How Do Video Games Influence School Shootings?

The question of the century, are video games truly to blame for violence? School shootings, psychological harm leading to violence and everything in between; were these reinforced by virtual reality? There are endless points of view on this topic, whether it’s something in the brain that triggers the youth or just plain out based on their upbringing. When it comes down to the facts, video games are potentially the reasons for young adults bloodlust in fantasy to transfer over to reality without even noticing.

Many studies show video games have a direct correlation to violence. Others even go as far to say video games are responsible for huge massacres and school shootings. Although some are skeptical and cannot accept this as a fact,
These two were found to be frequent users of the violent video game, “Doom” (Korach). An excessive amount of research have been done on the topic about whether video games have influenced school shootings or not. When talking to Harris and Kleybold they, “...enjoyed playing the bloody, shoot-’em-up video game Doom, a game licensed by the U.S. military to train soldiers to effectively kill” (Korach). In the same manner the article “Were video games to blame for massacre?” By Winda Benedetti, the video game, Counter strike, a widely known team based shooter, where there is a terrorist team and counter terrorist team (Benedetti). This game is currently being held responsible for the shooting on the Virginia Tech campus due to the perpetrator being a regular user of this game. Common sense leads people to believe, “... that without video games Cho wouldn't have had the skills to do what he did” (Benedetti). Mirroring this idea the article “Tying Columbine to
The article “Entertainment Merchants Association” by Brown, talks generally about CEO’s of companies that create and distribute video games brought judgment against the state of California, trying to repeal the distribution of violent video games to minors (Brown). The reasoning behind the attempt to but a restriction on video games provoking young people’s aggressions due to the fact of potential long term harm to the brain. When this was brought up, “the state did not not have a compelling interest in preventing psychological or neurological harm to minors allegedly caused by video games...” (Brown). In the same sense, “Grand Theft Childhood” by Dr. Lawrence Kutner and Dr. Cheryl K. Olson, similarly state depression and other mental illness are induced by video game use. A 15 year old boy was hospitalized for depression, signs of cutting, and failing out of school, not because of lack of intelligence but staying on Worlds of Warcraft for so long (Kutner and Olson). When it came to a point that, “[h]e would pretend to go to sleep, and get up in the middle of the night to play. It turned into a battle of wills. He would get very upset and angry until he got his fix”(Kutner and Olson). Likewise in “Face-Stabbing and Cop-Killing: Inside 2015's Most Controversial Video Game” by Edwin Evans, the game “Hatred” can lead to many