To think video games do not cause mass shootings?

[falonDin]

Three shootings in the space on a week. At least one targeted immigrants. The US has a president that is racist, anti-immigrant, very popular on 8-Chan where the shooter put his 'manifesto' and is in the pocket of the NRA. But it's video games that are to blame apparently.

eu.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2019/08/04/el-paso-dayton-mass-shootings-kevin-mccarthy-says-video-games-partly-blame/1915061001/

I've just finished a child psychology module for uni and one of the topics we covered was just that - whether video games led to violence. Apparently research evidence suggests the link is low. There was a much greater link between violent movies and shooting incidents than there were between video games.

I think it’s a reductive excuse because the real causes of such violence are too ugly/expensive to invest money in

Most people who play video games aren't violent. Does it increase the risk for someone who is predisposed to be violent? It's hard to say. I would expect deciding to hate whole groups of other people based on stereotypes to be a much bigger risk factor...

www.opensecrets.org/industries/summary.php?ind=Q13&recipdetail=H&sortorder=S&cycle=All

Surprise, surprise. McCarthy has recieved over $100,000 in 'donations' from the NRA. Money matters more than lives for these people.

You know what stops people shooting others, regardless of the computer games they play? Not allowing every Tom, Dick and Harry to carry a gun. It really is that simple.

Its about time they accept the fact this will carry on until they make guns illegal. Its the idiots that say we need our gun to protect ourselves from these events that cause them. Your kids have a bad day and think I will make them pay. Then go into school and shoot people. OK this wasn't that but its the same principle. In the UK this doesn't happen because guns are hard to come by. America needs to wake up and learn from its mistakes but clearly that is going to take a higher body count.

falonDin

I find it interesting that you mention the president of the US on a thread defending video games.
These types of shooting happened before Trump,
The USA has many many issues, blaming Trump (even linking to him) overlooks the many problems that the country has.

I don't think (though happy to be corrected) the poster meant trump was directly to blame, but that this is a country that elected a right wing racist so thats indicative of how the country thinks as a whole.

And yes - I know not all Americans are like that. (Naalt?)

But seriously they need - as a country to get a Fucking clue!

Too many barely regulated guns = it's bloody likely people get shot!

They are FAR FAR too in love with guns and the 2nd amendment, they care more about guns than they do about people.

"It's in the constitution" yea well you changed it before you can change it again! All it requires is the will to do so and for you to start bloody valuing human life more than "the almighty $" and the sodding NRA!

It makes them look stupid, callous and greedy.

Not talking about any particular shooting but as a rule they are committed by younger males.
Find me a male under the age of 30 who doesn’t play video games.

It’s like saying having legs or taking showers causes mass shooting.

Americans would blame shootings on kittens rather than admit guns are the problem.

Agreed. Guns are the cause of mass shootings, not video games.

They tried to blame Columbine on Marilyn Manson... they’re moving with the times I guess?!

I know two gamers, one male and one female, who have become radicalised through the gaming community. They went from perfectly normal to vile racist alt-right nutters. They were radicalised by other gamers in the US (these two are white British). It’s a bigger problem than people realise and it’s been going on for years. Gaming isn’t the only reason but it’s a pretty easy way to radicalise loners who spend their lives on their consoles etc. They blame people of colour for the fact that they are quite low in the social pecking order instead of actually facing their own personal issues. My friend who works within gaming explained to me how it’s being done and how it’s quite widespread (all three of the people I’ve mentioned in this post work within gaming I.e development, design) - she finds it terrifying and says it’s very similar to the tactics IS used and can’t believe it isn’t being tackled more seriously. 8chan and Incels etc are all linked with the dark undercurrent within the gaming community too of course.

Graphista

Hilary got more votes than Trump did. The college points system got him elected. But that doesn't prove anything.

But yes the country needs to get a clue.

NameChange84

From the information that we get through the governments PREVENT actually shows that white teens are at more risk of radicalisation than any other group.

I do think it de-sensitize people to violence to a certain extent.

I remember playing GTA with my siblings and it's obviously a game that's built to get the worst out of you and surprise you with how much one can enjoy doing things that are completely taboo and they wouldn't dream of doing in RL, you find yourself running civilians over with a stolen vehicule, following women and slaughtering them, killing prostitutes for their money, killing comes with riffles and throwing bombs at random cars because you can and nobody playing with you will be outraged at it because that's the point of the game. It's a vile game if you look at it with objective eyes, yet it's one of the most sold games amongst pre-teens/teens and adults, so if you enjoy the thrill of killing innocent people in the game and are slowly instable/have disdain for people due to being an outcast in real life or whatever, I would say that video games of this type could very much push you over the edge and train you to enjoy killing/seeing strangers suffer or teach you to enjoy the suffering one can inflict on others without guilt.

There is a youtube video of "elders watch" I believe, of people in their late 50s or more playing the game for the first time and most of them being initially outraged by the thing they are asked to do and then thoroughly enjoying killing people and/or slaughtering innocent passerby as the game goes on some becoming incredibly violent as time goes by.

It's to say that video games can wake that sadistic thing we all have in us, so while I don't think it's the main reason for shootings, I do think it's a big reasons as to the increase of violence amongst teenagers (be it between parents and children or teenagers and authority/other people).

I have worked as a nanny/teacher and I would lie if I didn't say the tantrums related to video games are usually much bigger and violent than the ones related to other things in my experience.

I think some video games can result in a lot low level violence In younger kids. Hitting out at teachers, classmates and peers, playing hurtful games (physically violent) as they don’t know what’s okay and what isn’t. They do tend to grow out of this (I am an ex nanny)

However barring a handful of people with mental/neurological problems this doesn’t apply at all.

I think the only connection is people who already fantasise about harming others/mass shootings find a way to live that out in video games so that could be addictive I suppose but for that to be an issue they’d already have to have the intent there.

Male violence, at the root of pretty much every single atrocity in humankind .

@Linning

GTAV is the most profitable entertainment product in the world. If it desensitized people to violence and taught them to 'enjoy killing', wouldn't the be a lot more violence in the world?

It's no different than when people thought horror movies were turning children into Satanists. Or when they took Judas Priest to court because one of their records played backwards allegedly encouraged people to commit suicide. People will come up with all sorts of ridiculous scapegoats.

I think there might be a very loose link in that if someone who is already quite unhinged plays them it might be a negative influence and obviously they will get a kick out of playing them - but can you really blame the games? Of course not.

There are people out there that fantasize about committing violence on a large scale, such as the mass shootings. I have no doubt that these people get beyond the normal level of enjoyment from playing violent video games. Is that the video games fault? Of course not.
I've played COD since I was about 13 and I've never considered getting a gun and doing it in real life. Even with all my mental health conditions 🤷‍♀️

I find it interesting that you mention the president of the US on a thread defending video games.
These types of shooting happened before Trump,
The USA has many many issues, blaming Trump (even linking to him) overlooks the many problems that the country has

Yes these types of shootings did happen before Trump but he fans the flames of racism and bigotry. He is divisive.

Bill Clinton banned assault weapons in 1994; mass shootings dropped by 43%.

Bush and the GOP let the ban expire in 2004; they went up over 230%.

And McConnell Trump's sidekick has continually blocked bills by the Democrats to instigate background checks on those purchasing weapons.

Says it all.

I saw some statistics on twitter (so I'll caveat this by saying that I have no idea of how accurate they are) which showed that the level of video game use in the US and UK is broadly the same. Which is unsurprising, and I feel this is likely to be true.

The numbers of mass killings however are far, far higher in the US.

Video games are not the problem. Easy unrestricted access to powerful weaponry is the problem.

asked to do and then thoroughly enjoying killing people and/or slaughtering innocent passerby as the game goes on some becoming incredibly violent as time goes by.

I do that in games, doesn't mean you'd enjoy killing a real person.

The video game scenario is a convenient hook to hang this on. As is mental health.

Other countries have young people hooked on video games and problems with mental health but they don't massacre shoppers at a Walmart (who incidentally stock guns and ammunition to be bought over the counter so their mealy mouthed tweet after this atrocity was pretty pathetic)

It's lack of gun control and the NRA and Trump's rhetoric that is to blame.