Efforts to reach a compromise on video game violence almost turned violent when two Senators disagreed over the finer points of the legislation. Bill sponsor Senator Andrew Lanza (R-I, Staten Island) and Senator Ruth Hassell-Thompson (D – Mount Vernon) almost came to blows over specifics about language on violent video games.

Andrew Lanza : “The cases that have been struck down have been struck down on the principle that states have attempted to prohibit the sale of video games based upon the speech content, that being violence. “
Ruth Hassell-Thompson: “You’re misreading the case. You’re misreading them. I don’t know whether you’re doing it deliberately or what. It’s frustrating me.”
AL: “I’m not misreading the cases. Those are the cases.”
RH-T: “You’re misreading the cases.”
AL: “Absolutely not Senator. We can agree to disagree on that point.”
RH-T: “You got a battery of attorneys sitting behind you. I’m telling you I wrangled with them 3 out of 5 meetings. “
AL: “Maybe you’re missing something.”
RH-T: “Well, we’re paying them. We should fire them.”
AL: “Let’s just be clear. It makes it a felony to sell video games based upon the speech contained therein. That’s what it does. Now it may pass constitutional muster because the speech that is being regulated therein is pornography, which I might add is already regulated and is already prohibited with its distribution to minors. So you might say the governor’s version accomplishes nothing. I’m not saying that but you might say it.”

Another moment of levity at this hearing involved imposing a Class E felony on anyone selling a violent video game to a minor.

Senator Betty Little (R-C, Queensbury) questioned the need for such a penalty, saying it was over the top, arguing a Wal-Mart clerk might be hauled away in handcuffs for selling a violent video game to a minor by accident.

Assemblyman Joe Lentol (D – Brooklyn) offered this retort, “In response to what Senator Little said, I think it’s fair to say that this may be the first felony the Senate didn’t like.”
Little: “This might be the first felony the Assembly liked.”
JL: “We’ve had our share of felonies.”

When Lentol realized he might have inadvertently referred to convicted members of the Assembly he recovered by saying:

“That wasn’t intrahouse, that was out of the house.”

A conference committee meeting with members of the Senate and Assembly, Democrats and Republicans will continue later this week.

Filed under: Crime and Corrections, Judiciary, Children and Families, Codes