I can’t let the Daniel Petric verdict go by without adding one more blog to the clamoring din. I don’t want to get into why the judge thinks video games shrink your brain stem or lead to violence. We won’t even be able to try and get a comment from him about that until the case is settled.

What I do want to say is that I, as a gamer and as a parent to three teen gamers, have a few real-life examples of where he might be a little right but a whole lot wrong.

Opinions are one thing but numbers are what really matter. Here are the numbers for the top three game consoles sold in the United States. 21,508,000 Xbox 360s, Playstation 3s, and Wiis have been setup in homes all over the U.S. These numbers were provided by the NPD, an independent auditing group. The numbers are from February 2008, so there are even more of these potential murderer creators out there in the wild.

Danny Petric of Brighton Township, Ohi,o has tried to blame his Xbox as the reason for planning and executing the murder of his mother and father. Things didn’t work out as planned. He did shoot and kill his mother but his father lived. Petric shot his father, a minister, in the head and tried to place the gun in his hand to make it look like a murder-suicide.

It feels nuts to have to sit here and write that video games don’t make people kill. We aren’t even talking about the content. The judge honestly believes that the act of playing the game causes physical changes to the brain that mimic cocaine ingestion.

Do people get hooked on gaming? No doubt.

Anything that is the least bit pleasing will attract a segment of people who will abuse it. Late at night when nobody is looking, take a peek at the parts of the Internet you don’t normally go to. There are examples of all sorts of things people get hooked on that don’t make any sense at all. Becoming overly involved in something doesn’t make you ripe for executing the people who gave you life and raised you from birth.

I have purchased three of those 21 million units sold and my kids love their games. They whine when you want them to get off to do some house work, and they gripe when you say “The suns out, get outside and have a life.” My kids do commit the occasional petty theft as they steal batteries out of their brother’s controller when their batteries go dead. At this point, I still feel like I can safely sleep without having to lock the door.

I don’t know Danny Petric, I only watched him sitting in court with a slightly vacant look on his face day after day. I feel sympathy for his family and I respect them for their unrestrained love and support of Danny. I would be wrong if I didn’t admit that I see them as being somewhat delusional, also. They don’t seem to expect any form of punishment for Danny. They only want him to come home so they can begin healing.

That’s not the way it works in America.

When it comes right down to it, it’s my personal feeling that yes, Danny Petric has some kind of problem. Who kills his mom and tries to kill his father and doesn’t have a problem? I just think murdering your mother and maiming you dad requires a real punishment. Trying to blame it on a video game console is a clever but shameful ploy to avoid taking responsibility.

One of my gamers, Jake – who is only a few months younger than Daniel — posted a comment on The Chronicle video of the verdict that summed this all up pretty well.

“This is ridiculous. The kid is insane yes, but was it caused by video games? No. Anyone who thinks that video games cause violent behavior is wrong. Upbringing, mental illness, and stupidity cause violent behavior.” Squireyoung

I remember taking my stepson Jake to the midnight release of Halo 3. In a moment of parental weakness, I let him skip school the next day so he could go online and play. He was an A + student, but I know it was wrong. Jake waited for over a year for the game to come out. He knew everything about the game and monitored every twist and turn in the development of the game. He is a good student and has never shown any violent tendencies.

This brings us to Daniel Petric. Jake and Daniel are nearly identical in their fervor for the video game and their desire to spend every moment playing Xbox. What makes the two boys different is that this morning Daniel went into court today to face charges that he murdered his mother and shot his father in the head. The fact that he shot his parents is not in dispute because Petric confessed to the crime, and the prosecution and defense both said he did it.

The reason why and if it was a planned crime seems to be the only thing the defense has to work with.

During his opening statements, Daniel’s attorney, James Kersey said that while Daniel was laid up with a staph infection his parents bought him an Xbox 360. That led to him becoming “immersed and somewhat addicted to video games.” Kersey also told the judge that Daniel had played Halo 1, Halo 2 and had been waiting a year and a half for the release of Halo 3. Kersey said that Daniel would play the games 24/7 when he was with his friends.

The problem seems to be that the rating for Halo 3 is mature. His parents objected to him playing the game because of the rating, the violence and some sexual content in the game. For Daniel, Halo 3 looked like a no go.

At some point in this whole sad tale, Daniel snuck out of the house by slipping out of his bedroom window. He made it to the store where he got the game and was caught by his mom when he tried to get back into the house. The game was taken and locked in a lockbox, the very same lockbox that held the gun Daniel used to kill his mother and critically wound his father.

It’s not hard to find reports on the web about the relationship of video games and violent crime. A Fresno State student murdered over a Playstation, a grandfather kicked to the floor and left there for five days without food or heart medication. He died. His grandson was upset because he couldn’t get money for a video game. The other popular story is the kid or young adult who goes on a video game like crime spree and blames it on the game. I don’t know that any of this is really about games or game consoles. Before gaming people were killed for bicycles, tennis shoes, and even comic books. People have — and still do — blame their crimes on movies and television.

The addiction issue is probably going to play into this case as well. As far back as June 22, 2007, a few months before the murder, there was a story on MSNBC’s website detailing the American Medical Association’s efforts to get video game addiction recognized as a psychiatric disorder. I know my three sons don’t mind burying themselves in their Xbox and we have had our share of family disturbances over how much time is spent playing games. Truth be told, I am one of those video gamer geeks myself so I feel qualified to weigh in on this.

What is the difference between kids who want to play a game so bad that they argue with their parents and do everything they can to play a little bit longer, and a kid who shoots his parents in the head? Until Daniel said “Close your eyes, I have a surprise for you” and opened fire, his parents never knew they were in danger.

As a gamer, I hope the defense attorney doesn’t take this Xbox defense and try to turn gaming into a justification for murder. It won’t work and it is wrong to try and justify the death and maiming of innocent people.

This morning I covered the sentencing of Pamela Carrasquillo, who was found guilty of trying to kill her estranged husband. Despite wounds that probably should have killed him, Herminio Carrasquillo survived to identify his shooter.

During the sentencing Judge James Burge said that he had grown close to the Carraquillo family, and he appreciated their kindness and behavior during the trial phase.

It seemed to me that the judge clearly felt bad about what he was about to do, but he did it: He sentenced Pamela Carrasquillo to 13 years in jail for her crimes.

I have seen a lot of posts on Chroniclet.com that are critical of the judge. I have to admit that I haven’t always known what to make of his decisions. Today, I feel like I have seen him in action enough to get a feel for where he is coming from. I really believe the judge is doing his best to provide punishment as the law dictates while also allowing for human failings. I have seen the posts that say he was a defense attorney and is soft on crime. Let’s be real and acknowledge that if the judge believed his clients were all innocents, he wouldn’t have the mental acuity to tie his own shoes. I think his time as a defense attorney gives him a different perspective, and if it weren’t a welcomed perspective than the law would only allow prosecutors to be judicial candidates, right?

I’m willing to bet that he has heard every sob story out there — he probably knows how to spot the con-job better than most people.

During the sentencing hearing, he mentioned that before the trial even started, he allowed for a break in the case so Pamela Carrasquillo could consider accepting a plea bargain in the case that the judge described as beneficial to her. His reason for allowing that option was that even after all he went through, Herminio Carrasquillo wanted to try and heal his family and put this sordid chapter in the past.

It’s unusual for me to see a judge who lays out his internal struggles for all to see. He has shared his battle with alcohol during a previous sentencing, and just today he expressed his concern that the sentence he handed down would only further divide a family that has been torn between defending one side or the other.

Other judges surely go through the same things, they just seem to be more stoic and more inclined to keep it hidden than Burge. I guess what I am saying is that as an observer, there is something comforting about knowing the judge wrung his hands a bit before sending somebody to prison.