Oklahoma violent games tax defeated in House

The Oklahoma bill proposing a 1% sales tax increase on violent video games has been defeated in a House subcommittee. It was followed quickly by the proposal of a task force on video games, obesity, and aggression -- but the task force was also voted down

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The proposed Oklahoma bill that would add a 1% tax on violent video games has been defeated in a state House subcommittee. A proposed revision would create a task force to investigate the causes of childhood obesity and aggression, and it was subsequently defeated as well.

The Video Game Voters Network reports that HB 2696 was defeated on February 20 in a meeting of the House Revenue and Tax Subcommittee. The bill had planned to put the revenues raised toward programs to combat childhood obesity and bullying.

State representative William Fourkiller, who initially created the bill, proposed a special subcommittee the following day. It was titled the "Oklahoma Task Force on Video Games' Relationship to Obesity and Aggression," but it was defeated with a 5-6 vote.

Notes on the meeting from the Oklahoma Watchdog site show the skepticism that led to the task force being shot down. Rep. Anastasia Pittman pointed out that the task force would be redundant, since the state already has a media violence task force in the Senate. Rep. Pat Ownbey asked why video games would be singled out as a cause of obesity or aggression.

"It's not a good idea," said Rep. Mike Reynolds. "We could have a task force on a multitude of reasons children are obese. Why we're pickling violent video games was because it was originally a tax."

The bill seems functionally dead now, having failed to make it past the subcommittee stage. That's probably for the best, seeing as the Entertainment Software Association seemed ready to fight. California was recently ordered to pay nearly $1 million in legal fees for its misguided court battle, so the citizens of Oklahoma can be thankful they won't have to foot a similar bill.

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  • reply
    February 23, 2012 5:45 PM

    Steve Watts posted a new article, Oklahoma violent games tax defeated in House.

    The Oklahoma bill proposing a 1% sales tax increase on violent video games has been defeated in a House subcommittee. It was followed quickly by the proposal of a task force on video games, obesity, and aggression -- but the task force was also voted down

    • reply
      February 23, 2012 5:50 PM

      I don't understand, we have people in the state legislature that aren't complete morons?

      I'm actually kinda shocked.

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        February 23, 2012 6:04 PM

        I'm so confused, I just assumed everyone in my state and local government was at best functionally retarded.

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        February 23, 2012 6:38 PM

        I am actually kind of surprised that bills like this still exist. The supreme court recently ruled that video games had first amendment protection. They seem more like a gut reaction than a logical and reasoned solution. The obvious solution would be educate the parents not to buy M+ games for minors and let adults buy what they want.

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          February 23, 2012 6:41 PM

          I don't think you understand this bill. It wasn't to ban violent video games at all, strictly to tax them slightly more to fund some kind of initiative to address bullying and obesity in schools.

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            February 23, 2012 6:53 PM

            You can't just tax one form of protected speech with out doing it to the other forms as well. What would be the reaction if people tried to tax certain genres of books, music, and movies? What they were attempting to do here is no different than that.

            The instance of the tax instance they might as well have been saying that video games are something wrong or against the social good. Why couldn't have a referendum ask the voters if they want to pay for the bullying and obesity programs when they go vote in November.

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            February 23, 2012 6:56 PM

            [deleted]

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            February 23, 2012 6:57 PM

            Well damn, I just had some knowledge dispensed all over my face.

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          February 24, 2012 11:09 AM

          Wait, you're surprised that people in government would try to pass possibly illegal, definitely stupid legislation based on gut reactions instead of logical and reasoned solutions?

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