Twitter users mock Trump for linking video games to gun violence

By Tom Gerken for BBC Social News

2 March 2018

"Video game violence and glorification must be stopped - it is creating monsters!" Six years after Donald Trump tweeted his views on video game violence, it seems he is looking to take action. In a White House briefing following the Florida school shooting, when press secretary Sarah Sanders was asked about the president's policy on gun control she said Donald Trump will "be meeting with members of the video game industry to see what they can do on that front". Ms Sanders response has been widely discussed on social media, with some criticising the president for pointing the finger at fictional guns, rather than actual firearms.

Some people wondered if they had inadvertently stumbled into the past, as the relationship between video games and violent behaviour has long been debated in the media. One person asked why the White House was discussing video games, saying that Trump "has plenty of ideas for ending mass shootings, except gun control". While artist and director Rob Sheridan, known for his work with music group Nine Inch Nails, wondered if game industry executives might suggest similar measures. This was followed by Family Guy creator Seth McFarlane pointing out that "other countries without America's gun problem also have video games". And one person tried to find the funny side of things, re-writing Australia's 1996 gun ban for comic effect. But some people praised Trump for taking action, with one person saying the president is "doing more and engaging more than Obama did", and another applauding Trump for addressing the "surrounding issues" of guns. Meanwhile, Twitter users have begun to question exactly who it is that Donald Trump intends on meeting. Video game journalist Jason Schreier tweeted that the Entertainment Software Association, whose members include many of the largest game publishers in the United States, says neither the ESA nor its members have been invited to a meeting. And if a meeting does happen, one person wondered how the meeting could go ahead without causing contention.

[Of course violent video games in particular have long been blamed for actually violence in real life (IRL). Yet study after study has shown no such link. Literally millions of people – including me – play violent computer games and have done for years without harming, never mind killing, another human being. Plus, as Seth McFarlane rightly points out, both computer games and violent movies are universal products sold across the world – except in a very few places where they are banned or heavily censored. Yet the gun violence problem is most acute, by a LONG way, in only one culture – America. So call me sceptical if you wish but how do you explain a clear lack of real violence caused by these items across the globe and yet, rather mysteriously, there is a link (which equally mysteriously cannot be pinned down) between violent games and actual violence in one rather unique culture. Surely, logically, this points in one direction only? That it is American culture, rather than violent games, that is producing the real violence. Of course any country that tries honestly looking at its own culture searching for faults will be rather reluctant to do so and even more reluctant to find them and make them public so I guess the blame game will continue a bit longer before people give up and American gun violence is seen as simply ‘inexplicable’.]