Google+

NRA calls games a "corrupting shadow industry"

Lobbying group lays part of blame for Sandy Hook shooting on violent games

Words: on December 21, 2012
Back to Article

95 comments

  • ParagonT - December 22, 2012 6:18 a.m.

    The gun industry and game industry is not to blame. Although video games do increase aggression in youth and adults alike, that does not mean it's the reason many do these atrocious things. Side note: I can just see it now, the civilians disarmed and your military still equipped. That doesn't seem like a healthy relationship at all.

  • Thedigitalg - December 22, 2012 11:50 a.m.

    Actually, video games drastically decrease sensitivity to violence, but decrease violent tendencies. Meaning, a tragedy wouldn't really affect me, but I wouldn't commit a violent crime.

  • ParagonT - December 22, 2012 1:06 p.m.

    Actually I did an extensive report on this and it does increase aggression, not meaning it increases crime or violence, but competitive and social aggression.

  • sxh967 - December 22, 2012 2:58 p.m.

    I don't know if you saw it but there was an experiment done, which showed that Project Gotham Racing actually caused people to become more aggressive than being killed or killing someone brutally on Gears of War. The reasons given were that people find it difficult to relate to games like Gears of War (which is totally unrealistic) or even games like Battlefield, or GTA because they don't have real life experiences with which to compare it. People have experiences of racing (perhaps in the form of athletics at school or on a mountain bike) but it appears that sports and driving games actually made people more aggressive. Basically, based on the results from that report (and it was a well carried out one using the latest neuroscience technology available), "violent" video games don't really make people that aggressive at all. Anyway, if you did a report I'd love to read it, I'll send you my email address by PM if you're happy to send it to me. Peace!

  • FierceVoltage - December 23, 2012 9:09 a.m.

    I found similar results to you in a research project I did last year, it seems the competitive sports games increased aggression more than shooters, and I also found that video games actually help develop problem-solving and critical thinking skills.

  • JachAnen - December 24, 2012 4:19 p.m.

    Action movies might also decrease violent behavior, as a statistic shows that there are spikes of violence doing weekends, although if a violent movie premieres, the spike is lower or even gone. So violent media satisfies violent people, although that same media can have the opposite effect on impressionable people, who then wants to mimic what they saw, which could even be something from news media. So games can hardly be blamed there, it's the parents that should check if their kid is that impressionable.

  • sxh967 - December 27, 2012 3:51 a.m.

    Thanks for the deep response! I look forward to it ^_^

  • sxh967 - December 27, 2012 3:53 a.m.

    Yeah different games train different abilities. Shooters enhance the reflexes and improve hand-eye coordination, strategy games increase executive control and allow people to better control multiple variables at any one time. Puzzles games obviously improve problem-solving skills and then games like the brain train series on the DS clearly show their results in-game.

  • gadjo - December 27, 2012 10:56 a.m.

    Once again, the notion that we could fight our own military with consumer assault rifles is just stupid. They have tanks and jets, we have assault weapons inferior to the ones they're using. Outside of a guerrilla war, which can be fought with damn near anything. Don't delude yourself, if you ever find yourself fighting the US military with a single assault rifle, no armor, and no air support, you are about to die.

  • jackthemenace - December 22, 2012 2:54 a.m.

    I'd be a lot more inclined to believe him, if this wasn't coming from the same organisation that said the best way to stop a bad guy with a gun, is giving a good guy a gun. The organisation that said they wanted mounted armed police stationed in every school in the country. Because A) the police have NEVER been known to go crazy and abuse that power, and B) guns are DEFINITELY the kind-of thing you want pre- and primary school children exposed to. 'Murica.

  • mafyooz - December 22, 2012 2:12 a.m.

    Is this idiot aware that video games are available outside of the USA? I live in the UK, I've been playing games for about 30 years, and I've NEVER felt the urge to go and massacre a bunch of defenseless schoolchildren! Even if I did, it'd be pretty hard because I can't just walk into a fucking supermarket and by a rifle alongside my baked beans!

  • sxh967 - December 22, 2012 3 p.m.

    Exactly one of the problems is the availability of firearms. Having said that our murder rate isn't exactly perfect. I guess if someone wants to kill someone else they will find a way to do it won't they! Just so happens that there aren't many video games where you just go around stabbing people so the UK authorities wouldn't be able to pin anything on games :P

  • Cwf2008 - December 22, 2012 12:52 a.m.

    What a fucking idiot. Blaming everything BUT his own organization. If violent video games truly inspired violent shootings, this whole country would be like Mad Max right now

  • pachai1994 - December 21, 2012 4:37 p.m.

    Everyone should check out this video it completely tears apart the NRA's argument blaming entertainment for this unfortunate event RIP sandy hook citizens http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8GMD9xBguz8

  • GoldenEagle1476 - December 21, 2012 7:07 p.m.

    Good video. So true.

  • bass88 - December 21, 2012 3:42 p.m.

    Videogames don't kill people. Although they do hurt when you throw them at someone.

  • Tjwoods18 - December 21, 2012 2:09 p.m.

    Big difference in his logic. Yes video games influence the behavior of young children and adults, but only in those who cannot differentiate fantasy from reality. I have been playing video games for 15 years and never once have I had the motive to pick up a handgun and go shoot people.

  • JAZ9030 - December 21, 2012 1:04 p.m.

    If video games are to blame then police would catch murders teabagging the people they kill. I agree with a lot of what people are writting in the comments. People kill people.

  • ultimatepunchrod - December 21, 2012 12:45 p.m.

    My response to this kind of nonsense is and will always be: look at the millions of people who play games who do NOT shoot up a school full of kids or a theater full of people and compare that to the handful of cases where these mass shootings occur and then some moron on the news who wants five minutes of airtime comes on and says there MAY be a link to violent games. It has never once been proven that games were the cause of violence in these cases. Also, coming out in staunch defense of your guns right after a mass shooting of children means that your priorities are in the wrong order.

  • Person5 - December 21, 2012 4:57 p.m.

    Psh, what are you talking about? Everyone knows that everyone who goes on a shooting has used video games to train them. Its also common knowledge that the video game industry WANTS this, as they sit in their dark castle on a cliff during a constant lightning storm, as they plot their evil plans to have their own army of people brainwashed by violent video games.

  • sxh967 - December 22, 2012 3:06 p.m.

    lol yeah imagine if the government stopped sales of flight simulator in case someone tried to use it to repeat 9/11! it was never mentioned was it! isn't that weird!

  • profile0000 - December 21, 2012 12:16 p.m.

    The NRA is just pointing the finger at videogames because everyone is pointing the finger at forearms policy for the recent tragedy at Newtown. They are just looking for something else to take blame that is being placed on them. Neither is the case. Over the last 25 years, the more videogames sold, the lower the youth crime rate becomes. Videogames don't contribute to violence. Likewise, you cannot blame guns either. Guns can be a means of enabling crime, true, but they don't cause crime themselves, and very few people who legally own firearms use them violently. I can see that the NRA is only placing blame on videogames to get out of the heat, but it is still a dick move.

  • ObliqueZombie - December 21, 2012 11:41 a.m.

    It is neither guns nor games that are the problem. People will get a gun no matter what, and games a global phenomenon that has somehow only "affected" our country. I'm not even gonna dip my toes into this. This is a losing battle on his part, no need to spark a bigger flame.

  • ParagonT - December 22, 2012 6:07 a.m.

    Yep, pretty much my view as well. I guess pencils misspell words, cars make people drive drunk, and jobs make people late for work. We might as well get rid of them to with their logic. Any other examples of things we should blame besides the person?

Showing 61-80 of 95 comments

Join the Discussion
Add a comment
(HTML tags are not allowed.)
Characters remaining: 5000

Connect with GamesRadar


Featured Guides

Connect with Facebook

Log in using Facebook to share comments, games, status update and other activity easily with your Facebook feed.