So, it seems like I’m addressing this way too often. I first wrote about this topic when I was 16 and in some way, shape or form, I find myself revisiting this nonsense every few years. And here we are again.
First things first, my deepest condolences to all of the victims of these mass shootings and also to all their families and friends. I'm deeply sorry for your loss and your pain, you don’t deserve any of this. I hope that you can find peace and closure in the tough times ahead. From everyone at Gamer Wager, our thoughts are truly with you.
So, to the point: another day, another mass shooting in America. I wish I was exaggerating, but I’m not. Since the one I’m talking about happened less than a week ago, another one has happened, and as I’m typing this up, another one has just been reported. And it only took the US media (AND THE COMMANDER IN CHIEF) a matter of hours before placing the blame squarely at the feet of the gaming industry.
President Trump said: “We must stop the glorification of violence in our society. This includes the gruesome and grisly video games that are now commonplace. It is too easy today for troubled youth to surround themselves with a culture that celebrates violence."
So where do I begin with this shit? The double standard? The clear agenda at play to ignore the clear issue?
Let's get into the cold hard facts before anything else and talk about stats!
Compare the UK and the USA: two countries that have a ton of cultural similarities, but are at opposite ends of the scale when it comes to mass shootings.
Population:
UK: 66 million
US: 327 million (~5x)
Videogame Revenue
UK: $4-5 billion
US: $25 billion (~5x)
Mass Shootings *THIS FUCKING YEAR*
UK: 0
US: 251 (at the time of writing, including the one that just finished as I'm writing this, because yeah we're getting that real)
So clearly, something's not adding up if games are the problem here, but we all knew that wasn't the problem here anyway. So let's stop wasting time with this BS narrative.
We know America has a gun problem. Apart from America, it seems. Well, not all, but a sizeable chunk of the population that seems to sit somewhere between blissfully unaware and wilfully obtuse when it comes to the clear issue at hand here.
Now, unfortunately, the gaming industry is regularly the target of criticism whenever these sorts of incidents arise, which as the statistics show, is way too often. Thanks to the likes of FOX, the NRA and the influence that these organisations have when it comes to shaping the discussions and narratives from the top right down to the bottom of society means that we'll likely never see an honest discussion on the topic of right-wing gun violence in America where it matters.
Instead of taking real steps to eradicate or at least offset the gun violence issue in America, you're telling me that Fortnite and Call of Duty are the problems, here? The same Fortnite and Call of Duty games that have resulted in ZERO mass shootings in the UK, ZERO mass shootings in Spain, ZERO mass shootings in France, ZERO in Germany and ZERO in Italy in the same amount of time as America has managed 250?
Oh, and that wasn't the exhaustive list, by the way, but we haven't got all day to name all of the countries with less mass shooting this year than America (spoiler: all of them aren't currently involved in a war).
It takes some real madness for Hillary Clinton to be the overarching voice of reason here. She tweeted: "People suffer from mental illness in every other country on earth; people play video games in virtually every other country on earth. The difference is the guns[sic]."
I mean, we could talk about all the ways American culture glamourises violence outside of gaming. The film industry, the TV industry, the narrative surrounding the military, all of those industries actively do plenty to make guns and action violence seem as cool as possible.
But between the tribal politics and the insane amount of money swimming around the firearms industry, they'd rather place blame on a control pad and some pixels instead of doing something about it.
But no amount of diversion and false correlation arguments will change the facts of the matter here: when it comes to real people and real lives, this is no game and it's time to stop playing with them in the name of politics.
Shogun.