At the beginning of today's Senate hearing on gun violence, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) proudly proclaimed, "There are too many video games that celebrate the mass killing of people."
On MSNBC this morning, Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) was thinking along the same lines (thanks to reader F.B. for the tip).
For those who can't watch clips online, Chuck Todd asked the senator, "Can you envision a way of supporting the universal background checks bill?" Alexander replied, "Chuck, I'm going to wait and see on all of these bills. You know, I think video games is [sic] a bigger problem than guns, because video games affect people. But the First Amendment limits what we can do about video games and the Second Amendment to the Constitution limits what we can do about guns."
As Jed Lewison responded, "To repeat, those words came from the lips of a United States Senator. A Republican United States Senator, to be precise. Supposedly, he's one of the brightest bulbs in the Senate Republican conference."
That said, so long as the "blame video games" argument continues to percolate, it's probably worth taking a moment to set the record straight -- again.
As we discussed several weeks ago, even if we put aside the irony of the underlying point -- blaming simulated, pixelated guns is fine; blaming actual guns is not -- this isn't new. Plenty of officials, including folks like Joe Lieberman, have been arguing for years that violent games desensitizes young people to violence and contributes to a larger corrosive effect on the culture.
There's just very little evidence to support the claims. Hunches and cultural criticisms notwithstanding, social science research does not bolster the contention that gaming and gun violence are connected. (Adam Lanza was reportedly obsessed with "Dance Dance Revolution" -- which is a game, as the name suggests, about moving feet, not shooting weapons.)
For that matter, the United States is not the only country with young people who play a lot of video games, but it is the only country with high rates of gun violence.
Gaming is a huge cultural phenomenon in countries like South Korea, England, Japan, and Canada -- and they're all playing many of the same games Americans enjoy -- and yet, none of these countries comes close to the U.S. when it comes to deadly shootings.
And why not? Sociologists can speak to the differences in more detail, but I suspect it has something to do with access to firearms. It may seem tautological, but let's state it for the record anyway: societies with fewer guns have less gun violence, whether they're playing "Halo" or not.
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Before we had video games, we blamed Twinkies - for a time we blamed rock and roll ... My Grandmother would say Elvis was the root of all evil in the world, but I'd rather blame twinkies
Not to say I think all video games are okay .... some disturbed my senses .... and maybe they are a factor to some extent, but fully to blame ....
This is a different take on guns http://www.economist.com/blogs/lexington/2012/12/gun-control
Check out this gun view from the Economist
http://www.economist.com/blogs/lexington/2012/12/gun-control
I need my guns so I can kill zombies like in my game.. And commandos, like in my game.. .. .. ..
They don't call him Lamer for nothing!
Trollop,
Look at some of these disgusting games - imagine young children exposed to this filth! Who knows what kind of perversions it might drive them to when they are adults.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Government_simulation_game
Perhaps we should consider requiring IQ testing in order to run for political office
Critical thought: The shooter at Sandy Hook was protrayed as a mentally ill individual living in a virtual world of a violent video game. In video games one does not really die and there are no consequences for murder. The shooter supposedly shot himself when he heard the police coming. This shows he was not in a virtual world and knew he had done wrong. No NGRI defense for him. He knew he was doing wrong and knew he would face real consequences.
YEA thats right the problem is video games.....it has NOTHING to do with allowing anyone with few dollars to go into any walmart and buy an ASSUALTGUN.. or buy a magazine that hold up too 100 rounds....but lets go after the video game industry because YES they are the problem....most people who play video games are young teens. MOST mass GUNmen are middle aged men.....yes going after the video game industry Will im sure stop the GUN violence.....gee anyone see a common word here...gee could it be GUN. So that right lets go after the video games....because people can kill many people using a game controller....so maybe out law game controllers.because that is the answer to GUN violence........IDIOTS!
A SCENARIO...
Invite all Congressmen, Senators and all those opposed to gun control to choose where they'd sit between two classrooms.
If they sit in Classroom A: While seated, a sane or mentally disturbed man will throw or hit them with violent videos game tapes, comic books depicting violent stories, violent movie tapes.
If they sit in Classroom B: While seated, a sane or a mentally deranged man will shoot them with an assault weapon or even with a single bullet.
Which classroom to sit in, do you suppose, would these people choose?
Doesn't anyone want to know?
Send a survey, anyone?
Violent video games are one of the sources that contributes or influences the minds of those who already have violent tendencies.
Guns are the tools used to actually release or enact these violent tendencies or fantasies.