13 reasons why video games don’t cause mass shootings

Earlier this week, the USA was once again shaken by a tragic, and perhaps easily avoidable, mass shooting. Instead of blaming any number of societal, political, or cultural reasons for this senseless act, US president Donald Trump took to the world stage on Monday to blame the NRA’s favourite scapegoat… video games.

According to Trump’s speech, the recent atrocity (and the 247 mass shootings that came before it) were not the fault of lax gun laws, but rather the fault of a society that “glorifies violence” through “gruesome and grisly video games.” Apparently, the 246 people who died in mass shootings — and the 979 wounded — in America last year weren’t the result of a broken system, but rather the victims of Mario, GLaDOS and Princess Zelda.

Given President Trump’s notorious struggle to digest information longer than a tweet, here are thirteen reasons why video games don’t cause violent behaviour… each in 280 characters or less:

1. In the era that video game purchases have boomed, gun violence has decreased. Overall, gun violence in the world is on the decline as ever more countries have put stringent gun laws in place. If video games were the cause, shootings should have increased, not decreased.

2. In the era of video games, violent homicides have decreased. Despite what the media says, in general the world has never been a safer place. This decrease in overall violence has happened despite the introduction and rise of the video game industry.

3. Both South Korea and China produce, buy and sell significantly more video games than the USA, and yet, they have less than 10% of the mass shootings that America has.

4. 2013 research comparing violent video games (a shoot ’em up with graphic blood and gore) with non-violent video games (a shoot ’em up with paintball guns) found that the level of violence made no difference to player aggression.

5. Research has shown repeatedly that violence can be stimulated by frustrating scenarios. If a game is frustrating (even if it’s non-violent) it can lead to a minor, temporary spike in aggression. BUT, this is true of any frustrating scenario, from work to politics.

6. Studies that ‘prove’ video games cause violence are notoriously unreliable. These studies rely on teenagers self-identifying their feelings. When subjective measures, such as feedback from parents and carers were introduced, the results change.

7. Psychologists agree that the handful of studies showing video games lead to violence are simply incorrect. In fact, more than 230 psychologists have signed a letter concluding that this research was misleading and poorly conducted.

8. The US Secret Service also agrees that video games don’t cause violence. In 2004, an audit aimed at identifying the causes of school shootings found that just 5 out of 41 shooters played violent video games. Below the national average.

9. On occasion, video games have been shown to be tied to a decrease in violence. In one 2016 study, economists identified a reduction in crime following the release of major video games.

10. Research from the University of York shows that video games don’t even ‘prime’ people for violent thoughts. This study found that more realistic violence in a video game made no impact on the future thoughts or aggression of players.

11. Over 166 million adults play video games in the United States alone. While 247 mass shootings is an insane number for any country, the reality is that if video games incited such acts, the USA would be overrun with murders, psychopaths and violent criminals.

12. The fact that you can find a video game in a shooter’s bedroom isn’t evidence of anything. As stated above, 166 million adults own and play video games. You may as well say that you found a lamp in the bedrooms of multiple mass shooters and blame IKEA for the atrocities.

13. The core audience for video games isn’t grumpy teenage boys. Women now make up 45% of the gaming community and the average female gamer is a 36-year-old mother of two. Gaming is now a mainstream pastime with the majority of players not fitting the average ‘shooter’ description.

It’s 2019. Can we please drop this ridiculous notion once and for all and discuss the real issues that are stopping our world from becoming a safer place?

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