Columbine Video Game Connection

As we all know, the shootings that occurred on Tuesday, April 22, 1999 at Columbine High School were a tragedy that should have been avoided. After the shooting, there was talk all around about why the event happened and what was going on in the shooters minds. Maybe I have such strong feelings towards the argument that violent video games contributed to the shootings because I play games myself and can't see how they could affect me in that way. It just gets to me when people try to justify socially unacceptable behavior as a result of violence in video games. Yes, maybe the shooters had seen something in a video game that had given them the idea to act it out in real life, but video games are not solely to blame. From an article posted on the New York Times' website (link here), a study found that the shootings were a possible result from the boys getting their video game privileges revoked. A quote was taken from a psychiatrist by the name of Jerald Block stating,

They “relied on the virtual world of computer games to express their rage and to spend time, and cutting them off in 1998 sent them into crisis,”

Personally, I play more than my fair share of video games and in the past, yes, my parents have taken them away but never have I felt "rage" or any other angry emotion. Now, I realize that there was a lot going on in the minds of the shooters that went much much deeper than having their games taken away, but it always seems that violent video games get the fall. It almost seems like a cop out to me, I feel as though if violent video games really were to blame, then the government would be doing more to stop them (and not have a 7-2 vote to allow the sale of these games to minors).

One part of the article that I found especially interesting, and one that I haven't yet heard about, is that recently, the American Medical Association was seriously considering adding video game addiction to its list of mental illnesses. Maybe playing an overly abundant amount of video games is bad, but a mental illness? Here's a link to a Wikipedia page where they delve a little deeper into the idea of violent video games promoting anti social characteristics. I especially like this article because it brings up the positive aspects of these games, and doesn't harp solely on the bad ones. One part of the article, as it pertains to the shootings, goes on to present the idea that the two teens had become desensitized in their video game worlds and projected it into their everyday lives. If this were true, we would need to ban every Saw movie ever made. There are far worse things that we see in movies and television that could also lead to desensitization when it comes to violence.

So, maybe the violent video games did play a large role in the mental breakdown of the two teens, but I don't know if there is enough information to prove that they are to blame. Just because we physically interact with the violence in a game and merely watch it in the movies doesn't make a game any worse.