Don’t blame GTA for mass shootings

Everything in society was great before video games came along. Now we’ve got all kinds of mass shootings and associated mayhem.

Down with the Devil’s electronic pastime. Ban murder simulators.

Believe it or not, this is pretty much the thought process of a distressingly large number of talking heads who have recently revived the “video games are turning our kids into killers” argument.

Make no mistake, this is a baseless and patently idiotic argument.  

In fact, the only thing more laughable than the idea that video games create mass murders is that Fox News apparently still believes Grand Theft Auto to be a how-to book for murder shoved down the throats of our impressionable citizens.

“What do the mass shooters from the Navy Yard, Sandy Hook Elementary, the Aurora, Colorado movie theater and Columbine all have in common?” John Dickerson said in a Sept. 19 column on Foxnews.com. “They’re all target demographic buyers for the world’s best-selling videogame.”

The game Dickerson refers to is Grand Theft Auto V, which has now surpassed $1 billion in total sales.  

It’s the largest entertainment launch in history. Yet, this is the connecting factor between modern mass shooters. Dickerson has cracked the code. You heard it here first, folks.

Well, if you want to get technical, GTA V released the day after the Navy Yard shooting, so it probably wasn’t what made Aaron Alexis allegedly gun down innocent civilians.  

But I won’t dwell on semantics. I’m not going to let little things like facts or logic get in my way, and neither is Dickerson.

Dickerson only said these shooters were all in the target demographic for Grand Theft Auto.  

That demographic is men aged approximately 18-40.

Seriously, Dickerson? Being in the target demographic for a popular video game — never mind actually buying it — isn’t a connecting factor in mass shootings.

None of the shooters you mentioned played Grand Theft Auto V. They didn’t even all play video games.

I know you work for Fox News, but this is a stretch even for you.

Even if they did all play Grand Theft Auto V, in no way is that sufficient evidence to claim the game has anything to do with the killers’ actions.  

Let me repeat. Grand Theft Auto V had the largest entertainment launch in history. Millions upon millions of people purchased it on the day it released.  

I’m fairly certain somewhere a future mass shooter has a copy of the game sitting next to his TV.

I’m also fairly certain that millions and millions of normal, well-rounded people also have a copy.

This popular game is posited as a connecting factor to violent attacks because it’s provocative and violent.

Well guess what, Dickerson. So are many video games, movies, albums, comic books, works of art, pieces of literature and cave paintings.

Violence is a popular theme — sorry if this is a new concept for you.

All serial killers drink water, Dickerson. Don’t point fingers at me because I’d rather do the same than guzzle your Kool-Aid.  
    
­— kkusisto@indiana.edu