Mass Shooting Research Paper

The Connection Between Video Games and Mass Shootings
With the recent shooting that took seventeen students lives in Parkland, Florida the old argument that violent video games are a factor as to why many commit the horrible act has resurfaced. President Trump recently spoke of this and stated that “We have to look at the internet because a lot of bad things are happening to young kids and young minds and their minds are being formed and we have to do something about maybe what they’re seeing and how they’re seeing it. And also video games. I’m hearing more and more people say the level of violence on video games is really shaping young people’s thoughts.”. The argument that “violent video games can lead to mass shootings” became a common refrain …show more content…
This meeting was a part of the president’s response to the shooting that took place at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, the shooting that was previously mentioned that resparked this conversation. No reporters were allowed into the meeting while it took place but it is suggested that President Trump and the publishing companies discussed the correlation between video games and mass shootings and the studies done behind this connection. Topics also included were how the scientific studies done established that there was no connection between the two, the first amendment protection for video games, and how the already establish rating system for video games allows parents to make better, more educated choices about the entertainment their children are …show more content…
In 2013, the The New York Times conducted research on whether games were connected to negative long-term behavior, “A burst of new research has begun to clarify what can and cannot be said about the effects of violent gaming. Playing the games can and does stir hostile urges and mildly aggressive behavior in the short term. Moreover, youngsters who develop a gaming habit can become slightly more aggressive - aa measured by clashes with peers, for instance - at least over a period of a year or two. Yet it is not at all clear whether, over longer periods, such a habit increases the likelihood that a person will commit a violent crime, like murder, rape or assault, much less a Newtown-like massacre. (Such calculated rampages are too rare to study in any rigorous way, researchers agree.)”. Another case of video games being rejected as the perpetrator of the increase in violent acts was in 2011, the Supreme Court rejected the claim that violent video games promote real-life violence, this was ruled 7 to 2 in the Brown v. Entertainment Merchants Association. Julia Scalia, wrote for the five justices in the majority, “Psychological studies purporting to show a connection between exposure to violent video games and harmful effects on children do not prove that such exposure causes minors to act aggressively.

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