User blog comment:AraedonMelias/A serious question for you all. . ./@comment-2052424-20130919201548

After John Lennon and Rebecca Schaeffer were killed in a shooting, and an assassination was attempted on then president Ronald Reagan, everyone pointed their fingers to a controversial book, 'Catcher in the Rye'. After Charles Manson and his cult committed their crimes, a Beatles song, Helter Skelter shared the blame. Not too many years ago, violent movies were blamed for gun violence, and before that it was board games, such as DnD.

Fixing a problem is hard. There are various causes, and influences which make a person go on a shooting rampage. It's hard to organize mental health reform, education reform, drug-use prevention, and to get parents to be more involved in raising their kids. A real problem is hard to fix, but blindly throwing the blame on just one thing is easy. When a horrible thing happens, it's easy to just point to movies, books, or video games, and vilify it - turn it into a scapegoat. When a shooting massacre happens, it's easier to yell, "Ban Video Games!" than it is to organize mental health, educational, and gun reform.

This isn't to say that video games, or movies, or even books play no part in this, however. If someone is easily impressionable, is desperate, or not mentally healthy, then perhaps a violent game, movie, or book might influence them. But taking away the video game is not going to solve the problem, as the person will still be in the state of mind which caused them to be influenced by something such as a video game; whose to say that something else won't influence him?