No - America has problems, and passing the blame on entertainment is silly.
Some shooters claimed they were "inspired" or influenced by video games - However, that doesn't mean much. By that logic, all of the million of people playing video games would be killing people in the streets right now, which isn't the case. Blaming video games for such events makes about as much sense as to blame cars or alcohol for drunk drivers. The driver drinking while driving is the problem, just as the insane person holding a gun is.
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The reasons we have more mass shootings are obvious- we have the most guns per capita in the world. We have no easy access to health care, most importantly mental health care. We have a toxic society which has led people to believe it is 'all against all' and the ends justify the means, to 'win' at any cost.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estimated_number_of_civilian_guns_per_capita_by_country
I remember in the 80s and 90s when they pulled this shit trying to blame games. They were wrong then and they are wrong now.
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It's possible. Super Mario Bros. made me want to jump on turtles in real life.
/s
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Video games are available in every countries but those where you can buy a gun as easily as a hamburger suffer the most from mass shootings.
New Zealand changed its gun policies and suddenly there are less problem. Don't think NZ made video games illegals to get this result.
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Specifically trying to link mass murderers to anything is a huge discrimination to said linked group.
Hate, prejudice, stereotypes, and generalizations are harmful weapons used as tools of oppression and segregation.
I would estimate no less then one billion people have played a violent video game in some form.
Thre are NOT 1 billion mass murders.
Nothing is to blame for mass murderers except the mass murders themselves.
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That's like blaming any religion because a schizophrenic serial killer said that he killed "in the name of God"... These people are mentally ill and they will find any excuse to justify their acts.
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Generally, I'd say no.
Because in some cases, yes, the shooter might have become "inspired" by some video game. But if you look for motives you will find a lot of other stuff beneath that "quick videogame blame".
And most likely the person has mental issues and/or is unstable and/or could have a personality disorder (i.e. sociopath) etc or might even be someone considered "sane". Mix that with hate, ideology, politics, radicalism, etc you will have these tragedies.
Also, I do think that more guns available make it easier for someone to cause more harm than "good" (i.e. defending yourself, your family, others). Besides shooting sports, gun have no other use than violence: for the "bad violence" (crimes) or the "good violence" (legitimate defense).
It is a complex issue to narrow down to the obvious responsability of criminals/shooters alone and/or one factor.
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Human are complicated and multi-faceted so I think it's kind of ridiculous to blame one thing like video game for what is clearly a very complicated and societal problem. Personally, I think we need to think of how the society work as a whole to even start understanding how those people can pose those actions. I really don't think it's just one thing and also not all mass murderer are the same and have the same motivations so it can't be solved by simply saying this thing is responsible.
Every one will have their own opinion of course but personally I think that easy access to gun is making it worse. I guess since it's so foreign to me I'm having a hard time imagining but if I someone was seen walking down the street with a gun here, the police would get tons of calls so I guess it makes it harder for someone to even be able to do something like that. Not to say that it never happens here but it's certainly not a common occurrence.
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It's hard to judge absolutely whether video game has an impact on people's decision of mass shooting.
But comparing "taking video games away" to "taking easy access to guns away", the latter will definitely result in a drastic drop in mass shooting death in America.
Consequentially speaking, the best move is, by far, gun control.
Consequentially speaking, whether video game can share blame is a lot less relevant.
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It's a dead subject. At least, it should be, but 'slow news day' phenomenon causes media to ceaselessly echo such subjects as a pokerfaced question just to appear more present and with the times. The studies have generated consistent results. No. No they are not responsible. And the subject has been revisited so much that it will be a cold day in hell before a fresh 'perspective' or 'new data' are actually fresh or new in relation to this subject.
Before videogames became the gormless scapegoat, it was rap music that was targetted. Before that, metal. Before that, criminality in general (not specifically mass shootings) was blamed on suggestive content and action movies. Before that, a handful of books. Before that, home TV sets and radio. I likely missed out a number of idiotic scapegoats, as I get the feeling comic books were briefly targetted too. Next up on the scapegoat list is definitely going to be VR sets, if that technology ever becomes a more commonplace entertainment purchase.
This subject may have once upon a time been a genuine question, but it has long since stopped being such. Now, is just a diversionary tactic to shift discourse away from more lucid factors in the crimes, or used to simply draw media attention upon the old and absurd so that other more present subjects are given less focus (and are therefore less likely to be challenged in a timeframe when change can still be made). It's perhaps worth noting that certain other things are never randomly attributed to shootings due to how popular they are (alcohol, a common inhibition and mood altering substance, religion, a deeply emotive and systematically irrational ritualistic grouping, and competitive sport, which evokes enough passion and animosity that it has been subject of literal riots and team-allegiance violence). Yet if you try to bring up more salient contributing factors such as mental/emotional welfare and support structures, or systematic failings that led to a severe mental/emotional break, it turns into a political circus of cross-party exaggeration and personal attack. Try addressing the oversaturation of firearms that doesn't have a similarly upscaled degree of comprehensive tracking and regulation, and you will hear an immediate and well-rehearsed cry of "trying to take away all guns", "breach of constitution / freedoms", and all manner of cunningly conditioned responses.
Where there is corporate money hinging on the result of discourse and adjustments in law, you can bet that those with power will find in favour of their personal interests, and will hold no petty tactic or accusation back in attempting to cast attention and blame elsehwere. Videogames are not responsible for mass shootings, but the endlessly repeated asking of this question is itself a hidden red flag to the state of politics and public perception. If people really want these events to cease, they will have to stop placing priority on getting in cheap shots at opposing political groups, and instead place priority on peer reviewed study, and accept that the facts and the solution may not be a quick and easy fix. Until we can be that sober, it will proabably continue on as a holding pattern.
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Are Video Games Responsible for Mass Shootings?
i wrote an essay about this, quoting it next:
no
that's all. ^^
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your constitution is the problem to allow sucker to wear an weapon as easily as i can bought some food in france...
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simple videogames don´t kil.l weapons kill people.
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There's so much variables on these tragedies. The short answer is no, but I can see how you could easily blame any of the most realistic FPS. I mean, have you seen Escape from Tarkov? It's almost a shooting simulator.
I still remember that "No Russian" COD scene saying to myself "what the fuck is this? they have gone too far".
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My personal feeling is that people generally understand and know in the core of their being the difference between fantasy and reality (Shooting a person in a game and shooting a person in RL) and that mental illness is it's own "thing." (for lack of a better word)
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I'm overly amused to see how people in this century likes to blame inanimate objects...
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Doesn't this graph very show clearly what politicians have to address rather than video games?
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Games do not contribute to mass shootings. Most of them (shooters) and their agenda want to be known. Media reporting about it makes that happen.
Wanna know what else contributes to mass shootings, not enough people utilizing conceal carry permits. Why is it, with mass shooting here, there is no one with a gun utilizing a conceal carry permit?
They make it hard to get a conceal carry permit that no one bothers, and the shooters still get weapons while we are defenseless.
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Criminals now are guaranteed that their prey is unarmed.
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They arm themselves. A Permit isn't going to stop them from getting a gun. Gun control now just makes it harder for people to defend themselves.
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Oh, they arm themselves. Got it. ^^ And why do you think they are able to do that? Maybe because in the US there is an abundance of weapons? Even military grade weapons. From the standpoint of an European this is just bizarre. In some (or even all?) states you can even guy a gun before you're allowed to drink alcohol. How does that make sense? You're not old and responsible enough to drink a beer, but you can carry a gun? Does that really make sense to you?
The fact that there are more guns than people in the country is the reason why it's so easy for criminals and mass shooters to get guns. Would you not sell guns at every corner, they would not get into circulation on the black market. And would you not sell high-end military grade weapons, mass shootings would have way less victims. Honestly, what do you expect if you give guns with 100 round magazines to people. You sell guns that have nothing to do with defending yourself or hunting. You sell guns that frankly make it quite easy for mass shooters.
The "prey" does not need to defend themselves if there are no guns to begin with.
The statistics are pretty clear on this. The more guns in the country, the more gun related deaths. You simply can't dispute that. Take the guns away, and there will be less death. Look at the stats of other countries. Forget the 2nd amendment. This is not the wild west. You don't need a gun.
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https://twitter.com/neiltyson/status/1158074774297468928?s=20
Also, let us see those stats.
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What do you mean? I showed you a stat. Just look at the image I posted.
And what does Tyson's post have to do with that?
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Again a random link without context. I get the feeling you are trying to avoid a real conversation. It's alright, we can just stop here.
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You did see where I said "not enough people utilizing conceal carry permits" Your the one forcing yet again your agenda. My link concerns what I originally said. I posted a link to a site with a huge amount of stats, all you have to do is read. Sorry, It's not a jpg.
It's o.k. I got ya
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Doesn't matter what your original point was. We had a conversation. You posted your concealed gun statistics as response to my post, and that simply made no sense. Aside from that I don't know what exactly you want to tell me with your stats. I went briefly over it, and none of that addresses things like gun violence in relation to guns circulating or anything like that. It also doesn't say if concealed guns prevent crimes or deaths, unless I missed something. So I don't see your point.
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I had an original point in this comment. You tried to derail what I was saying. If someone utilized a conceal carry permit, they would have shot back. Then there could have been a big probability that he only killed a few and not as much as he did.
One possibility is that guns don’t just enable mass shooters; gun owners can also deter and prevent such shootings. Another is that culture — not gun ownership — is a bigger factor in shootings.
The largest mass shooting to ever occur was the Garissa University College Attack, in Garissa, Kenya, in 2014. 148 victims perished in the attack.
Of the 86 countries where we have identified mass public shootings, the US ranks 56th per capita in its rate of attacks and 61st in mass public shooting murder rate. Norway, Finland, Switzerland and Russia all have at least 45 percent higher rates of murder from mass public shootings than the United States.
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Yet interestingly... "unarmed prey" is apparently only a viable target in the USA still, even if they are ACTUALLY unarmed everywhere else.
Huh.
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Other places prefer cutting weapons. Brazil, for example, uses both. Only here we post about the mass shootings everywhere and make it look cool.
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Or... it just doesn't happen as often EVERYWHERE else.
Can't post "news" that doesn't happen...
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You mean every statistic posted in this topic?
Meanwhile you believe in a worldwide cover-up... guess which I believe more.
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Like
Quote "veebles
first rampage killings: 1583 Vatican, 1630 Jakarta by Dutch sailors, 1810 KKK USA, 1828 UK (Atlantic Ocean), 1873 Indonesia, 1884 Ontario, 1891 Argentina, 1893 Japan, 1893/1928 Spain, 1896 India, 1897 Malaysia,
1900 Brazil, 1903 Phillipines, 1906/1935 USA, 1913 France, 1914 India, 1925 Russia, 1929 Kenya
first shooting sprees: 1878 India, 1949 (argueably mobsters/bankrobbers 1930's) USA
first school shootings: 1913 Germany, 1923 New Zealand, 1925 Lithuania, 1927 Michigan
first serial murderers: 331BC Rome, 144BC China, 1432 France, 1570 Iceland, 1797/1926 USA, 1888 Whitechapel, 1903 Prussia, 1928 Germany
last century blamed: TV/movies/music/dancing, tabletop RPG's, childplay combat, booze/drugs, fashion, vidgames/internet, poverty/diet/education, religeon/dicipline/cults/occult, LGBT, left-handedness, abuse, mental illness, notoriety"
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So, once in 2019 years makes it totally right to have 365+ per year (and counting, since that's only the current amount in the US and the year is far from over).
Yeah... seems rational.
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The largest mass shooting to ever occur was the Garissa University College Attack, in Garissa, Kenya, in 2014. 148 victims perished in the attack.
Of the 86 countries where we have identified mass public shootings, the US ranks 56th per capita in its rate of attacks and 61st in mass public shooting murder rate. Norway, Finland, Switzerland and Russia all have at least 45 percent higher rates of murder from mass public shootings than the United States.
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to have a mass shooting, the 3 necessary ingredients are:
- a mass
- a gun with enough ammunition
- a potential assassin
take out one of them and you won't have a mass shooting.
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They will always find a way to get a gun. So that leaves the other two.
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No. The more you reduce the guns available, the less of a problem you will have. Other countries clearly show that. Australia is a good example.
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The best way to reply is what I've said in this post before.
They arm themselves. A Permit isn't going to stop them from getting a gun. Gun control now just makes it harder for people to defend themselves.
Other places prefer cutting weapons. Brazil, for example, uses both. Only here we post about the mass shootings everywhere and make it look cool.
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1) If they arm themselves, where are those mass shootings in other developed countries? Mass shootings are a uniquely American problem, so their cause must be uniquely American too. Sure, there are other distinctively American traits (e.g. religiousness), but easy access to guns seems to be a good candidate. This goes beyond mere intuition: as another user just posted, there is research backing this based on prohibition in other countries.
2) Leaving mass shootings aside, easy gun access makes it possible for everyone to have a gun -- as you said, people can "defend themselves". But that also means that a) felons have to be ready for that and therefore carry a gun, b) violent situations may escalate much more easily. Knives and punches can kill people too, but much less efficiently than a gun. Not everyone (and not every criminal) has the desire to kill, but guns create a situation where the scenario is much more likely.
3) Suicides are strongly linked to gun availability. Again, these are not mass shootings, but yet another reason to restrict their access.
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I said "developed countries", which indeed excludes Africa, South America, some parts of Asia, etc. Violence in those countries is unfortunately common, but that's only one of many problems they have to deal with. They are ravaged by poverty and corruption, and their security forces are often unable or unwilling to face their high crime rates.
Western Europe, Canada and the US are relatively similar in many aspects: they have well-established democracies, high GDP/capita, high HDI, generally low crime rates, etc. One can't but wonder why the US among all these has mass shootings on a recurrent basis.
Granted, these areas do have mass shootings every now and then, but they are extremely infrequent. Besides, they are mostly terrorist attacks organized by foreign organizations with a clear agenda. So, let me rephrase, "frequent mass shootings are a uniquely American problem".
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The largest mass shooting to ever occur was the Garissa University College Attack, in Garissa, Kenya, in 2014. 148 victims perished in the attack.
Of the 86 countries where we have identified mass public shootings, the US ranks 56th per capita in its rate of attacks and 61st in mass public shooting murder rate. Norway, Finland, Switzerland and Russia all have at least 45 percent higher rates of murder from mass public shootings than the United States.
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1) You just ignore facts and arguments that do not fit your ideology, while parroting the same lines over and over. Again, the problem with guns goes far beyond mass shootings, and it's simply not true that criminals arm themselves. In other DEVELOPED countries (it makes little sense to compare with estates with almost no police presence, widespread poverty and ramping corruption), both gun violence and overall homicide rate are much lower than in the US.
Some numbers: in 2017 the US had 12.21 firearm-related deaths per 100,000 population per year, which places it 10th globally. This includes both suicides and homicides; if we consider only the latter, it's the 16th. Now, if we look at total homicide rates, the US is apparently doing a bit better: the ratio is 5.30, or 89th out of 230 countries. But this is 5 times as much as Germany (1.00) or France (1.30), 7.5 times as much as Spain (0.70), and 10 times as much as Switzerland.
One cannot conclusively state that guns are THE problem, but considering they are extremely good at killing and that the US ranks among the first in firearm-related deaths, they seem to explain pretty well why it's so insecure compared to its peers.
2) Ah, yes, America is doing SO well because Kenya had worse mass shootings. You know what else? Kenya also has extremely poor education, low GDP/capita and a plethora of environmental issues. Americans should feel so good about themselves knowing that, heck, at least they are not dying of thirst and hunger.
3) No, Norward or Finland do not HAVE higher rates of murder from mass shootings than the US. Your statistics are flawed because they do not describe the typical murder rate but the average over a carefully selected period. Norway, Finland and Switzerland had a couple of isolated mass shootings between 2009 and 2015 which greatly inflated the average, but most years had simply 0 deaths. If you calculate the median (i.e. the most common event) instead of the average, the picture is completely different: the US ranks first and most of these countries have a median of 0 deaths. And why would one use the median instead of the average? Because the median describes better the risk of dying in a mass shooting, whereas the average is heavily biased by one-time events.
Besides, those statistics were obtained for the 2009-2015 period, which is relatively short, and mass shootings have only increased ever since.
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Guns are not the problem.
"People utilizing conceal carry permits" is what my post is about. Stick to that.
Why are you people trying to derail that? What, to scared to discuss people utilizing conceal carry permits?
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My reply was just an answer to your misleading claims about mass shootings in other countries. There was nothing about conceal carry permits in it.
I don't know for sure whether or not guns are the problem, and neither do you. However, there is substantial evidence pointing in that direction. With homicide rates much higher than most other developed countries, gun restriction deserves some consideration.
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Your proof my claims are misleading???? I'm sorry but there are mass shooting in other countries.
You do have your opinion though. At least you got that going for you.
Now about people utilizing conceal carry permits.
Kind of hard to have a mass shooting when the shooter is dead way before he kills a lot of people.
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The largest mass shooting to ever occur was the Garissa University College Attack, in Garissa, Kenya, in 2014. 148 victims perished in the attack.
Of the 86 countries where we have identified mass public shootings, the US ranks 56th per capita in its rate of attacks and 61st in mass public shooting murder rate. Norway, Finland, Switzerland and Russia all have at least 45 percent higher rates of murder from mass public shootings than the United States.
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I think that all wars are from people who plays to much at Pokemon cause they try to catch them all....
There were always violence and killing before video games.
Not so long ago I heard that it was also book and movies were responsible of mass killing....
Why not thinking of imitation cause they saw it on news?
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