Why Do Violent Video Games Cause Gun Violence

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

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.

”(Carey, 2013, p.2) In fact, in the article “Violent Video Games May Stop Crime By Keeping Criminals Busy Playing Violent Video Games.” Evan Dashevsky says that as violent video games become more popular, violent crimes decrease. Dashevsky states: “The crime rate in the US has sharply decreased as video games have continually upped the viscera factor. ”(Dashevsky, 2013, p.1) Instead of committing crimes when they are bored or feel like acting out, teens now have a legal way to blow off some steam and get an adrenaline

Moreover, many kids deal with violence and can’t control it. As a result of having issues with violence some people play video games to let their violence and anger out. People need to understand that “ [b]ut overall, violent crime is down in the US-indeed, as violent games have become more popular, violent crime has fallen." (Erik Kain 1) The more popular the game is studies show violent

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

Guns. Blood. Death. Three of the most prominent words or actions used to describe video games. Arum Steinbeck wakes up, goes to school, comes home and plays video games. His face glued to the television, he is exposed to gruesome acts of violence. Nonetheless, Arum Steinbeck is not a serial killer. How is this possible? Adolescents who play video games are killers. Dead wrong. 90% of children in the US play video games and 90% of those children play games that involved mature content. Yet, it is possible that not one of these children will grow up to commit serious acts of violence. For most of the children who do end up committing crimes other factors are involved in the equation nonetheless, society tends to blame what they cannot explain. It is easier to blame video games than to accept responsibility for our actions. To put a seranio to words say there is an adolescent drunk driver who gets into a car accident and kills a family. When in court the intoxicated driver will plead not guilty putting the blame on anyone besides themselves. We have fingers to point them. People get in trouble with the law and need a way out, society has made videogame companies a revolving door of allegations that a court of law should find the person rather than the fictional game responsible. In summary, violent video games do not cause real life violence, though some people seems to wish it did.

“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!

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.

Contrary to popular belief, violent video games may not play into violent crimes as much as you may think. Many people think that violent video games might be the main reason that violent crimes like mass shootings and murders happen. Another factor that they bring into the argument is that video games isolate the players from the rest of society and makes them become antisocial. Groups are trying to ban video games due to these reason. Being somebody who plays violent video games, especially first person shooters, I do not see this the same way as others do. I see these games as ways to pass my free time, have fun playing with friends, and to meet new people from all over. I believe that people blame these harmless games due to a lack of investigation into the offenders past where they don’t see prior problems and they want to just blame it on an inanimate object rather than the person at fault. This could also be because of a lack of investigation of the benefits that video games bring also. I’m writing this to bring awareness to the benefits of games rather than what people have heard from other sources of media.

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.

In a study done from 1996-2010 the incline of video game sales helped drop the rates of video game violence. In one instance in 2004 there were 250 million video game units sold while at a new low there were around 20 crimes committed by youth. Then in 2010 There was 24- Million units sold and 9 serious crimes committed by youth. As long as Teens are occupied with their gadgets, it won’t occur to them that hurting someone else is more

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,

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.

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.

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