The political discussion surrounding mass shootings in schools is peppered with fear, doubt and, to a great extent, video games. More specifically, it involves the laughable argument that violent video games have affected the American psyche by provoking violent thoughts in teenagers, pushing them over the edge to become mass shooters. Though scientifically inaccurate, various politicians including President Donald Trump and Republican House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy support this rhetoric.
“We must stop the glorification of violence in our society,” Trump said in a White House address following the El Paso and Dayton shootings. “This includes the gruesome and grisly video games that are now commonplace.”
The notion that video games provoke shootings has become widespread after first-person shooter games, which place the player in the role of the attacker, became popular in the 1990s. The shooter computer game Doom, the main concept of which is combat, propelled the genre after becoming “the most popular video game of all time,” according to Wired.
While games such as Doom feature gruesome scenes such as victims being killed with a wide variety of instruments, with blood spurting from wounds and dying enemies lining the ground, there is little evidence connecting these games to real-life violence.
The majority opinion ruled against the law, citing inaccurate information. The studies of which the case was largely based on did not effectively prove violent video games cause minors to act aggressively. Nearly all of the research was based on correlation, rather than causation, and suffered from flaws in methodology. While correlation suggests a connection between two factors, it is unable to legitimately explain a cause-and-effect relationship between them.
A 2015 American Psychological Association (APA) report found violent video game play is linked to increased aggression in players but is insufficiently connected with criminal violence or delinquency. While children might feel more quarrelsome or make louder noises after playing a violent game, these results are far from the magnitude of gun violence. The APA report continues to say the effects are indistinguishable from those of other types of media, such as movies or TV shows.
“No single risk factor consistently leads a person to act aggressively or violently,” the authors write. “Rather, it is the accumulation of risk factors that tends to lead to aggressive or violent behavior.”
Additionally, video games are so popular, particularly among men, so it’s hard to blame the industry for causing acts of violence. According to the Pew Research Center, 43% of adults said they often or sometimes play video games. 72% of men aged 18-29 (the archetype for mass shooters) played them as well, although very little of the population is made up of mass shooters.
The commonalities of mass shooters do not include playing video games, a New York Times article said. Instead, they tend to have “mental health problems, sometimes undiagnosed, a history of antisocial behavior [and] have often come to the attention of law enforcement or other authorities.”
In its fervor to pin the blame on something for the exponential increase of gun violence, the Trump Administration is the latest to have marketed video games as the antagonist. In reality, they are the red herring, something misleading that proves irrelevant as time goes on. There is little use in fishing for clues in computer desktops and game consoles. Instead, politicians should look elsewhere in their hunt to decrease mass shootings.
While it’s easy and popular to criticize video games, putting an end to acts of violence, particularly in schools, is a complex issue that requires a nuanced and thoughtful response.
What do you think should be done to address increases in violence? Let us know in the comments below.
