The events of public shootings have certainly increased in the past few years and most of these shootings have been carried out by young people in public places such as festivals, malls, and other public gatherings. The most recent shooting events happened in EL Paso Texas and Dayton, Ohio where 29 innocent people lost their lives to senseless shootings in the USA.
In the first event, a lone gunman started a killing spree in a busy shopping center in El Paso on Saturday where he killed 20 people and injured another 26. Officials reported the event as ‘domestic terrorism’ and the Police arrested a 21-year-old male suspect. The suspect under custody is quite young however in another report, it was stated that the shooter is among one of the dead people.
The second event took place in Downtown Dayton where yet another young gunman opened fire on people killing 9 on the spot and injuring around 27 more people. The shooter was killed on the spot by the Police and was later identified as Conner Betts who was 24 years old. You can see that in both these cases, the shooters were under 25. Kevin McCarthy, the Republican Party House minority leader, has said that video games are partly to blame for mass shootings in the US.
This was said by him during an exclusive interview to Fox News during which he said video games where players shoot each other and kill a lot of people are the reason behind the recent shootings in the USA as such games ‘dehumanize humans’. His official statement given to Fox News was:
I’ve always felt that is a problem for future generations and others. We watch from studies shown before of what it does to individuals. When you look at these photos of how it took place, you can see the actions within videogames.
clip here — it's very much jumping off Tx. Lt. Gov Dan Patrick's comments to F&F earlier pic.twitter.com/J8PqvNtvz0
— John Whitehouse (@existentialfish) August 4, 2019
Kevin McCarthy was not the only one to put the blame for the shootings on videogames. Texas lieutenant governor Dan Patrick also spoke with Fox News and commented:
How long are we going to let, for example, and ignore at the federal level particularly, where they can do something about the videogame industry.
He also referenced a manifesto which was alleged from the Texas shooter who claimed to be living out his super-soldier fantasy on Call of Duty. This indeed puts the video games on the front line when it comes to finding the cause behind these shootings according to Dan.
Dan also stated that guns have been part of USA’s culture for a long time however such shootings have only started after the video games have gone mainstream and everyone has access to them. You can check out Dan’s clip from Fox News below.
Here's part of Texas Lt. Gov Dan Patrick's appearance on Fox & Friends, where he uses the El Paso shooting to call for federal government intervention in the video game industry, more prayer in schools, and more saluting the flag, among other things. pic.twitter.com/8xqkEyvvH7
— John Whitehouse (@existentialfish) August 4, 2019
What is your opinion on this? Do you really think that video games are a major cause of all the increased shootings in the USA as the politicians want us to believe? Let us know in the comments section below.
