There is no statistical correlation between video games and violent crime, a Washington Post article argued in the wake of the Sandy Hook shooting.
“Video game consumption, based on international data, does not seem to correlate at all with an increase in gun violence,” wrote Max Fischer, a foreign affairs blogger for the Post.
Adam Lanza, a 20-year-old Connecticut man who killed over 20 people in an elementary school last week, was an avid computer video game player, and some have suggested a causal relationship between the two. But according to Fisher’s examination of video games and murder rates in 10 different countries, no connection exists.
The lack of a correlation between video games and real violence is supported by several studies. A 2010 study by Christopher Ferguson of Texas A&M University found that people who do not play violent video games may even experience higher levels of frustration or aggression than those who do.
These studies have not deterred some from drawing a connection between mass shootings and video games. David Axelrod, an adviser to President Obama, called for stricter regulation of both guns and violent video games in response to the Sandy Hook shooting.
“All for curbing weapons of war. But shouldn’t we also quit marketing murder as a game?” he tweeted on Sunday.
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