Video games have yet again been the subject of blame for mass shootings happening across America. 

It’s a common thing to believe in America that video games, and their violent nature, is the reason why there have been more youth crimes throughout the country.

Dimond Junior Malcolm Bosse said, “I think that they help teens, and allow teens to vent outbursts into a video game instead of real life.”

I really don’t think there’s a direct correlation between violence in video games, and some of the crimes such as shootings that have happened in America.

I think that it is really the person who plays them and their own mental state that causes them, not the video games.

Dimond Junior Ben Crandall said, “I think there could be a correlation, but not as much as people make it out to be.”

Bosse said, “I think there might be a small connection to a few, but it mostly depends on the mental health of the person. I don’t think it has a big impact.”

More recently, companies like Walmart have begun to remove certain video game advertising from their stores. I think that if violent video games start to be banned entirely, there would be a lot of angry people and the backlash would create more problems.

Crandall said, “I don’t think it’s fair to remove them entirely, there is an age restriction on there so it’s up to the person playing.”

Although a lot of people are blaming the introduction of video games for the increased violence among American youth, the data says otherwise.

The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention website, part of the US Department of Justice, shows that since 1998, when video games first started to get popular in America, youth crime has actually been on the decline. 

Even though crime has been going down, larger crimes like mass shootings have gotten more common. 

I don’t believe that video games are to blame for this, since a large portion of Americans play some sort of video game. 

According to the Pew Research Center’s website, overall 43 percent of Americans sometimes or often play some sort of video game, and 72 percent of men between the ages 18-24 say they often play video games.

If almost half of Americans play video games, I think that it’s more than likely just a coincidence that a shooter had played some sort of video game in the past.

There has been a silent sense of hysteria when it comes to rate of crime in the media. The truth is, crime has been down.

Another question that should be asked is why there have only been this number of mass shootings in America. The Gun Violence Archive’s website, a non profit organization, shows that America has had 301 mass shootings so far in 2019, it’s hard to believe that video games are to blame for all of these incidents.

Another factor in the spotlight for the increase in shootings in America is the amount of guns available.

 According to the World Population Review’s website, there are 120.5 civilian fire arms per 100 people, meaning that there are more firearms than citizens.

Dimond Junior Owen Merrill said, “You have these same video games everywhere in the world, and from the information I know the most mass shootings just happen in America.

“You have this same variable everywhere, but it’s only happening here. It’s correlation, not causation.”

Although video games may glorify guns and violence, I do not believe that they directly cause all the mass shootings in America, and they shouldn’t be considered the culprit.