The violent videogames. Yes, they are a contributor.

[romana]

74. Mixed

Ironically, I have two students studying the links between aggression and video games as their senior thesis projects, so I've been spending a little time with this literature. I am also an avid gamer. The literature on the link between video games and aggression is mixed at best, suggesting this is a complex issue influenced by a variety of factors. It isn't as simple as saying playing video games makes you more aggressive or that the links don't exist, since there are probably a significant number of co-variates that go into not only choosing to play violent games, but also on acting on those violent thoughts activated by the gameplay.

At the very least, if some of this violence stems from video game play, and I think it probably does but is symptomatic of larger problems in a small proportion of the video-game playing population, isn't it better to keep guns out of their hands instead of arming them to live out their fantasies in real life? If given the choice between violence in a virtual world and violence in the real world, I'll take the former over the latter any day. And it is worth pointing out again that countries around the world get the same violent movies, music, television shows, and games that we do, yet don't see the level of gun violence that we experience. The important difference does seem to be how access to guns is legislated in those countries. IMO, that's where we need to start.

That said, we as a nation have a lot of soul searching to do on a number of issues, all relating to our glorification of violence. Entertainment is a part of that, as is access to guns. This isn't a black and white issue.