Oklahoma House Bill 2696 was defeated on February 20th, to the joy of gamers all over the state. Bill 2696 would have implemented a 1% tax on all “violent” video games. What the word “violent” mean in this context is up to the state, so it’s not unfair to say that all games rated T or higher could have been taxed. Representative Will Fourkiller (D) was asked to withdraw this tax proposal, he declined. In response to this, he tried to create the Oklahoma Task Force on Video Games’ Relationship to Obesity and Aggression. This failed.
Oklahoma gamers rallied and sent hundreds of messages to the OK Subcommittee on Revenue and Taxation (in charge of reviewing the bill) and Representative Fourkiller. They stated that there was no evidence for a link between video games and obesity, which had been Fourkiller’s main point. Additionally, the Supreme Court had previously stated that content-based restrictions on video games were not lawful, which is exactly what Fourkiller was trying to impose. It’d be like taxing any movies that have guns in them.
It is just me, or does Will Fourkiller sound like a video game villain name?
Source: Video Game Voters
