Steve Kovach:
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Stop blaming violent video games for mass shootings
Violent video games are played all over the world but mass shootings are an American problem. So why have video games been getting the blame?
Patrick Markey: "We go through this thing called a moral panic..."
Patrick Markey: Typically the older generation is fearful of something a younger generation is adopting that they don't totally understand or they don't see value in."
Chris Christie:
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Patrick Markey: When we look at games like Grand Theft Auto and Call of Duty, the two games tend to be kind of lightning rods and are often blamed for school shootings. We find that when those games first come out there's actually sudden dips in homicides in the United States. We've also done other things on when are people actually playing violent video games, this is kind of across the board, any type of violent video game and what we find is when people are playing violent video games we also see dips in violent crime: aggravated assaults, homicides and so forth."
Patrick Markey: "In fact, again, what is found in both studies is about 20% of school shooters showed interest in violent video games. Whereas the average high school student is about 70%. So what we find is the actual reality is the reverse of what we tend to think, that the school shooters tend to play less violent video games than the average high school student."
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