Violence In Video Games

Violence in video games has recently resurfaced as a possible cause to atrocities that have been occurring recently in the United States. Though I do understand the seriousness of gun control and researching the effects of violent media on the public, I have always felt uneasy that it requires us to go through a terrible tragedy and the inevitable news media "blame game" comes into play. So, does violence in video games turn children into heartless killers? I'm going to have to strongly disagree with this sentiment. However, it is still very possible that our current media is desensitizing us to violence. Personally, gaming has played a very large part in my life, probably since I was able to pick up a controller. At a young age, games of choice included some classics such as Sonic the Hedgehog and Crash Bandicoot, but other games such as Twisted Metal and Grand Theft Auto 2 were also part of my library. Throughout my life I have experienced violence in popular media, not only in video games, but I learned at a young age to distinguish fact from fiction thanks to my parents and relatives. Not only this, but I actually experienced the power that comes with a firearm in my early teens. My uncles were shooting targets and allowed me to try. Needless to say, the recoil and loudness of the gun shocked me to the point of breaking down. While it may not have been a revelation, it was a solid reminder of just how powerful guns truly were. Perhaps it was also the family that I was raised that allowed me to never see a point in violence. I may have been bullied a bit in school, but it was never anything that stuck with me and I learned that I did not have to take it, but also did not require to take dangerous matters into my own hands. Maybe I'm just an outlier in this situation with the ability to separate coping with issues in reality and being particularly violent in video games. I wouldn't even consider video games as a way to "vent" either, as a majority of the time I use them to have fun rather than release anger. However, I feel that we need to take a bigger look at the atrocities that these horrible people cause before attempting to blame it on a singular piece of media and call it a day. Most of these people are disturbed in one way or another in the first place. It was not simply many nights of playing "DOOM" that caused the tragedy of Columbine, but the sick minds that did not find ways of coping in healthy ways. I will not say that violence in video games is not an issue, but it is certainly not the majority of the reason people turn to needless violence to seemingly solve their problems.