There have been news stories about kids who have committed violent acts and when asked why, they said they saw it in a video game. I agree with others that the violence committed after seeing it in a video game is based on the child's state of mind and their upbringing. Gangs and violence were a part of everyday life back in the late 1800's and early 1900's when the influx of people emigrated to the US from other countries. These gangs and violence and such were formed out of necessity because education was lacking and poverty was rampant. People formed gangs to survive.
People who live, eat and drink violence will more than likely commit violent acts at some point in their lives. I agree that blaming it on video games is a convenient scapegoat. Television and comics books have always been full of violence starting with simple cartoons like Bugs Bunny and the Road Runner. I used to watch those shows religiously but I never had an inkling to go out and paint the side of a hill black to see if I could use it as a tunnel. I never thought about leaping off a cliff in a phone booth and stepping out of it before it hit the ground to see if I would be okay and I certainly never had an inkling to hit someone on the head with a mallet to see if I could make them accordion shaped.
That being said, do I think there are unneccessary violent video games out there? Yes. I believe that games like Bully and Grand Theft Auto glorify violence against people and we are sending terrible messages to our children when you can score points in a video game by beating up policemen and stealing their cars or teaching children how to sneak up behind someone and garrote them in order to kill them.
No, video games do not make the average person want to commit violent crimes anymore than television shows or movies do but that is just my humble opinion and if you don't agree with it, I will hunt you down.
