Video games with guns are a problem,

[Lee-Lee]

25. Honestly, here is the effect I have seen first hand

I don’t think it promotes violence in people not predisposed to it.

I do, however, think that it promotes a very unhealthy attitude about firearms and a very out of touch with reality understanding of them and attitude about them.

In the past most people got their exposure to firearms at an early age at home, at summer camp, even in schools. Tharp learned safety rules, they saw what firearms realistically are. They developed a healthy respect for them. They were just another part of life in the USA.

But in the same period where this safe, responsible introduction to firearms has dinisnsihed the rise of videos game and movies that more and more protray unrealis and unhealthy images of what firearms are have replaced that.

So now, for most youth, all the know about guns is what they have learned in video games.

I see it first hand when I teach firearms safety to 13-25 year olds. The ones who had someone introduce them to firearms responsibility are generally safe and have realistic ideas. The ones who only know video games tend to handle firearms in a much less safe and more flippant manner, as if they are just toys and anything they do isn’t actually harmful- just like it isn’t in the games where you just hit a reset button. They seem awed by large guns based on nothing but size, they think you don’t have to aim. They want to do the usafe crap the see in movies and on games like turn a pistol sideways or shoot two at once. They will argue with me about what a firearm can do or what it’s specs are based on what it can do in the video game, because they assume it’s realistic.

For those who get it, if I hear a student say “Deagle” I know they are going to take extra effort.

This hasn’t just affected the attitudes of people who are already predisposed to violence or sociopathing behavior. It’s also affected the attitude of people who never handle a gun but want gun control and are basing much of their ideas on what moves and games have shown them since they lack any knowledge that is based on actual experience or training.

A good analogy is to imagine if almost all our teens got all of their sex education only from watching hardcore porn, with nobody teaching them about safe sex, consent, etc. How messed up with their knowledge of sex be and what should result from that?