That's a fair point. The generation gap makes a big difference, and older people are naturally more suspicious of those gosh darn videmotronic games than are people who grew up playing them. But I think it's also because of the interactive nature of games that makes them a very different medium.

On the other hand, prescription drugs are the one issue that always seems to be glossed over. Maybe if Activision and Take Two bought ad time on CNN...

Off-topic, but the generation gap is absolutely hilarious when it comes to medicine and the war on drugs. My grandfather reads the newspaper and complains of all the arrests that go on in our area because of all the people "on that dope", but he'll wheedle and whine to his doctors for any drugs they can push his way to solve any and all of his imagined and real ailments.

You can't be serious?

21 killed - July 18, 1984 - In San Ysidro, California, 41-year-old James Huberty, armed with a long-barreled Uzi, a pump-action shotgun and a handgun shoots and kills 21 adults and children at a local McDonalds. A police sharpshooter kills Huberty one hour after the rampage begins.

8 killed - September 14, 1989 - In Louisville, Kentucky, 47-year-old Joseph Wesbecker armed with a AK-47 semiautomatic assault rifle, two MAC-11 semiautomatic pistols, a .38 caliber handgun, a 9-millimeter semiautomatic pistol and a bayonet kills eight co-workers at Standard Gravure Corporation and then kills himself. He was placed on disability leave from his job due to mental problems.

8 killed - May 17, 1984 - In Manley Hot Springs, Alaska, 25-year-old drifter Army veteran Michael Silka kills eight people in a three-hour rampage. Two days later, Silka is killed in a shootout with police.

8 killed - August 20, 1982 - In Miami, Florida, 51-year-old history teacher Carl Robert Brown, angry about a repair bill and armed with a shotgun, kills eight people at a machine shop. He flees by bicycle, but is shot on the back by a witness who pursued him. He was on leave from school for psychological treatment.

23 killed - October 16, 1991 - In Killeen, Texas, 35-year-old George Hennard crashes his pickup truck through the wall of a Lubys Cafeteria. After exiting the truck, Hennard shoots and kills 23 people. He then commits suicide.

This stuff has happened all through history. In fact, if you look at the FBI crime statistics MORE people died from gun violence when it WAS only Sega and Nintendo. Murder rates really began declining every year since around the time the PS1 was introduced.

Well he's better than most on this issue.

A much better study would be to have a control group and a playing group. Both groups can't drive for a week. During this week, the playing group plays Sleeping Dogs and just drives around the map on the left side of the road. This is in third person view with a gamepad.

After the week is up they through them in real cars and just have them drive around the block. The test subjects then fill out a simple survey including how they'd rate their desire to drive on the left.

If the test group has a higher tendency to desire driving on the wrong side than the control group, then you have an actual study showing the effects of in game actions on life outside the simulation.

I'm not sure if that's a generational thing as much as an indication of how much less stigma there is attached to the use of prescription medication simply because it's not an illegal substance. Overprescription is frighteningly common, and even outright abuse is seen as something more along the lines of "misusing medication". But yeah, the disconnect there is always funny.

I'd love to see if there are any studies done about people being more violent after reading violent books, because they have been around for ages.

I'd love to see a study on how someone with a mental illness is allowed to buy a gun in the first place.

Agreed he is a douche if only for that reason. And of course we shouldnt flip out about them because they are more rare, but only at this size.  It depneds on the definition of mass shootings. How many people need to be shot for it to be a mass shooting?   Because there are alot of shootings in this country. 

When out of an entire group of people that play violent video games, and one of them kills a bunch of people and the difference is that person has a mental illness,  the video games arent the issue.  The mental illness is the issue, because it the the anomoly of the entire situation.  

I largely agree, but it's not a matter of whether or not video games make some sane person shoot people because, of course, they don't. It's more like, can a steady diet of interactive fantasy violence help lead to real violence in mentally troubled people? And it very well could, so we shouldn't dismiss the notion out of hand. But we don't know that conclusively at all, and I think that even if it does it's dwarfed as a contributing factor by untreated or improperly treated mental illness in general to the point that we shouldn't be rushing to "do something about it" like this guy suggests.

it really doesnt require much planning.

if i planned on shooting a bunch of people, i would just look up the closest "gun-free" zone. ie school, mall, theatre, etc. just bring a gun and walk in. an easy 10+ kills.