“Videogames are bad for you? That’s what they said about rock n’ roll” Shigeru Miyamoto, videogame designer

By: Paola Molina 1-27-2020

On August 3, 2019 there was yet another mass shooting in the United States, this time at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas. While the media was covering the who, what, when, some people focused on something else – the shooter’s entertainment activities. Why was this important? Well because his pastime happened to be playing video games. The shooter has been tied to a racist/anti-immigrant manifesto hours before committing the attack (Ortiz). In that manifesto, however, it was mentioned the game “Call of Duty” (Bella). When that was revealed, politicians began reiterating the idea that violence in videogames should be blamed for the growing acts of mass shooters. Time and time again, video games have been blamed for hypnotizing the youth into making violent atrocities despite research saying otherwise. And time and time again the media is distracted by this red laser and always has segments about how video games are not the cause of these atrocities. Then, some other news happens, and we forget about this until another shooting occurs in which the killer plays/enjoys videogames, and we recycle those same talking points. While it is important to always bring out the facts and research to outline how video games do not cause the violence politician say, it is also important to not fall for their tricks and instead move away from focusing on their talking points. I think the younger generation is starting to catch on to what I’m saying, one of the new things that have come out of this are memes. The video game community has come together to demonstrate the foolishness that these stereotypes continue to have a home in the media.

The Past

Like I said, it is important to be informed about the facts, so lets briefly talk about the history of blaming video games. Blaming video games for mass violence has been a thing since video games started. The most notorious case in which video games came under legal scrutiny was in 1993, a time where Mortal Kombat became popular. Congressional hearings questioned violent video games. Tiffany Hsu talks about what led to the 1993 hearings,

“Violent video games began drawing the attention of the authorities shortly after they started showing up in arcades. In the 1970s, a game called Death Race, which required players to simulate hit-and-run killings from behind the wheel, was described by the National Safety Council as “sick, sick, sick.” In the 1980s, Dr. C. Everett Koop, the United States surgeon general, voiced concerns that video games might be detrimental to young people, who he said could become addicted to them “body and soul.” But by the early 1990s, concern had morphed into panic. Rhetoric about an epidemic of violence ran rampant, fueled by fears of teenage gangs and murderers. On Dec. 7, 1993, a gunman killed six people on a crowded Long Island Rail Road train during rush hour. Not long before, the intensely popular and extremely bloody arcade game Mortal Kombat had become available for home gaming systems” (Hsu).

Eventually, these hearings led to the creation of the Entertainment Software Rating Board and rating system for video games. But even after 1993, there continued to be cases were video games were looked under the microscope and aimed to be regulated. In 1999, “President Bill Clinton asked the Justice Department and the Federal Trade Commission to investigate how violent media, including video games, was being marketed to children… in the aftermath of the deadly shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School [2012], President Barack Obama asked Congress for funds to research the effects of violence in video games” (Hsu), even when the Supreme Court in 2011 blocked California from banning the sales of video games (Hsu), and it was determined that video games are freedom of speech (Campbell). Thus, these cases have been inspected under the law time and time again, and they have all determined that is not a public health issue that necessarily cause violent crime to happen.

The present

“[Hollywood and computerized games] undermined the core values of civility” – Newt Gingrich (Former House Speaker) after Columbine 1999 (Hsu)

“The idea of these video games, they dehumanize individuals to have a game of shooting individuals and others” – Kevin McCarthy (House Minority Leader) after shootings in Ohio and Texas 2019 (Bella)

But legal consensus has not stopped politicians for continually pushing the narrative 20 years later as the quotes above indicate. The current administration exacerbates this even more because it is to its convenience to deflect from the real issues. I will talk more about the political side later. In the meantime, let’s continue to debunk this fact and analyze the science/stats about this issue. Colin Campbell breaks this even further and reveals that video games rarely play a big role in mass shootings. The author gives us a sample of recent mass shootings and how tying them to video games eventually fell apart: Heath High School (1997), Columbine (1999), Sandy Hook (2012), and Parkland (2018). Campbell points out that these individuals liked video games, but those were not the only interests they had or problems they carried. In the case of the Columbine shooters, both liked “dark” music, computers, and drama (Campbell). That is not to say that these activities necessarily cause violent actions, but it is worthy to point out that killers have other activities they like, that are not necessarily tie to violence – there is something else that drives them (Campbell). Some of these individuals also had social distresses like being tagged as loners, suffering from depression, and bulling (Campbell). This is also important to put into the table, not to blame a mental illness as the only driving factor, but to understand what goes in the minds of these individuals and what flairs them to do such acts. Killers can even take strange turns in their leisure activities, Campbell mentions,

“However, there are occasions when murderers confess, or claim, to some obsession with art. John Lennon’s killer Mark Chapman had a strange connection with the novel Catcher in the Rye. John Hinckley Jr, the man who attempted to assassinate President Ronald Reagan, was obsessed with the actor Jodie Foster” (Campbell).

Let’s take numbers into consideration. Campbell specifically writes about the history of blaming video games in the aftermath of the Parkland shooting (in which politicians blamed videogames once again) and gives us this statistic: “Of the 100 most deadly school massacres in modern history, 40 took place in the United States… A total of seven attacks took place in the era before video games were a part of American life, leaving 33 school shootings between 1980 and 2018, in which more than one person was slain. In four of those 33 mass murders, the perpetrators have been definitely identified as being fans of video games” (Campbell). So, let’s do the math, 4 out of 40 deadly shootings in modern history attributed to video games only make 10% of the shootings. If we apply that to the era after video game were created, it becomes 4 out of 33. It doesn’t jump that high because it translates to 12% of video games being part of the lives of shooters. This is not even to say that these 4 people say video games caused their violence. But if we were to give those politicians the benefit of the doubt, where video games did cause the violence in those cases, then it is only 12% of those shootings that involved video games. Thus, video games would not be a huge part of the problem.

Furthermore, Campbell mentions an interesting 2004 report from the Secret Service and the Department of Education which they researched 37 school violence instances and found that, “24 percent of the attackers expressed an interest in violent books, while 12 percent were interested in games. 37 percent were interested in violence expressed in their own writings “such as poems, essays, or journal entries”” (Campbell). Thus, there have been investigations, science, and research that indicate that there is no sole entertainment preference that provoke mass shootings. Yes, it is worth noting what a killer might be surrounded by and how that nurtures the violent thoughts, but always clearing up the facts and acknowledging that activities do not translate to violence.

Lets, take a further look at statistics and numbers. Based on a survey in 2013 where they asked Americans which of the factors were to blame for recent mass shootings in that year, the top 3 factors that the people determined as “a great deal of blame” were failure of the mental health system, easy access to guns, and drug use (Gallup). Thus, even the American people realize that blaming video games is not the top priority that we should be concerned about. I think it was interesting that inflammatory language of politicians and the spread of extremist ideology was last. I would argue that those factors are more prevalent now in our times, but this study was conducted in 2013 which is vastly different than the one we live today. But even in general, video games were not thought of to be the main problem.

If we even look at consumer use in the US and compare how much Americans spend on video game software/hardware and the murder index. We come to the same conclusion because in the areas that people spend more on video game software (for the sake of this example lets take a look at Chicago, California, and Florida) there is less index of crime for the year 2017. Why is this relevant? These statistics can prove that there is not strict correlation in these two facts. Maybe you take a look at the upper corner of the north east where there is a high murder index and a high video game spending, and you say that there is a correlation. I would argue that even if that were true, that correlation is not vividly present in other areas of the US like the examples I mentioned before (Chicago and most of California/Florida).

Internationally, we also get the same conclusions. Vox published a graphic that has been spread all across because it shows the impact of guns, and not video games, on civilians. The impact has been so vast that Reggie Fils-Aime, former President of Nintendo America, tweeted the graph with the text, “Facts are Facts”

So, despite all this evidence why is it so easy for video games to get tied to violence? Campbell mentions that is because young people are usually the perpetrators, and young people play video games the most, “Video games are mostly tied to school shootings, because they are generally perpetrated by young men who are (or were) at the affected school. Other mass shootings often take place in the workplace, or in public spaces. Their motives are generally tied to the beliefs, vices, professional failures, mental illnesses or broken relationships of the individual shooters, not to their entertainment choices” (Campbell). It is good to point out, like I have mentioned before, that there are a variety of other factors that contribute to a killer’s negative thinking like religion, extremist ideology, etc. But if it is a young person, video games always appear on the list of things to check, because young people happen to be the generation that grew up with videogames. But this is absurd, Campbell mentions, “Games are a central entertainment for most young people. When young people commit crimes, it is therefore highly likely that they have some history of playing video games” (Campbell). It does not make sense to then blame videogames because every young person would be a killer or inclined to be one – which we know is not true at all. James Alan Fox, a criminologist professor at Northeastern University captures this perfectly when he says, “’If video games are driving people to kill, then we’d be in a lot more trouble than we already are since it’s a big industry… ‘If it’s as dangerous as people say, we’d have far more mass killings than we already do’” (Bella). The deadliest school shooting occurred in 1927 were a man killed 38 elementary school children and six adults because of his failure to get elected to a position (Campbell). Video games did not exist at that time, yet it had become the deadliest school shooting. So, what was to blame then? There is no fool-proof formula to predict or say what makes up a mass murderer. But, video games should not be the only factor that should be blamed for these atrocities.

Politicians

Unfortunately, while more and more people are aware of these facts, politicians keep spearheading the idea that videogames are to blame. For example, in the aftermath of Parkland, Trump called on a meeting to discuss the role video games play in these shootings because he sees them as the problem (Campbell). I agree with Campbell that, “Politically, it’s in his interest to divert attention from the government’s unwillingness to address expensive or divisive issues like gun control or funding for mental health care” (Campbell) and similarly with James Alan Fox that, “’Video games are an easy scapegoat…They [meaning politicians who blame video games] don’t lose votes by blaming the video-game industry. You can lose votes blaming the gun industry, which is why some people choose not to do that” (Bella).  At this point, politicians who do not want to talk about gun control but know that video games are not the problem, just use video games as a way to distract people. A criminal justice professor at Metropolitan State University, James Densley says,

“‘It’s become a script…People have said it so many times that because we have so many of these tragedies, it’s become routine by now…The easy thing is to point at violent video games . . . and that’s a distraction from the reality of the gun culture in United States…We have many young people who are in crisis for various reasons and are struggling with their well-being, and we have to be more attuned to with those struggles to do something about them’” (Bella).

The issues about gun control is a very complicated one. On one hand we have the argument that guns do not cause the issues – it is the people and their ideology. On the other, we have the argument that the easy access to guns, and to high capacity guns, make it easy to cause mass murders regardless of what the shooter’s personality, lifestyle, of ideology make him/her commit those acts. My opinion is more inclined to the latter. I believe there is a serious access issue with guns that should be addressed by the politicians – not just ignored. How we do that is a matter of having various discussions, but the key word here is “having discussions”. We have to stop and think about what high capacity and easy access to guns are doing to innocent people. Yes, it is protected under the 2^nd Amendment, but we should take a look at this and apply it to our times. We have revised the constitution before – an example? The 13^th,14^th, and 15^th amendment which abolished slavery, guaranteed citizenship to those born or naturalized in the US, and prohibits the US from denying citizenship to people based on race, color, and previous condition of servitude. Slavery was normalized and even protected because, unfortunately, slaves were seen as property. So, why did we revise the constitution? Because at one point we realized that slavery was wrong, unjust, people were suffering, and had human/civil rights. The same concept can be applied today.

Like I said the issue over gun control is complicated, but if we can’t agree over restricting gun access, then let’s at least agree on one thing before ending this topic: video games do not automatically create mass murderers. Like various studies have shown, mass shootings have not been directly attributed to or caused by games. 12% of mass school shooters were video game players, but in none of those cases were video games the lighter that sparked the fire in the people to cause harm. Video games are a type of entertainment like anything else. Just like “dark music”, rock n’ roll, and movies. So, if one should focus on video games, they should take a look at the whole entertainment industry – but you will not really find anything. The real problem lies somewhere else. We can argue all day about the gun problem, but we should get into the habit of not allowing distractions like “video games cause violence” take an immense part of the conversation.

Memes

Andrew Przybylski, a phycologist at Oxford commented that blaming video games as a result of mass shootings might become a thing of the past soon because videogames are becoming a norm and it is becoming part of more and more people’s lives as the time passes, “’As the average age of gamers rises, using video games in this way is going to be like blaming socks…It’s going to become a silly thing to discriminate against’” (Bella). Bella cites that a recent Pew study shows that half of Americans ages 18-49 play video games (Bella). We have seen this example play out before. People, in the old times, thought that reading silently was weird and rude, television was going to make people lazy, or that rock n’ roll was corrupting the youth. But as time went on, people looked back and saw how foolish it was to blame those social activities as being poisonous for society. Will this happen with games? Eventually, yes, and we are starting to see this now. In the aftermath of El Paso, where politicians blamed games, young people did something that had not been done before. They marched the streets of the internet and used their memes in protest of what has been said about them. Yes, I said memes. This is my favorite part of this blog because, as a meme lover, I was surprised to observe all of the memes and messages that were coming out of young people who had enough of these negative stereotypes and wanted to show what real gamers do when they play and who they actually are.

Here are some examples of my absolute favorite memes

Here we have the media blaming video gamers, but in actuality video gamers, most of the time, want to pick the good option so that the characters do not become sad. Natural human response just like in the real world.

Same concept as the image before, but this time, the player would restart the whole thing because the negative option just ruined his/her conscious… I would do that too.

Here is another one which pokes fun at old entertainment activities and how it could have caused violence

Those are just a few examples, you can browse the internet or just a simple Google search will have you rolling on the ground with laughter. But this does not just stop with memes, there are short viral videos that exemplify the same message. While I really enjoyed and had my number of chuckles when I came across these memes, it made me even more happy that gamers are taking a new, creative, care-free, and positive approach to the craziness and silliness that blaming video games for violence has become. Hopefully, this can allow NEW conversations to happen about what we can do in preventing mass shootings.

Bibliography

Ortiz, Jorge L. “Weeks since Gilroy, El Paso and Dayton: What If Motives behind Mass Shootings Never Emerge?” USA TODAY, https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2019/08/16/mass-shooting-motives-what-if-we-never-learn-why/2000720001/. Accessed 16 Sept. 2019.

Bella, Timothy. “Politicians Suggest Video Games Are to Blame for the El Paso Shooting. It’s an Old Claim That’s Not Backed by Research.” Washington Post, 5 Aug. 2019. www.washingtonpost.com, https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2019/08/05/kevin-mccarthy-dan-patrick-video-games-el-paso-shooting/. Accessed 16 Sept. 2019.

Bonfiglio, Nahila. “Gamers Respond to Claims That Video Games Cause Violence with Memes.” The Daily Dot, 7 Aug. 2019, https://www.dailydot.com/parsec/video-games-gun-violence-memes/. Accessed Sep 13. 2019.

Campbell, Colin. “A Brief History of Blaming Video Games for Mass Murder.” Polygon, 10 Mar. 2018, https://www.polygon.com/2018/3/10/17101232/a-brief-history-of-video-game-violence-blame. Accessed 13 Sept. 2019.

Chang, Alvin. “The next Time Someone Says Video Games Are Causing America’s Gun Problem, Show Them This Chart.” Vox, 5 Aug. 2019, https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/8/5/20755092/gun-shooting-video-game-chart.  Accessed 13 Sept. 2019.

Duckworth, Joshua. “Wholesome Memes Protest Video Games Cause Violence Claim.” Game Rant, 9 Aug. 2019, https://gamerant.com/wholesome-memes-video-games-violence/. Accessed 13 Sept. 2019.

Fils-Aime, Reggie. “Facts Are Facts.Pic.Twitter.Com/SSEbdYZcgE.” @reggie, 5 Aug. 2019, https://twitter.com/reggie/status/1158587215309463554?lang=en. Accessed 23 Sep. 2019.

Hsu, Tiffany. “When Mortal Kombat Came Under Congressional Scrutiny.” The New York Times, 8 Mar. 2018. NYTimes.com, https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/08/business/video-games-violence.html. Accessed Sept. 13 2019.

Stevens, Colin. Gamers Are Using a Meme to Show the Softer, Nicer Side of Video Games – IGN. www.ign.com, https://www.ign.com/articles/2019/08/08/gamers-are-using-a-meme-to-show-the-softer-nicer-side-of-video-games.  Accessed 13 Sept. 2019.

Gallup. “How Much Do You Think Each of The following Factors Is to Blame for The Mass Shootings That Have Occurred in The Us in Recent Years?.” Statista, Statista Inc., 20 Sep 2013, https://www.statista.com/statistics/272930/factors-to-blame-for-mass-shootings-in-the-us/

SimplyAnalytics. (2019). Map with Murder Index Data 2017 retrieved 7 Oct. 2019 from SimplyAnalytics database.

SimplyAnalytics. (2019). Map with Consumer Expenditure in Video Game Software Data 2017 retrieved 7 Oct. 2019 from SimplyAnalytics database.