America's president Donald Trump has suggested that violence in video games and films is the root of the United States' on-going gun violence catastrophe.
Speaking yesterday, as reported by Kotaku, Trump said - well, rambled - blaming anything but the firearms industry for the repeated high school shootings.
“We have to look at the internet, because a lot of bad things are happening to young kids and young minds, and their minds are being formed, and we have to do something about maybe what they’re seeing and how they’re seeing it," he, um, said.
"And also video games. I’m hearing more and more people say the level of violence on video games is really shaping young people’s thoughts. And you go one further step and that’s the movies. You see these movies, and they’re so violent, a kid is able to see the movie if sex isn’t involved, but killing is involved, and maybe we need to put a rating system for that.”
A ratings systems for video games? America has had ESRB since 1994.
Additionally, the notion that video games cause gun crime is pretty ludicrious given that the rest of the world has video games and we don't have repeated massacres in our countries. It's almost like the problem is firearms and the lobbying dollars that ensure that legislation against guns doesn't come to pass.
This revelation has divided the right side of the political spectrum, with many blaming, um, the left for their perceived role in demonising video games and gamers. This is ignoring the fact that many in the right wing and Gamergate communities voted Trump.
Who, incidentally, has long held anti-video game views.
Video game violence & glorification must be stopped—it is creating monsters!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 17, 2012
This follows the tragic Florida school shooting which took place earlier this month. This time it would seem that some American citizens have had enough, with school children walking out in protest of the Government's inaction on the issue of gun crime.
Photo credit: Evan El-Amin / Shutterstock.com
