Crime study: Hanguns, not 'assault rifles,' used in most mass shootings

[rangerrebew]

[Oceander]

video games by themselves may not play a discernable role, but the broader culture, of which they are a part, almost certainly does.

[Rapunzel]

video games by themselves may not play a discernable role, but the broader culture, of which they are a part, almost certainly does.

I was stunned to hear the stats on video games sales vs movie ticket sales....... I wish I had written it down.. the last Grand Theft Auto release was something like 100 times the top grossing movie of the year..  can't tell me this isn't having some sort of affect...... especially when so few parents pay attention to what games their kids are playing and how violent some of them are.

[EC]

I was stunned to hear the stats on video games sales vs movie ticket sales....... I wish I had written it down.. the last Grand Theft Auto release was something like 100 times the top grossing movie of the year..  can't tell me this isn't having some sort of affect...... especially when so few parents pay attention to what games their kids are playing and how violent some of them are.

There is a counter argument to be made here. How many potential shooters turn to video games instead of the local mall or clock tower now?

Since the mass shooting numbers are absolute, not adjusted for population, you would expect to see an increase over time, purely from the population increase. Yet they have stayed steady for the entire period that video games have existed. Maybe video games are actually defusing the situation instead?

It's a thought.

Though I do agree that parents should know what their kids are doing and playing.

[rangerrebew]

There is a counter argument to be made here. How many potential shooters turn to video games instead of the local mall or clock tower now?

Since the mass shooting numbers are absolute, not adjusted for population, you would expect to see an increase over time, purely from the population increase. Yet they have stayed steady for the entire period that video games have existed. Maybe video games are actually defusing the situation instead?

It's a thought.

Though I do agree that parents should know what their kids are doing and playing.

If you think about, and I know it to be true from almost 25 years of working with kids, people who heavily engage in using these games develop very, very poor social skills since they are never dealing with humans.  Human contact means little to them and while they may not turn out to be mass murderers, they tend be socially immature and uncaring of others.

[EC]

If you think about, and I know it to be true from almost 25 years of working with kids, people who heavily engage in using these games develop very, very poor social skills since they are never dealing with humans.  Human contact means little to them and while they may not turn out to be mass murderers, they tend be socially immature and uncaring of others.

I am going to agree. But (you knew that word was coming) I think you might have cause and effect the wrong way around. Do they fail to develop social skills because they play games? Or do they play games as a way to avoid people?

We could both argue each side of the debate equally well, methinks, being reasonable and educated people.

I was a very shy child. Hated to talk to people, so much so that my two forays into public speaking at school ended up with me throwing up in front of the class. If we had had computer games then, I'd have probably hidden in them. Instead, I hid in books, but also had to deal with people. Never liked it much, but it was practice.

[rangerrebew]

I am going to agree. But (you knew that word was coming) I think you might have cause and effect the wrong way around. Do they fail to develop social skills because they play games? Or do they play games as a way to avoid people?

We could both argue each side of the debate equally well, methinks, being reasonable and educated people.

I was a very shy child. Hated to talk to people, so much so that my two forays into public speaking at school ended up with me throwing up in front of the class. If we had had computer games then, I'd have probably hidden in them. Instead, I hid in books, but also had to deal with people. Never liked it much, but it was practice.

Good point!  But (you knew that word was coming ) when I was young, when Moby Dick was a minnow, we didn't have games so we interacted with each other and learned how to communicate and become socially more mature.  Now that the games, and computers, are everywhere, the kids don't interact with each other but with some unseen entity on the screen which teaches them none of the social skills necessary to be successful.  Yes, many do use them as a means of avoidance but its more obsessive compulsive where they earlier got some kind of relief (emotional reward) from playing the games and then continued seeking that relief.

[Rodrigo]

Back in 1968, the most hated guns in America were the 5 shot bolt action army surplus rifle and the Saturday Night Special.

Get rid of them and America would be a paradise on earth.  How did that work out for them?

[Chieftain]

Back in 1968, the most hated guns in America were the 5 shot bolt action army surplus rifle and the Saturday Night Special.

Get rid of them and America would be a paradise on earth.  How did that work out for them?

Only because they are unfamiliar with anything chambered for a Finnish .338 Lapua......