Ten-country comparison suggests there’s little or no link between video games and gun murders

[nadinbrzezinski]

The search for meaning is a natural response to any tragedy, and the latest U.S. mass shooting is eliciting questions about, among other things, the potential role of violent video games. After all, with kids and increasingly teenagers spending so much time hammering away at simulated shooters, is it any wonder when they pick up actual guns? Obama campaign adviser David Axelrod lamented on Twitter, “In NFL post-game: an ad for shoot ‘em up video game. All for curbing weapons of war. But shouldn’t we also quit marketing murder as a game?”

But it turns out that the data just doesn’t support this connection. Looking at the world’s 10 largest video game markets yields no evident, statistical correlation between video game consumption and gun-related killings.

It’s true that Americans spend billions of dollars on video games every year and that the United States has the highest firearm murder rate in the developed world. But other countries where video games are popular have much lower firearm-related murder rates. In fact, countries where video game consumption is highest tend to be some of the safest countries in the world, likely a product of the fact that developed or rich countries, where consumers can afford expensive games, have on average much less violent crime.

Here’s the data for video game spending per capita and gun-related homicides in the world’s 10 largest video game markets. The United States, as it so often does on gun-related statistics, really stands out:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2012/12/17/ten-country-comparison-suggests-theres-little-or-no-link-between-video-games-and-gun-murders/

Now can we stop this and go back to what matters? This is literally hot off the presses by the way.

[Logical]

1. Thanks for this!

[reformist2]

2. This is getting ridiculous. One silly graph proves nothing.

[nadinbrzezinski]

3. You mean real data that proves you wrong is ridiculous.

Look, Japan and Korea put us to shame on violent themed games...what is their murder rate?

That is a fact.

So can we get back to 90 round magazines?

[JI7]

4. Japan has some crazy stuff on TV also

this is why i always ask if Japan, Canada, and other places are watching different movies from us or playing different video games.

[nadinbrzezinski]

5. Yup

On and do not get me started on the full frontal nudity in Italian TV.

[reformist2]

6. No. The article asks the wrong question. And the conversation should not just be about guns.

[nadinbrzezinski]

7. The wrong question

Nice deflection

The link is fuzzzy at best.

[Major Nikon]

12. How about this question...

How do you explain the fact that violent crime rates have been in significant decline since the early 90's which just so happens to be the same time period over which violent video games have proliferated significantly?

[Comrade_McKenzie]

9. Proves everything. Stop trying to deflect attention away from your precious guns. nt

[Mutiny In Heaven]

8. I'd like to add that Germany has heavy duty video game censorship

and the biggest school shooting in Europe during the last decade occurred in that very country. Fact is, people want to deflect from the real issue here; human beings have proven through the ages that they can be incredibly violent creatures. That pre-dates the advent of video games or Hollywood blockbusters. Members of third-world militias aren't inspired to wreak havoc by playing Halo. Giving people easy access to assault weapons and limitless ammunition is beyond ridiculous. It is indefensible, and should not be happening anywhere, let alone a nation as beautiful and rife with achievement and potential as the United States of America.

Folks need to get real, remove their heads from their asses and recognize that this just does not happen anywhere else close to as frequently. I think it's kind of sad that people would rather cling to a selective interpretation of an incredibly old constitutional amendment and seek to defer blame in order to take some of the heat off of the real problem. It is a uniquely American problem, born of woefully inadequate healthcare and a slavish fixation on a spurious reading of a document designed to be fluid in order to keep up with the times, a portion that would have been clarified and refreshed many years ago were it not for cowardice and fists of green paper.

Call of Duty is by far the biggest game in the United Kingdom, the series in general traditionally shifts as many copies in Europe as it does in the United States. The most notorious mass-shooters in Britain over the last twenty years were 52 year old Derek Bird (killed 12 and himself) and Thomas Hamilton, 43 (17 innocents dead before turning a gun on himself). These weren't avid gamers, these were disturbed men who, for one reason or another, slipped between the cracks and perpetuated atrocities.

Unfortunately, the United States has chasms instead of cracks.

[nadinbrzezinski]

10. Yup

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022024223

Just to add another layer to the uniquely American problem. Moreover, the problem with the second is not that it is archaic, but purposeful bad interpretation. Dependent clauses are not the strong part of the RW who luuuve s then guns.

If we actually interpreted as needed, ther be universal conscription of owners of infantry rifles, that's what they are. But history and grammar ain't their strong point.

[Mutiny In Heaven]

11. I concur, although

you've explained exactly why it should have been clarified. Leave no wiggle room whatsoever - underline, bold and fucking caps-lock the supposedly confusing elements!