One Norwegian Store’s Overreaction to The Utøya Shootings

In the wake of the shootings in Oslo and Utøya, Norway’s government announced that Norwegian society would remain “free and open in the eyes of terror,” and that the country would not react in the same way that other previously democratic nations have to terrorist acts, by restricting freedom. They would not become victim to terrorism, and they would not alter how they lived their lives.

Clearly uninterested in following what the government has said, Coop Norway Retail, a large retail chain, announced that it would cease to carry 51 gaming brands and toys that could—in their belief—invoke the threat of terrorism. These products include the ever popular World of Warcraft, and Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, which were cited as active influences by the killer Anders Behring Breivik.

Other games include Homefront, Call of Duty: Black Ops, Call of Duty: World at War, Modern Warfare 2, Sniper Ghost Warrior, and Counter-Strike Source. Toys that look like guns have also been removed from the store shelves. 

According to Norwegian newspaper Rogalands Avis, the director of Coop Norway Retail, Geir Inge Stokke said that they would be removing the games out of “consideration for those affected.”

“The decision to remove the games was made around the time we realized the scope of the attack. Others are better suited than us, to point to the negative effects of games like these,” he said. Stokke believes that other retailers will soon follow suit. 

“We have to think very carefully about when to bring these goods back. The economy involved is of no importance,” he said, perhaps ignoring the fact that the livelihoods of developers and publishers depend upon the sales of these products.

Some would argue that the same could be said of weapons manufacturers, but video games are not guns, and are rather the equivalent of comics, books and movies, which certainly do not face the same amount of scrutiny as games. Interactive though games may be, to argue that games influence violent behavior is ludicrous and backed up by no hard evidence whatsoever.

Regardless of the fact that Breivik mentioned Modern Warfare as a “training” tool for the execution of his plan, one must ask whether we should take the word of a mad man over all the evidence to the contrary. After all, no one would even suggest banning religion simply because a mass murderer claimed to have heard the voice of God telling him to carry out his murders.