Senator says violent games gave Newtown shooter 'false courage'

A Democratic senator from Connecticut believes Newtown shooter Adam Lanza may not have had the "false courage" to embark on the elementary school massacre if not for violent games. Washington Examiner has video of the senator's speech (via Kotaku), given during a press conference for a new bill which would limit and ban assault weapons.

“I think there’s a question as to whether he would have even driven in his mother’s car in the first place if he didn’t have access to a weapon that he saw in video games that gave him a false sense of courage about what he could do that day,” Sen. Chris Murphy said.

The crux of Murphy's speech was on the need for a ban on assault weapons, like the AR-15 rifle Lanza used in the shooting, but he sees video games as a contributing factor. President Barack Obama has called for the CDC to research any potential correlation between violent games and real-life violence.

As a semi-relevant factoid, Murphy is the U.S.' youngest senator at age 39.