The Sandy Hook Elementary School disaster has sparked off quite an outrageous controversy and the topic at the centre of this debate is video games. In quite a twisted statement, the CEO and executive vice-president of the NRA (National Rifle Association) Wayne LaPierre stated said that it is not guns that should be the focus of attention, but the glorification of gun violence, especially in video games.
LaPierre took examples of video games such as Grand Theft Auto, Mortal Kombat, Bulletstorm and Splatterhouse. He mentioned that virtual weapons were more dangerous and powerful than the real ones that exist in the society. Christopher Ferguson, associate professor of psychology and criminal justice at the A&M International University in Texas has pointed out that there is no evidence that suggests that there is a link between violence and video games.
The video game market has seen quite a surge in 2012, with games like ‘Call of Duty: Black Ops 2’ racking up a whopping $1 billion in sales within two weeks of its release. The main reason as to why people are pointing to video games at this point in time is because Adam Lanza (the shooter in the Sandy Hook killings), spent hours playing Call of Duty.
The statements and remarks made by a lot of people including Wayne LaPierre himself have quite a few discrepancies. For example, Mortal Kombat is a hand to hand fighting game that uses no sophisticated weapons. The world of video games and gamers are being blamed for the recent shootings and all we can do is wait and watch to see what will be the fate of video games in the near future.
