I'm pretty sure GTA V would cause real world violence if it actually gave people time to go out into the real world

I think there's an indirect link, not a direct link. If someone mentally unstable, ore don't know what's morally right or wrong, could play video games and get an idea to do it. but if you're mentally stable with a sense of morality, I think you should be fine.

You are joking right?

Videogames are expensive, therefore, they are most consumed, violent and non, in richer societies which tend to have less crime.

Actual causation and correlation goes a hell of a lot deeper then that.

Nor am I talking about "temporary violent tendencies" analysis.  I'm talking about culture.  As in a persistant state of people being more violent due to culture being more violent.

Which is why you get those temporary increases when firing guns.  Media and games assosiate firing the guns with more violent acts, so you do when you fire.  Hence the trigger.

First of all starting off with "You are joking right?" will not sway me to back off and is a rather pathetic attempt to do so.

Secondly video games are not nearly are expensive as you would claim them to be as rather than no games poor nations revert to increased video game piracy to compentate for lack of income. 

We can also see a clear correlation between increased video game consumption and decreased violent crime rates over the past few decades. 

I agree that American culture has always been more violent than others but that egg came long before the violent video game chicken.

Also, noting that i do not support restricting guns, the easy availibility of guns in the US makes you far more likely to be shot then to be able to defend yourself with a gun. When Australia severely restricted guns the rate of shootings went down by half clearly a result of the policy. 

The argument that guns contribute less to the culture of violence in America, let alone the shootings they are a part of, then video games is provably wrong.

I asked if you were joking because the confounding variable in what you said was extremely obvious.

Also, as for videogames not being that expensive... again are you kidding?  Videogames are extremely expensive.  Espiecally in third world countries where the consoles cost 2-3 times what they'd cost in USD despite salaries being 3-5 times later.   You can't piracy your way through that.  Which is why videogame consumption is so low in poor nations.

As for violence and decreasing crime rates.... again that's far to simple a correltion, ignoring actual reason violent crime is down.  (Abortions if you believe outliers.)   The same exact thing can be said with guns... and actually can be said better because they've done studies involving individual US states.  Allowing the ability to see the differences among the same nationallity of people with different laws.

As for the last part... I didn't say videogames caused american culture to be more violent.  It sure as hell is part of the culture of violence though.  You'd be ignorant to think otherwise.

I did not say it was not a part of the culture of violence i was just saying that it does nothing to create the culture of violence. You dont see cultures of violence developing in countries around violent video games as they became/become more increasingly violent because they simply dont have that kind of influence.

Japan for example has yearly shootings in the single digits, SINGLE DIGITS and they consume large amounts of violent video games just like America which has tens of thousands of shootings every year, it is not violent video games making people shoot other people, its people wanting to shoot other people having no trouble what so ever arming themselves to the teeth to do so.

From my own personal experiences, which i am aware are not representative of society as a whole, while spending time around gamers and people into sports it was clear to me who displayed more violent tendancies.

Of course it did't create the culture of violence.  It does however perpetuate it.  Violent culture makes violent media, which makes violent culture 

As a psychology graduate, i can tell you it IS about a person's mind.  As someone who wants to mass shoot someone can eaisly get guns anyway.  It's not hard to get guns anywhere in the world.

The cause of mass shootings are largely unknown since so few are taken alive, but in general depression and lack of empathy from others seems to be likely causes.  If your going to kill yourself and don't care about anyone, why not have fun doing it  

Firstly i want to apologise for the accusation about what you would like to do as a psychology graduate, that was personal and uncalled for as I know little enough of you to make such an accusation.

And yes it certainly is a persons mide I disagree that violent video games presence or absence will result in or prevent a mass shooting. However the guns and their availibility do play a part in the occurance of these shootings.

Also the claim that violent media makes violent culture is not demonstratable in terms of a noticeable increase in violent crime here or abroad.

I also have a certain rule about drawn out forum discussions so I will be ending it here for myself, and am not intending to be rude by not responding.

Screw violent media connection... You want the real connection? Antidepressant medication. This medication leads to an increase in suicidal thoughts and hurting of others.