Should Video Game Stores Sell To Minors?

Revenge as Justin Nutt states, “Is pure hatred showed to relieve stress.” (Nutt, J. Dec 14). Many articles tend to base their beliefs over school shootings on revenge, because of the age and choice of a crime. These crimes are not random; are particularly committed by an older age male seeking to let go of some type of stress. You can even use the Florida State shooting in 2014 as an example, “The FSU shooter was dealing with emotional and physiological problems.”(Rossman, S., & Etters, K.) The student was a former FSU graduate who was attending law school at Texas Tech University; was staying with a

As the level of violence in video games increases, so does the level of concern for those who play them. Some people are quick to blame school shootings on games just because the kid played a “violent” game. “The topic of videogames and violence can be compared to the chicken or the egg question, which came first, violent games or violent behavior”(Violence and Videogames). However most kids in mass shootings tend to have easy access to guns and are mentally unstable.

People have been playing video games since the late 1970s, but it wasn't until 1999 that we began to question the consequences and influences associated with younger players. Karen Sternheimer's article "Do Video Games Kill" is about the controversial idea that video games are responsible for mass school shootings.

Since 2013, there have been 175 school shootings in America. That is such a horrible number to hear. There's been so much activity on school shooting that it doesn't come as a shock when one happens. As Obama said after the shooting at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Oregon, where a gunman went on a rampage and murdered at least 10 people, “ Somehow this has become a routine.” All shooters have a motive and it has to do with their life at home, how they were treated at school, and how their mental health is.

In many shootings or children with aggressive behavior, people have used violent video games to blame as the source for their outcomes as their main problem because video games that contain graphic violence make it an easy target for people to blame bad behavior on. In life, there are always many different forms of violence; in sports, movies, school, conversations, and radio. So why are so many people blaming video games for the cause of criminal violence? Kristin Bezio explains why in his article “Stop Blaming Video Games for America’s Gun Violence” for the reason we reject video games, “It's a phenomenon known as "cultural lag," and it's what causes us to be hesitant in adopting new technologies, trying new fads, and changing our social

Within 10 years, massive shooting seems to become more and more common and hot topic across the news, especially school massive shooting. According to CNN.com, “Columbine Shootings leave 39 dead or injured” (April, 1999), “Massacre at Virginia Tech leaves 32 dead” (April, 2007), “Twenty children among twenty-eight killed in an elementary massive shooting in Connecticut” (December, 2012), etc., similar tragedies repeated over the headlines across different newspaper and websites. School massive shooting is a severe social catastrophe, if we don’t solve this problem as soon as possible, it will threat the whole nation. The cause of these tragedies is controversial and various, but mainly caused by bullying, rejection from school, and mental

People have always been looking for a reason why horrible things happen. The media is quick to blame video games as the target and cause of many shootings that have occurred, ever since Columbine and Quake. People have been blaming video games for violence for years now, ever since violent video games have been made. News reports blame video games more and more for each shooting, telling the public how this person played video games for x amount of hours a day, and that video games caused him or her to shoot people, and how video games encourage and reward violence. Anti-video game lobbyists have been campaigning to have violence removed from video games, citing resources that they themselves have created as reasons for

One key factor in almost all of these school shootings are these students home and school lives. At home they normally don’t have a strong parent figure in their lives. They then go to school, and stand out as different, leading to being alone or bullied. Not having people there for you in your life is extremely hard, and sadly some people take it

That is why some kids shoot up schools, because they are bullied or made fun of. Between 2013 and 2015, an average of two school shootings took place at K-12 schools each month. Among shootings at K-12 schools in which the age of the shooter was known, 56 percent (39 of 70) were perpetrated by minors. The kids who shoot up schools are not just bullied they are bullied constantly by almost every one. No-one but people the kid tells knows what they are dealing with outside of school so the bullies could be adding more negative feelings on top of the ones already there.

If there were no violent video games, would it just be that people turn to other entertainment mediums such as movies and still cause these brutal outbursts. They are a runaway train heading on a course of utter brutality and destruction. A study was published in the United States showing that only 12% of people in a school of misbehaved pupils causing or taking part in aggressive behaviour had an interest in violent video games while 37% “exhibited an interest in their own writings, such as poems, essays or journal entries”. In addition to this, the idea of using different media sources as a scapegoat is not new. In the 1950’s comic books were blamed for violence and that was verified not to be the case. So it is the same story just a different media getting blamed.

“According to data recently released by The NPD Group, in 2012, U.S. video game software sales reached $6.7 billion (174.8 million units) and computer game sales were $380 million (13.2 million units)” (Improving Economy). To many, the violent video game industry has turned all adolescents into mass murderers. However, they’re absolutely wrong. Very seldom do adolescents who play violent video games commit acts of violence, and the ones who do usually have a mental disorder. Instead of blaming the tragedies that occur on violent video games, the news media should explain to people that a large percentage of young males play violent video games, indicating that the two are uncorrelated. They should alternatively research other possible solutions to the crisis. In lieu of negatively affecting people’s lives, video games could potentially improve their lives!

In my most recent essay I wrote of the violence attributed to video games in light of various shootings and other tragedies that occurred in the past year or so. In this essay I argued that despite their violent content, video games are not completely to blame for acts of violence committed by children. Throughout this essay I tried to convince the reader by, first, establishing my own credibility with video games, then sharing my own experiences with violent games, and providing both empirical data and valuable insight from trusted sources.

Whether violent media content leads to real-life violence is always debatable. And in recent years, school shootings have made video games a new focus of public concern and scientific research. In public opinion, video games cause more aggression in comparison to traditional violent media contents because video games have more features of interactivity, "due to the active engagement and participation of players" (Hummer and Wang et al. 137). But more and more reports tell us that video games are not the main cause of school shooting issues; rather it is the negligence of parents, schools, and communities.

The reality of the situation is that there are many numbers of reasons that a school shooting may happen. There have been 142 school shootings in the United States since 2013, as indicated by a record made by Everytown for Gun Safety and Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America. There are many reasons we need to use for the reasons for school shootings however the most prevalent one is harassing.

Many theories are speculated of what drove people to create such massacres and harm to innocent victims. One of the most popular is that violent video games have an influence on these attacks. However, Matt Peckham, in “Researcher Says Linking Video Games to Gun Violence is a ‘Classic Illusory Correlation’” explains there isn’t much evidence to prove that theory and researches haven’t found a reasonable link between the two. Actually, on the contrary video games seem to benefit a person mind rather than harm them according to Mary Flanagan, in her article “Don’t Demonize Video Games for Violence.” Video games don’t influence a person’s mind because there is a psychological explanation to these occurrences therefore violent video games has no contribution to violence incidents across the nation.