Video games are a tempting target when senseless, violence acts happen in our society. The violence in many of them gives a tantalizing link to the violence of real life, and those searching for simple solutions to complex problems hone in on those imagined links. However, these arguments share the faults of many other such simplistic views: they lack evidence.
A more careful examination reveals the deeper nuances of the subject, and the social issues they raise for all of us.
Coincidence and Causality
In the ’40s, Fredric Wertham ran a clinic for impoverished and mentally ill children. He noticed that most of them read comic books, including lurid crime and horror titles. Wertham published a book in 1954 titled Seduction of the Innocent, which claimed that the prevalence of comic readership amongst his clientele was evidence of the harmful effects of comics. The mistake he made is still being made today: he confused coincidence with causality.
It must be said, many of today’s gun violence perpetrators do play violent video games, much as Wertham’s poor children did read violent comics. However, science requires more than two events occurring together to verify a cause. The events could have a separate cause, or the causality could be reversed, or it could be a coincidence. Wertham ignored the prevalence of comics readership among young people in general. Similarly, today’s critics ignore the popularity of video games among the general population.
Put simply, there is no absolute one-to-one link whatsoever between viewing violent entertainment (including video games) and committing violent acts. There’s coincidence, but no demonstrated causality.
Complexity
At the same time, those in favor of violent entertainments and weaponry need to be the adults in the conversation. Although it is a hard argument to claim that the viewing of violence leads directly to violent action, it is a similar reach to claim that such entertainments have no effects whatsoever.
The key here is to understand the difference between adults and children. Adults, with life experience and an understanding of the world, are equipped to understand what they are seeing; children lack the tools to properly interpret. This is less controversial than it may sound at first – would many people out there honestly advocate a five-year-old watching the entire oeuvre of Quentin Tarantino or waving around a Desert Eagle without any training?
Gun Ownership
So how do we solve this Gordian knot? An open and responsible conversation in which we admit that to own a gun is to have responsibility. Advocates for video games and guns need to show that world that they are not the violent man-children they are caricatured as. How can this happen? Volunteer to teach gun safety. Support video game ratings. Above all, model good behavior, so those opposed can’t point to you and say “See? This is what happens.”
The responsible consumption of violent entertainment is as reasonable a freedom as the responsible ownership of guns. However, rights come with responsibilities. If you want to continue your enjoyment of your Constitutional freedoms, show that you can do so in a safe way. Be the example that you want to see.
