Why Do Violent Video Games Cause Gun Violence

Many theories are speculated of what drove people to create such massacres and harm to innocent victims. One of the most popular is that violent video games have an influence on these attacks. However, Matt Peckham, in “Researcher Says Linking Video Games to Gun Violence is a ‘Classic Illusory Correlation’” explains there isn’t much evidence to prove that theory and researches haven’t found a reasonable link between the two. Actually, on the contrary video games seem to benefit a person mind rather than harm them according to Mary Flanagan, in her article “Don’t Demonize Video Games for Violence.” Video games don’t influence a person’s mind because there is a psychological explanation to these occurrences therefore violent video games has no contribution to violence incidents across the nation.

A huge controversy in today’s society is violent video games and their behavioral effect on the children and adults who play them. Violent video games have been blamed for bullying, school shootings, and even violence towards women. Many have fought that violent video games desensitize players to real-life violence, and that they are teaching the youth that violence is an acceptable conflict-solving strategy. Other sources have stated otherwise. The 2004 Secret Service has stated that only one-eighth of attackers have exhibited interests in video games. Violent Video games do not cause violent behavior or behavior problems because it has not been proven that there is a link between violent video games and behavioral issues, playing video games provide a safe outlet for aggressive and angry feelings and reduces violence in young children, and violent juvenile crime has actually gone down since the violent video game popularity has increased.

“According to data recently released by The NPD Group, in 2012, U.S. video game software sales reached $6.7 billion (174.8 million units) and computer game sales were $380 million (13.2 million units)” (Improving Economy). To many, the violent video game industry has turned all adolescents into mass murderers. However, they’re absolutely wrong. Very seldom do adolescents who play violent video games commit acts of violence, and the ones who do usually have a mental disorder. Instead of blaming the tragedies that occur on violent video games, the news media should explain to people that a large percentage of young males play violent video games, indicating that the two are uncorrelated. They should alternatively research other possible solutions to the crisis. In lieu of negatively affecting people’s lives, video games could potentially improve their lives!

The article, “The Truth About Video Games and Gun Violence” by Erik Kain discusses how video games and gun violence correlates. The author opens up with someone by the name of Aaron Alexis who resorted to gun violence while playing video games that contained violence. There is a violent video game that scares parents and behavioral experts. There has been a debate on whether people who play video games later have violent behavior. Throughout the years, video games continue to show images portraying violence.

Numerous studies have been done, showing no direct correlation between video games and actual violence. “The US Secret Service conducted a review in 2004 aimed at identifying causes of school shootings, and it found just 12 percent of studied attackers -- that's 5 out of 41 -- expressed an interest in violent video games”(Conditt, 2018, para 6). It was found that video games actually decrease violence in the real world. There was an economic study conducted in 2016 that found, ¨a reduction in crime in the weeks after major video game releases¨ (Conditt, 2018, para 7). This is because the video games give people an outlet to release violent thoughts and frustrations in a safer, virtual environment. In fact, video games actually decrease violence on the

Thesis Statement: While they may cause aggression in some people, playing violent video games does not cause gun violence because other countries that consume more video games per capita have less gun violence, they are mentally beneficial, and the real causes are rooted elsewhere.

Violent video games do not cause violence. Just because a kid plays video games and shot someone does not mean it was because of the video games. According to an article written by Henry Jenkins on www.pbs.org, “But young people, in general, are more likely to be gamers - 90 percent of boys and 40 percent of girls play. The overwhelming majority of kids who play do NOT commit antisocial acts.” This shows two things. Just because a kid that happens to play video games and did something violent, does not mean it was because of the video games. His older sibling probably bullies them at home. This also shows that playing video games cause violence, but quite the opposite. Now speaking from personal experience, If I’m playing video games, I’m not thinking of how I am going to bully the school nerd, or shoot someone, I’m focused on the game and how to beat it. Me thinking of how to beat the game is preventing me from doing something else violent. It also means I’m sitting in the dark in my room, not out and about doing things to people that

Video Games, as mentioned before, are creating more violence in young people. Games like Grand Theft Auto are being used by leaders of gangs to teach new ruffians “...to do carjackings and murders.”

Video game violence and youth violence don't connect to each other based on juvenile crime rates. In fact, game sales have gone up 204% while crime rates lowered dramatically by 37% in the same time period.this info came from the us sales department and us crime rate index. This means that crime rate almost cut in half and game sales doubled is the same time period. Equally important, the us sales department and crime rate index say that in one month if that month came out with a new game they would knows is that crime rates would go down in that same month. This means that the higher that sales the less crime in that same time period. All in all, with this evidence I can say that the more games sold the less crime there is in that same day,

With there being such a large percentage of young people playing violent video games, shouldn’t there be a large number of violent crimes being committed by these young people? That would just be common sense if violent video games actually had an adverse effect on young people. According to Christopher J. Ferguson and John Kilburn, researchers at Texas A&M International University, “The influence of VVGs [Violent Video Games] on serious acts of aggression or violence is minimal” (174). Remember that ninety percent of young boys play video games. Now let’s do some quick math here. Let’s

Many people wonder why so many shootings are happening and what those shooters were thinking. People also wonder why the crimes that are happening are leaning towards our youth. But the real question behind all this is, does violent video games contribute to youth violence? Violent video games have been put to blame for school shootings, bullying, and violence towards women.

Videogames like Call Of Duty, Battlefield, and Halo are all suspected to be a cause of violence, aggression, and crime in the youth of today.They are called "violent videogames". Yet this is not the case. These games have no link to violence or aggression in youth.

Criminals get a drive when committing a violent crime, violent games give potential criminals the same drive while playing, eliminating the need for a crime. A study’s results showed that when crime rates decreased there was a increase in video game sales. (Tech hive)The violence in games puts societies in a safer place than if there was no violence in games. Others echo this idea by conducting studies on long term aggression and violent games, no long term violent traits were found in those who play violent games.(kain)So essentially by eliminating violent games we are responsible for any raise in crime rates.

Many people think that the increase in the production and use of video games has increased crime rate, but in fact it has actually decreased. In “Thinking Critically: Video Games and Violence” by Andrea C. Nakaya, there is a graph on pg. 22 that shows the crime rate has actually gone down whereas video game usage has dramatically gone up. This shows that even with the increase of violent video games there is no similar relationship that these games increase violence. A professor of psychology and criminal justice at Texas A&M International

Most of us have certainly pondered on the thought if video games truly create violent citizens, I personally believe that video games do not what so ever. One must distinguish this topic accurately and consider learning to differentiate and not have a biased or radical opinion. There have been many attempts from a number of different people who have tried to give a bad name to video games due to the simulations and realness and say that video games will create a negative environment for anyone who plays them, especially in children. Enthusiasts of video games have spent decades asserting that there is no underlying link between playing violent titles and engaging in the violent real-world behavior. Brand-new data confirms their contentions.