Once Again Video Games Under Attack

Today's front page Baton Rouge Advocate headline reads 'Investigators say shooter, 8, played violent video game'.

A tragic shooting in Clinton, Louisiana, has inspired the moral zealots to once again resurrect their agenda that video games are one of the leading causes of violent acts in our youth.

The fact that an 8 year-old shot his caretaker in the back of the head while she watched TV is a horrific act. To infer that a video game was responsible for this is ludicrous. An unsecured gun killed that individual.  No availability, no killing.

In reality, investigators don't even know if the game triggered this violence because they can't determine if the boy was even playing the game before the incident took place.  All they know is the game was found in the game console.  However, they have adopted this line of reasoning in their investigation of this case.

Let's examine the known facts in this situation.  One, the video game purportedly involved has a MA 17+ rating.  It can only be purchased by someone 17 or older. Consequently, the eight year-old couldn't even buy the game, and had no business having the game in his possession, let alone playing it.  Secondly, a loaded gun was once again not properly hidden in a secured place, and had no safety lock.

The bottom line is there are possibly two scenarios having little to do with the video game itself.  One, an unsupervised child found the gun, and, like most 8 year-olds, out of curiosity,  begin pointing it at objects around the house, similar to a hunter, and this time pulled the trigger; or two, the caretaker angered the boy, who knew there was a gun in the house, knew  there was no security utilized in preventing its easy access, pointed the gun at the individual to scare her, and pulled the trigger.

However, these facts in no way minimize the tragedy of this incident, but let's stick to the reality of what was used to do the killing and who did it.