Republican politicians say videogames partly to blame for mass shootings

[TomCADem]

Source: PC Gamer

Kevin McCarthy, the Republican Party House minority leader, has said that videogames are partly to blame for mass shootings in the US, following the deaths of 29 people in two shootings in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio.

A lone gunman killed 20 people and injured 26 more in a shopping center in El Paso yesterday in an incident that officials are treating as "domestic terrorism". Police have apprehended a 21-year-old white male suspect. 13 hours later, a second gunman opened fire in downtown Dayton, killing nine people and injuring at least 27. Law enforcement officers killed the shooter, identified as Connor Betts, 24.

In an interview with Fox News in the wake of the shootings, McCarthy said videogames that involve shooting "dehumanize individuals".

"I've always felt that is a problem for future generations and others. We watch from studies shown before of what it does to individuals," he said, without referencing any specific studies. "When you look at these photos of how it took place, you can see the actions within videogames." The full clip is below.

Read more: https://www.pcgamer.com/republican-politician-blames-videogames-for-mass-shootings/

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It did not take long for Kevin to start repeating the Fox News talking points. Perhaps no one will notice that there is not that much gun violence in South Korea, Japan or China, which have large gaming communities.

[Thekaspervote]

1. That is such hipe!! STFU mccarthy

[safeinOhio]

2. Kids in every country play the same games

and don't do mass murder. But, then again, they can't grab dad's AK47 and shoot up the town.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

9. There's not much running around stabbing people either. The ease of guns is part of the appeal.

When you can kill 10-20 people and never come closer than 10-20 feet, the murderer or wannabe murderer feels invulnerable.

Having to make contact with a person to stab them? Not so invulnerable. People tend to fight back.

[cstanleytech]

3. Sure and lets ignore the fact that mass shootings have been happening before video games were even

invented.

[murielm99]

4. This is such bullshit.

I remember when my kid was playing "Doom."

I said, "Don't play that. You might become a school shooter."

He said, "You don't really believe that do you, mom?"

I said, "No. That would be silly. I just want to use the computer."

[William Seger]

34. Hmm, maybe easy access to real guns is "partly to blame" huh

[murielm99]

36. Not necessarily.

Farm kids grow up with a shotgun in the house. They learn to use the gun at an early age. Usually, the gun and the shells are kept in separate places. The kids learn safety and a healthy respect for guns. People who hunt teach their kids about safety, too.

I live in the country. We have guns. It is normal. I am not talking about automatic weapons!

[JohnnyRingo]

5. Perhaps they want background checks for video games.

A five day cooling period and registration of each title. That'll fix it.

Canadian kids play the same games but don't kill groups of strangers. FWIW they too have access to guns. Not assault rifles, but still...

[BigmanPigman]

6. Sure. Keep it in the family, Kevin.

And keep your family with guns away from my family. What a maroooooon.

[sakabatou]

7. The 1990s called

It's wondering why they're bringing in this dead horse to be beaten.

[DFW]

11. You noticed too?

This one is about 30 years old. I guess the Republicans thought we had forgotten this old excuse. Next massacre, they’ll probably be telling us it’s all due to way too many reruns of westerns being shown on oldies channels.

[Jedi Guy]

25. The one after that, it'll be Marilyn Manson's fault.

I remember when he was blamed for Columbine. He was interviewed by Michael Moore as part of Bowling for Columbine. Moore asked him, "If you could talk to these kids who did this, what would you say to them?" His response was (and I may be paraphrasing here), "I wouldn't say a single word to them. I would listen to them, which is what no one else did." I always felt like that was a pretty thoughtful response, personally.

[Maeve]

32. My thought as well--that is sooo last century! eom

[jmowreader]

50. The 1990s know why

It’s because Republicans will do anything to divert your attention from the fact the only thing that will stop mass shootings is also the thing that will stop people from voting for Republicans

[padah513]

8. Running out of excuses so they had to rehash an old one

Can't blame it on mental health. President Obama put legislation in place to keep the mentally ill from obtaining these weapons. The nitwit in chief stripped that legislation away as soon as he got in.

[SunSeeker]

10. Right, McCarthy, that's why Japan has so many mass shootings. Oh wait.

Japan doesn't have mass shootings. Yet they are totally into violent video games.


Gee. What could the difference be....

[HuskyOffset]

17. Japan is the home of the Samurai and Ninja

and they’re big into tradition there, so I’m sure the Japanese are samuraing & ninjaing the shit out of each other, right? Right Kevin?

[tymorial]

12. Because I never play with people from Europe all the time online

Funny how there are never shootings.

But its video games right? Couldnt have anything to do with access to guns or racist rhetoric from the right and its leader.

[maxrandb]

13. God!!! Not this shit again.

Remember when Retrumplicans tried to tell us that teenagers were having sex because of Madonna?

[IronLionZion]

14. Nobody else in the world plays video games, only Americans

And I suppose girls and minorities don't play video games either.

Freepers/Trumpsters have been claiming that immigration is still the problem: if immigrants didn't come here we wouldn't have white supremacists killing them.

[TomCADem]

46. PC World: Why gamers in Asia are the world's best eSport athletes

You would think that South Korea must have daily active shooter drills in its schools given how popular video games are as a past time.

https://www.pcworld.com/article/2036844/why-gamers-in-asia-are-the-worlds-best-esport-athletes.html

October 13, 2012 was a warm and sunny Thursday in Los Angeles, yet 8000 people packed themselves into the University of Southern California’s sold-out basketball arena to watch two teams of PC gamers battle for supremacy in one of the world’s most popular video games—a strategy/action PC game called League of Legends. More than 8.2 million people from around the world tuned in to video streaming sites like Twitch.tv that day to catch the action live.

The winner of the tournament, the Taipei Assassins, took home a massive trophy and a $1 million prize—a princely but not uncommon sum. Dozens of players make a good living playing games like League of Legends and Starcraft 2 competitively.

Sure, it’s not the world’s most stable job, but professional gaming can be quite lucrative for top players—especially in the Far East, where careers are on the rise. One of the world’s best StarCraft 2 players, Jang “MC” Min Chul of South Korea, has made $365,000 playing in StarCraft 2 tournaments since the game’s launch in 2010. That figure is on top of MC’s income from sponsorships and a salary from his team, SK Gaming.

Playing PC games has become a bona fide career option, and right now business is booming. It’s a great time to be a PC enthusiast, and it’s a far cry from 2008, when professional PC gaming—eSports, by any other name—was thought to be on the verge of extinction.

[Roy Rolling]

15. STFH Kevin

No time for imbeciles anymore.

[Algernon Moncrieff]

16. Amazing how that works, isn't it?

If the shooter was Arab or Latino surnamed, this would be a national security issue, and we'd hear a lot of talk about immigration, roundups, walls, etc.

...but when White Nationalists do this stuff, it's "mental health."

It's.The.Guns.Stupid!

[Skittles]

52. back in the day it was hard rock music

now it's video games

never the guns

[tanyev]

18. If you take away all the video games and leave all the guns,

there will still be a lot of mass shootings. Maybe more.

[marble falls]

19. It's like blaming matches and lighters for lung cancer. Its the guns.

[RobinA]

23. If You're Going

to be consistent, blaming guns is also like blaming matches and lighters. Video games and guns are in somewhat the same category (yes, there are differences). Both just sit there and do nothing without human intervention. Switzerland has guns AND video games, but not mass shooting. It’s something in the culture.

[marble falls]

24. The proximate cause of a shooting death is the gun. If I want to shoot someone ...

and I can't get a gun that someone will not get shot by me.

Switzerland (and Israel) do not just hand out guns. As a member of the armed forces all citizens are required to serve and when discharged remain in the reserves and are required to keep arms and equipment in case of national emergency. Here in the US any nut off the streets can buy an AR-15 and go to 2nd party suppliers and cobble himself together a fully automatic rifle using .223 militart ammunition.

Eliminate the sale of these guns and take the loose ones of the streets and then these outrages will cease. Take cigarettes off the streets and smoking caused cancer deaths will decrease dramatically no matter how many matches and lighters you own.

Don't get me wrong. I was a 2nd amendment worshiper who believed that if I owned a rocket launcher and nobody knew it, was I really breaking any law. I learned to shoot at NRA classes in the early sixties. I used to have an AK and a 1911.

But those are not the days we are in now. The 2nd Amendment calls for a "well regulated militia", something gun nuts don't like. Regulation and it derivatives are like holy water on vampires to them.

Gun violence is a major cause of death these days especially to children. Gun violence is a health crisis and a public safety crisis and we need to do what the military does when events get ahead of efficient operation: they stand down and fix the problem. We need to stand down on gun ownership until we get a handle on controlling it (well regulating it) and stop this madness roiling around us. I gave up my weapons voluntarily more than two decades ago, and I think its time for others to be forced into it.

[Hulk]

20. Shell game for idiots....

Such morons. Honestly...and they believe we are just dumb enough to believe that bull shit. Sadly, millions are.

[Hulk]

21. ....and don't forget the weather....

The weather has about as much affect on these mass shootings as video games. Those days of blame are loooooong gone. Probably they do add to the violence in this world today, but sweet Jesus, should we just ignore this megaphone of hate and racism coming from the White House. Hardly.

This disgusting con artist coward in the White House is DIRECTLY responsible for this last slaughter of human life in el Paso. The blood is on his hands, and we need to call it out.

[Politicub]

22. Their attempt at redirecting attention from a president in a white robe

and pointy hat to an Xbox controller will not work.

The GOP is a cancer.

[lark]

26. Repugs cheer on the rw killers by refusing to do anything at all to stop them.

Instead they just come up with more stupid inane excuses for their refusal to protect Americans and put gun profits above our lives.

[underpants]

27. Republicans dehumanize individuals

Anyone not white straight and male are openly portrayed as dangerous and a threat. Oh and they are lesser than you, all powerful, and the source of all your problems.

[Blues Heron]

44. If I hadn't seen this post I was going to post it myself. Exactly right.

[underpants]

45. ✅

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

28. Then why aren't there frequent mass shootings in other countries?

Video games are especially popular in Japan. Why aren't young Japanese men shooting up schools and shopping malls?

[no_hypocrisy]

29. Hey Kev!

Don't forget to blame comic books!

[Ford_Prefect]

30. There were at least 2 well regarded studies which found that games did NOT have this effect.

Those who do the shooting or attacking are motivated by more visceral and complex sources and are often triggered by specific events such as Trump's fear-mongering tweets and speech.

[NoMoreRepugs]

31. It's not rocket science. A sizable portion of our populace

led by the Orange Douche have created one of the most racist countries on the planet. Factor in hundreds of millions of guns and billions of rounds of ammunition, not to mention Hate Radio and Faux News stoking fear and loathing amongst the Deplorables 24/7. Its a situation that isn't changing anytime soon, I believe it will only get much, much worse before we see any changes.

[Stonepounder]

33. That's a load of bull-crap!

Well, let's see. I have been playing computer games for about 50 years now. I suspect I have killed millions of creatures, and a few million more humans, orcs, giants, etc. I have never owned a gun or wanted to own a gun. I do not allow guns in my home. My wife hates spiders but when one scuttles across the carpet she calls me, I trap it under a glass, then slide a piece of paper under the glass and take the spider back outside. I suspect that I understand that games are games and probably don't reflect real life. I've never seen an orc or a giant in real life. I've never used a teleporter in real life. I've never cast magic spells to kill my enemies. So, blah, blah, blah. It is not video games, it is tRump's hateful rhetoric that has brought about the rise in gun violence. Not games, not immigrants, not poverty, it is the hateful slug who is currently trying to become dictator of the world.

[gopiscrap]

35. other countries have the same video games available

and they don't have mass shootings

[raccoon]

37. Shove it where the sun don't shine, McCarthy.

Perhaps no one will notice that there is not that much gun violence in South Korea, Japan or China, which have large gaming communities.

THANK YOU.

[paleotn]

38. One word

Canada. Same games. Far fewer gun deaths. Go figure.

[not_the_one]

39. well, if watching stuff on video leads to that behavior

I should be out having wild and wanton sex, and lots of it.

Too bad I didn't get the memo...

[Brainfodder]

40. Not lack of recognition of need & getting mental health services?

VIDEO GAMES?

Uh, hell no, if anything that curbs it.

[rockfordfile]

41. Oh like that "Left Behind" video game?

[0rganism]

42. those stupid racist trumpy incel assholios on 8chan aren't going to be happy with what happens next

now that their favorite pastimes and congregation zones are on the chopping block

it'll be a bit of a trick for them to find a way to blame "socialist" Democrats for this when their orange fuhrer is running with it publicly. not saying they can't or won't, but it will take some maneuvering and maybe a whole new set of false-flag "crumbs" from Q.

[EleanorR]

43. Does the NRA/russia just hand them their talking points?

Or do they have them memorized by now because of the constant rehash?

[Mike_DuBois]

47. Another moral panic

Blame records, blame fantasy RPGs, now blame violent video games.

[KY_EnviroGuy]

48. Yep, it's the video games all right.....

but it's the games Trump and thousands of right-wing media pundits play on TV video every single day, along with the same dogma on right-wing talk radio. Lies, deception, stoking of false fears, dog-whistle racism and xenophobia - all in a 24/7 non-stop stream.

Those are the mind games we need to be rid of........

[meow2u3]

49. What a crock of shit!

NRA rethugs are going out of their way to seek scapegoats such as video games, mental illness, and everything but the real culprit--the easy availability of weapons that belong either on the battlefield or in the hands of law enforcement SWAT teams. They're parroting the talking points of the #1 domestic terrorist organization: the NRA!

[Turbineguy]

51. That way they can get more

Americans shot.