The Violence Of Video Games

Sales for video game hardware and software has increased in the US by 204% from 1994 to 2014, while violent crimes have decreased by 37%.

From this quote, it is clear that, despite worldwide news coverage, mass school shootings or what may be described as rampage shootings, are actually rare events. They only make up a small proportion of the thousands of gun deaths per year in America as a whole.

A major concern in the United States is why mass shootings occur and what needs to be done to stop them from happening. Mass shootings have gained a significant amount of attention in 2015. Within the year, a total of 372 mass shootings have occurred in the United States killing 475 people and wounding 1,870. Mass shootings have become a popular trend within the media and have given the impression that it is the new normal. Mass shootings are a dysfunction to society, due to the fact that they create horror and tragedy within the country. Schools, shopping malls, and even movie theatres have all endured the horrific violence. Mass shootings are nothing new, however, they seem to be occurring more often and are becoming more and more violent. The three leading factors to mass shootings are problematic masculinity, mental illness, and gun control.

These are most of the mass shootings that has happened in the U.S. There are only seven that are mentioned in this essay. There are many more mass shooting that has happened in the U.S. It is sad that many people have killed others either because they had mental health issues or they hated a community of people or in one case they has post traumatic stress

According to CNN’s article “A visual guide: Mass shootings in America” between the years 1966 and 2012 America has had 90 mass shootings while the next closest country, Philippines, only has 18. This is a startling number for any country to. In the same article, of the first 164 days

Mass shootings in the U.S and even the world are becoming more and more common every year and all but two of the shooting

I have conducted a very broad analysis of every mass shooting between January 2009 and July 2015 that was distinguishable through FBI data and media reports. This report illustrates the 130 mass shootings, nearly two a month, that occurred over 35 states. Each account includes the area of the shooting, number of people killed, and/or injured, and data on the shooter, guns, and ammunition.

Most the recent mass shootings have happened in schools. The more recent one being in Parkland, Florida where seventeen kids and teachers

The United States is not lacking in notable mass shootings over the years, and it is difficult to narrow it down. The LA Times posted an article on December 2, 2015 entitled Deadliest U.S. Mass Shootings 1984-2015. This article lists 46 “notable mass shootings” over the past 31 years. These are shootings that have become household names, they are shootings that the majority of people have heard of, and have at least some knowledge of. Of the 46 shootings that they consider to be notable mass shootings, for the purposes of this paper I would only consider 40 of them to be notable mass shootings. I have eliminated 6 of the incidences seeing that I do not believe they fit the criteria of a mass shooting. The six that I have eliminated do not fit the definition

2015 saw a total of 53,744 gun related incidents,with a total of 13,524 deaths. 2016 had 58,884 incidents and 15,098 deaths. As stated previously, 2017 had 61,593 incidents. 15,612 of which were deaths. If we add these numbers, the past three years have a combined total of 174,221 incidents and 44,234 deaths. 44,234 men,women, and children lost to bullets. In the first four months of this year we have seen 14,487 incidents and 3,713 deaths. This averages to nearly 40 deaths every single day. Parkland’s recent shooting is a grim example of the violence occurring in this country at a rate higher than nearly any other industrialized country. And it is far from the first mass shooting of 2018. The shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High that left 17 dead was one of 59 mass shootings in 2018 so far,and has sparked a call for change. (All statistics cited from http://www.gunviolencearchive.org/

Others say that video games have merely been made a scapegoat by the faulty parents of America who are afraid to admit their own part in the problem. The movie and television industry also point the finger at video games because as long as games are being blamed, the movies and television are safe. Supporters of video games say that video game players are all over America, and yet only a few have committed horrific acts of violence. They say these select few were mentally unstable before playing video games, and it is just coincidence that they were gamers. "I've been a computer nerd since I was a kid and I'm not going crazy any time soon" says Brian Deuell, an avid video game player. (Deuell).

After the elementary school shooting of Sandy Hook in 2012 this issue of violent video games became a hot issue calling for a connection of violence to video games. However, the final investigative report suggested that he was more a fan of nonviolent games (Ferguson, 2015). Video game violence is an issue that continues to be studied due to the inability to come to a general conclusion on whether or not the games provoke violence in connection to mass shootings. With shootings occurring and receiving mass coverage the media and public often seek a person/item to place the blame on. After the tragic events that left people dead or injured one of the topics that emerged was that of video games affects/effects on the person.

With the popularity and production of video games constantly rising since the mid 90s, you would also imagine that the violent and illegal acts in teens would have also risen, but that is not the case. In fact, violent acts in youth have steadily decreased during the past 20 years, and are projected to continue to fall. While there could be many reasons for this drop in violence, the most likely one is that the inclusion of violence in video games actually provides an outlet for frustrated and angry teens to safely discharge their anger in the digital world, and not upon anyone in the real world. Video games offer an area in which your mind can explore and wander with no fear of consequences, so in

The evolution of video games has taken a drastic change since the 1970’s when video games were first introduced. Since then every decade video games have become more violent in nature with strong language and realistic to suit society today. Craig Anderson states that with more violence in video games they would sell better than games with less violence (Anderson, Gentile, and Beckley pg.5). Violent video games really became popular when the first person shooter games were invented so that we could see through the eyes of the player, as if we were really experiencing it. Society wanted better graphics and games as time went on new technology was invented and society matured in electronics. This meant that for game creators would have to come up with something better selling than the last. Creators would make the games more violent and more realistic each time so that way they can keep the interest of their consumers. Each game would increase in blood or gore slowly, but what really got consumers to buy their games would be the update of graphics in the consoles or games. This is due to the drastic changing of technology and the maturing of consumers wanting better and newer violent video games. Violent video games can cause children to behave violently if not correctly supervised.

aggressive and unacceptable behaviors. Because the networks refuse to act as a “mother” and to