First It Was Mental Illness, Now It’s Video Games

There isn’t the slightest doubt that who pulls the trigger is the killer. But likewise, there isn’t the slightest doubt that pulling the trigger on a semi-automatic assault rifle is designed to kill a lot more people. Add to this horror is the difference between a bullet fired from an ordinary pistol, which rides straight, to one fired from a military-grade assault rifle designed to rotate sideways to tear flesh and body parts, literally exploding inside the intended victim. In war, completely taking out your opponent, even with a less than centered shot, is essential. Why civilians need that capacity has never been explained in a way that makes the slightest sense.

Eschewing the words “domestic terrorism” and never blaming gun-makers and permissive gun laws as causes, even Donald Trump’s mild embracing of “background checks” is all about finding those who are mentally ill, even though most mentally ill persons are hardly violent. Political adherents, those who embrace Nazi-like extermination of “inferiors,” who are zealots but hardly fit any traditional mental illness paradigm, have little to fear in this nascent background-check effort. Note that GOP Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is unwilling to call Congress back in session to deal with this issue, instead hoping that by the time Congress resumes its normal post-summer-break in September, the zeal for any gun reform will have passed.

The willingness to blame anything but the genuine causes of mass killings is a GOP axiom. Their complete distortion of the meaning and intent of the Second Amendment has become basic doctrine. It is only the growing resentment of mass gun killings that is impacting traditional GOP-strongholds in suburban America. So some minor concessions, touted as GOP leadership by red state officials, will probably pass for “serious reform,” but – wink, wink – we know better.

But hey, it must be the pervasive use of violent, shoot-em-up video games that is the real cause. That’s what Donald Trump said, and that view as become red state gospel. “In the wake of the El Paso shooting on Aug. 3 that left 22 dead and dozens injured, a familiar trope has reemerged: Often, when a young man is the shooter, people try to blame the tragedy on violent video games and other forms of media.

“This time around, Texas lieutenant governor Dan Patrick placed some of the blame on a video game industry that ‘teaches young people to kill.’ House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, a Republican from California, went on to condemn video games that ‘dehumanize individuals’ as a ‘problem for future generations.’ And President Trump pointed to society’s ‘glorification of violence,’ including ‘gruesome and grisly video games.’

“These are the same connections a Florida lawmaker made after the Parkland shooting in February 2018, suggesting that the gunman in that case ‘was prepared to pick off students like it’s a video game.’” Christopher Ferguson writing for the August 10^th FastCompany.com. Yup, dehumanization is bad, particularly for those damned “rapists and murderers” wanting to cross our southern border. Who is the biggest single gun seller in the country?

Even as Walmart employees objected to that major retailer’s commitment to gun sales, Walmart simply fell back on that meaningless trope. “Walmart Inc. is removing displays of violent video games and movies in its stores after two deadly shootings at its locations in Texas and Mississippi in recent weeks.

“Walmart Chief Executive Doug McMillon this week said that the company will be ‘thoughtful and deliberate in our responses’ to the shootings, which left 22 people dead in El Paso and killed two employees at a store in Southaven, Miss.

“The company has no plans to stop selling guns or ammunition, spokesman Randy Hargrove said in an interview Sunday, the day after the El Paso shooting… A man armed with a rifle was arrested Thursday [8/8] at a Walmart in Springfield, Mo.

“Supporters of stricter gun laws have said that Walmart — as one of the nation’s biggest sellers of guns and ammunition, with more than 4,700 stores — could do more to stem the flow of firearms in the United States. This week, a worker at Walmart’s San Bruno, Calif.-based e-commerce division organized protests against the company’s policy.” Los Angeles Times, August 10^th. There’s just this catch: there is absolutely no evidence that there is any linkage between such mass killings and videogames. None. Zero.

“As far back as 2011, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that research did not find a clear connection between violent video games and aggressive behavior. Criminologists who study mass shootings specifically refer to those sorts of connections as a ‘myth.’ And in 2017, the Media Psychology and Technology division of the American Psychological Association released a statement [Christopher Ferguson] helped craft, suggesting reporters and policymakers cease linking mass shootings to violent media, given the lack of evidence for a link…

“Any claims that there is consistent evidence that violent video games encourage aggression are simply false… Spikes in violent video games’ popularity are well known to correlate with substantial declines in youth violence—not increases. These correlations are very strong, stronger than most seen in behavioral research. More recent research suggests that the releases of highly popular violent video games are associated with immediate declines in violent crime, hinting that the releases may cause the drop-off.” Ferguson. Assault weapons. Lax guns laws. A pervasive rural value of gun ownership that simply does not work in large cities. The National Rifle Association. The Republican Party. We know. We really do know. How many more must die because this country does not deal with obvious very well?

              I’m Peter Dekom, and does anyone seriously believe that our musket-toting forefathers, relying on a voluntary militia to fight the Revolutionary War, would condone the ownership of lean, mean, killing machine/semiautomatic assault weapons among civilians under the Second Amendment?