Violent games played by Americans are primarily designed in Asia, where school shootings in Asia are virtually non-existent.
I find it necessary to respond to a letter from Phil Cyr (June 19) blaming video games for the mass shootings with some pretty basic facts:
• Just last week, a 70-year-old man shot and killed three people at a church in Alabama.
• An attack on Republican MPs in a 2017 congressional softball game was committed by a 66-year-old man.
• The worst mass shooting in U.S. history was committed in 2017 by a 64-year-old man at a country music concert in Las Vegas.
I understand that video games are a hobby for all ages, but does anyone seriously believe that these social security mass shooters have learned to devalue human life from Grand Theft Auto or Halo? They were raised on Andy Williams and The Waltons.
It is also very important to point out that playing games is a worldwide phenomenon. Violent games played by Americans are primarily designed in Asia, where playing games is even more popular for young people than in the United States. In fact, young people from all over the world play violent games for hours every day. School shootings are virtually non-existent in Asia. As well as shootings in schools in Europe, Australia and elsewhere.
Video games are easy targets. I feel that blaming them is either just lazy thinking or a calculated distraction that has been deliberately thrown out to avoid serious introspection or embarrassment.
If this country wants to solve our problem of mass shooting, we will have to look a little deeper than the bits and bytes on the screen.
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