Weekly Video Game News

Video Games Vs Gun Control

After last weeks horrifying school shooting in Florida there has once again been an outcry for stricter gun control in America. However Kentucky governor Matt Bevin instead targeted video games as the prime suspect in an interview. The governor said that “Guns are not the problem; we have a cultural problem in America”. He also stated that “These are quote-unquote video games, and they’re forced down our throats under the guise of protected speech. It’s garbage. It’s the same as pornography. They have desensitised people to the value of human life, to the dignity of women, to the dignity of human decency". 

Unsurprisingly these statements have an anterior motive. Bevin is backed strongly by the American National Rifle Association (which holds much political and financial power). It's clear that this statement exists to draw attention away from the gun control debate. By blaming video games his statement attempts to manipulate people into being outraged about something that is both minor and altogether unrelated.

This article from The Register, which is a UK technology magazine, gives the view that "it's very, very difficult to kill people with a video game, but very easy to kill a lot of people with a semi-automatic weapon" which is obviously true. Clearly coming from a technology magazine it is unlikely that they would be against video games however that does not stop the fact that time and time again it has been proven that there is no link between violent video games and increased violent behaviour, a fact also stated in this article by Business Insider which has no particular bias on this situation. These facts were researched and published in the paper "Computers in Human Behavior" from the University of York.

In my opinion I think this is a sad excuse to distract from the real issue and should be quickly dismissed by anyone who can do a small amount of research.

Furthermore I'd like to leave with this graph which i feel perfectly illustrates my point.