Correlation between Gun Violence and Video Games in the Article, The Truth About Video Games and Gun Violence by Erik Kain

In my most recent essay I wrote of the violence attributed to video games in light of various shootings and other tragedies that occurred in the past year or so. In this essay I argued that despite their violent content, video games are not completely to blame for acts of violence committed by children. Throughout this essay I tried to convince the reader by, first, establishing my own credibility with video games, then sharing my own experiences with violent games, and providing both empirical data and valuable insight from trusted sources.

The main argument of this article is that video games have a direct link to short term and long term aggression. The author presents this argument by providing studies from peer reviewed articles that all conclude that video games do cause an increase of aggression. The main point of this article is to answer the question, “Do violent video games lead to aggression.” The article is about the effects of violent video games leading to aggression. The author uses recent examples, like the Sandy Hook and Washington Navy Yard shooting. In both of these examples, the author cites that both shooters had a history with playing violent video games. The author uses a study which selected individuals to play violent video games for a certain period of time. The study would then compare the results to a group who played non-violent video games. The study concluded that violent video games cause a direct link in aggression due to humans reenacting the actions the characters within the video games perform.

Video games already have a bad reputation when it comes to the teenage generation. The video games that are being released in the past ten years have caused some speculation if they are suitable for kids to play. Some states have even tried getting involved with the issue by banning the distribution of offensive video games to minors. First-person shooting games have increased in popularity, and some experts say it is also increases violent behavior in the adolescents that are playing it. The increase of games that are more realistic, engaging, and increasingly violent will lead to more violent behavior in teenagers in the upcoming years.

Violent video games do not cause mass shootings. There are over 150 million Americans who play video games today. There may seem like there are a lot of crimes, but compared to the amount of kids playing violent video games, the number is minuscule. From 1982 to 2016, there has been 71 major mass shootings. Out of those 71 shootings, only 10% were teenagers (“Journal of Adolescent Health”). A study from Psychiatric Quarterly found that violent video games have absolutely no impact on the tempers in people 18 and under.

Guns have become a popular weapon in video games and manufacturers use this as a form of advertisement. These advertisements are encouraging gun violence and killing for a win. Some of the games were designed to teach men how to shoot and properly use a gun and train for the army. Two specific people that played these games were school shooters and caused the possible link between video game and human violence. In the article, there is an explanation of The Columbine massacre which supports the issue of violence connection destructive video games. There was also mention of another case of boys that shot at random cars and killed several and their explanation for doing so was that the game had enticed them to. Even though the games are conflicting

There are multiple cases of adolescent violence – particularly school shootings – that have been linked to the play of violent video games. While many people argue that violent video games have caused teenagers to commit violent acts towards the people around them, there is no evidence to suggest that the video games were the actual cause. There is only evidence that suggests the play of violent video games assisted these killers in their accuracy with their guns and desensitisation towards the original decision to fire a gun.

Statistically, 2017 has become the year with second lowest crimes rates since 1990, assuming there isn’t a big resurgence in violent crime between now and the end of the year (Bump). However, violent crimes continue to be a problem in modern-day America. Many have sought out to find out the root of these crimes and what causes them, and as a result, many different things have been cited as a cause for violence. Violent video games are said to be a possible source of aggression in teens and can allegedly influence teens and young adults to commit acts of assault, brutality, and terrorism. With zero evidence supporting this allegation and no concrete evidence to

Violent video games have been an issue and a big controversy , mainly because violent video games have been blamed to be the root of violence which have been a current issue examples are School Shooting , Bullying , and Violence towards women that just have been in the news recently. Experts says that these kind of games desensitizes some video game players to committing violence, recompense players for simulating violence, and teaches youth that the only way to resolve their conflicts is through violence. Critics also argue that these games should be subjected to legislative oversight and restrictions because it’s harmful and should

There is a lot of history when it comes to video games and violent video games, but the earliest violent video games have been around since the 1970s. In 1976, Death Race was the first video game criticized for its violence. The goal of this game was to run over human-like creatures known as gremlins that made an unrealistic human screaming sound when struck. Since the 1970s, everything has gone downhill. In the 1980s, beloved games we know today like Pac-Man and Super Mario Bros faced criticism for their cartoon violence. This is because of Pac-Man killing the ghosts and Mario attacking various enemies to achieve his goal to get to the next level. One of the first graphic violent video games is Mortal Kombat; this game is a one-on-one fighting game where realistic human characters usually fight to the death. Soon Mortal Kombat was under fire in 1992 for its

Some people argue that videogames and violence have no link to each other. Although a recent study was able to prove that the actions made by people have become more violent after playing videogames. This is also true with the number of violent videogames played by kids and adults alike. Also, many students have caused more shootings and bombings after playing violent videogames than before they played any videogames whatsoever. The amount of violence, even inside of schools, has increased dramatically. Most of the people that have either caused a shooting or a bombing were addicted to violent videogames as well. Many people, without a doubt, believe that violent videogames should not be allowed in anyway possible. Many parents won’t even buy violent videogames for their children. In the year 1998, a kid saw at least 180,000 actions of violent doings through youtube and other videogames. These actions affected how the kid saw the world around him.

It might be claimed by some scholars and game players that the statement about gaming is unhealthy and can lead to violence is unproven. “The author examines the lack of scientific validity of the studies that insist upon a correlation between violence and video games” (Radford, 2005, p.3). The scholar said that those conclusions about the connection between video games and violence that several researchers had found were just tentative. The studies of researchers were accused for being biased in seeking evidence of the video games’ negative side. However, this argument is no longer correct as one of the most reliable studies proved the strong relationship between enjoying violent video games and the increasing in desensitization, aggressive thoughts and behaviors among young people (Bickham, 2006). In this study of Dr. Craig A. Anderson of Iowa State University in Ames, he and his colleagues looked at whether children and teenagers with playing violent video game habits could engage in aggressive behaviors three to six month later. The result of the study is children and teenagers with the stronger intensity of playing violent games did become more aggressive than their peer with the less playing. To

Video Game Violence has been a controversial topic for many years, dating back to even the most simple classic video games like Ms. Pac-Man, Centipede and Space Invaders, eventually pushing into more modern games like Grand Theft Auto V and Call of Duty: Black Ops. This investigation attempts to expand and analyze the idea that due to the historical trend of video game violence being accused of blame for seemingly related violent events, some of the research may be faulty. The way we look at video games and how we research their tie to violence could potentially need corrected. Within this investigation we will be looking very closely at how these tests were done, analyzing if they were valid, considering the people behind these tests and the general misconceptions people may have of video games and their impact on violence. Just about anyone in most modernized counties has heard the claim before, placing the blame on a video game, music or television for the violent acts seen in their youth today. Typically these trends seem to pop up when we are referencing school shootings, gang related crime and other domestic terrorist acts done by our youth. It is too easy to quickly blame something like a violent video game for their behavior. This investigation examines the actual statistics of these violent crimes and how they are tied to video games specifically.

Ah yes video games are huge icons of culture and identity for the people of the newest generations but games aren 't usually digital rainbows and love but some revolve around violence in their our ways, so as you would expect these games deeds don’t get away without criticism and opposition to some degree. Are violent video games a major cause of violent and aggressive behavior in those who play them? Are they contenders in influencing behavior and even shootings from the violence done within these digital fronters? The issue has been a big debate among concerned people of the world and video game advocates for many years now. Some argue that violent video games do the opposite of increased aggressive behavior and likelihood to commit crimes in which games can actually help stop such, but is this always the case? Some critics also blame these games for numerous issues at hand like school shootings, bullying, and violence towards women, but are they the real causes? There are many studies within this debate for both side of the issue and interesting finds in violent video games. The video game industry is a huge million dollar industry and violence tends to be in a lot of them however.

Video games have been around for half a century, when the first simple tennis game was designed by William Higinbotham in 1958. Since then, video games have gotten more in depth, and now include the best graphics and a vast amount of options which include violent video games. Violent video games have gotten more popular with the vast amount of variety including the franchise of Call of Duty, Battlefield, and Grand Theft Auto. In addition, these are the most common and sought after video games, and because of the violence in those games, debate has started whether or not violent video games cause people especially adolescents to be more violent and destructive in society. Since the debate has started, research has been conducted and the introduction of violent video games into society has not resulted in violence to increase in adolescents and children.

Video Games have been a source of fun and enjoyment for many people, whether they are kids or adults. Violent video games are the most popular types of video games. Many young people who play video games or gamers, for short, are quite obsessed with these games. Recently violent video games (VVGs) have been accused of being the source of many mass shootings in the world, accused of corrupting the minds of young gamers. This is wrong.