocktails in GTA, you just find them conveniently lying around in back alleys. I'm an adult and have played four GTA games and I'd still be at a loss of how to make one, and would probably set myself on fire trying.

Or maybe it really is as easy as sticking a rag in a bottle of dubious liquid and shooting it with a gun like Alone in the Dark taught me!

"The games made me do it" is the new "f*** the establishment".

It's sad that we can't find more rational motives for our devious acts. Previous generations of teenagers were more zealous about politics and freedom, and staged more protests. And when they blow up into riots it's all about fighting the establishment.

Our generation really has no motive to be in an uproar over the government, aside from maybe the Iraq War. Or we simply don't care. Maybe it's another reason why elders hate us. We do rebellious things for lamer reasons, like showing up your peers or claiming that you've been taught by the media.

And to make up for these lame reasons, some people just say they need the adrenaline. It can result in doing things that your parents didn't think of doing, like cutting your arms or inserting a bunch of piercings and stuff you find at a hardware store.

Some people need to let it all out but we gotta stop finding stupid excuses for it. It's like a solution looking for a problem.

Jesus Christ on a bike.

Yea well if there is a "god made me do it" defence there might as well be a "gta made me do it defence". But I seriusly do think that people who try either one of those defences should have their tounges cut out of their mouths. It worked well during the dark ages.

Man, it sure took them a while. I learend to make a Moltov from Night of the Living Dead. Perhaps we should think about banning that, too.

let me list 2 main reasons why this is bull...

1. gta dosnt show you how to make molotovs you dont even make them in game!

2. gta is the ONLY way to find out how i mean you DEFINATLTY can't i dont know.... GOOGLE IT the first result tells you so much more than playing ALL THE GTA GAMES COMBINED...

serously the only reason people get away with this shit is because none of the mainstream media ever take the time to PLAY THE GAME or even REASERCH IT they just say its true beacause a video game EXPERT like jack says so...

I want to send the following four words to JT about the existence of these studies he speaks of.

"Prove it or bullshit."

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I AM CONDEMNED TO HAUNT THE DREAMS OF JACK THOMPSON UNTIL HIS CRUSADE AGAINST VIDEO GAMES ENDS.

I learnt how to make Molotov Cocktails from books about WW2 as well as talking to my grandfather, who is a WW2 vet. Let's ban all sources of information on the world wars, too!

Chris 'coldacid' Charabaruk <coldacid.net>
IGDA Indie SIG Coordinator, Programmer, Designer

Are these people serious? I learned how to make Molotov cocktails just through the multitude of action movies I've watched. No one even needs to really explain it to you verbally, all any reasonably intelligent person needs is to see one, and you can easily tell how to make one. This is easily the most retarded "videogames made me do it" case I've heard in quite a while.

How does one know that JT isn't pulling some strings here.

He lost his license to practice law, He would have everything to gain by having a few cases of random teens say "Grand Theft Auto made me do it!"

Simply so JT could say "I WAS RIGHT!"

Dear Jack, I am sorry you are a sick deranged and highly offensive individual.

I really am.

But I'm not sorry you are going to get disbarred.

I rather you were a decent human being, but things being as they are I'll take your impending punishment as a silver medal.

Best regards,

Andy x

This is just stupid. I'm pretty sure some guerillas who couldn't read a letter of the English alphabet can make a molotov cocktail. All they'd ask is gas, a rag, and a f***ing soda bottle. People from the 20's can make a decent molotov cocktail, and they never played GTA or have a TV for that matter.

I hate sensationalist press.

I disagree with all the comments about parents being to blame. That is the same thing as blaming videogames, just from another perspective. (think about it)

In an age where so much economic pressure is placed on parents, to work their butts off in order to keep up with the needs of a modern family. When I was growing up my mother worked 7am-5pm, and then spent the rest of her time carting my sister around for her cheerleading/dance stuff. While, my father worked the same hours and spent his evenings drunk infront of the tv or with his neighborhood buddies.

I never really saw a whole lot of my parents as a result, and all I really had were videogames. Doom, Nintendo, etc. I knew right from wrong though and I knew that I was always responsible for anything that I did.

Personally, if I had a child, and he/she were to do something like this; I would disown them. Little bastards aren't going to ruin (in a few nights) what took me my whole life to acquire/accomplish. These kids should be held responsible for their own actions.

Key word:

Taught.

But then again, this is just as bad as that idiot who only knew what a grenade was if not for the Green Day album.

Video games are not to blame.