Guess what action Congress took in response to the Newtown shooting?

[shin]

Full article here for reference.

All of the text itself is here.

This morning, Sen. Jay Rockefeller introduced legislation in the Senate “to arrange for the National Academy of Sciences to study the impact of violent video games and violent programming on children.” It’s depressing to see lawmakers rushing after diversions in the wake of the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Connecticut, when the conversations we ought to be having should be about gun control and mental health treatment, among other structural factors. And it’s even worse when you consider that Rockefeller’s wholly redundant bill has hit the floor of Congress before any gun legislation was introduced.

Part of what makes Rockefeller’s request that the National Academy study video game violence so frustrating to watch is that the Academy’s done just this before. The 1999 Missing, Exploited, and Runaway Children Protection Act included a provision that had the Secretary of Education contract the Academy to study the origins of school violence, including “the impact of cultural influences and exposure to the media, video games, and the Internet.” Katherine Newman, the Johns Hopkins professor who lead up that team, wrote in Rampage: The Social Roots of School Shootings, her later book on the subject, that “Millions of young people play video games full of fistfights, blazing guns, and body slams. Bodies litter the floor in many of our most popular films. Yet only a minuscule fraction of the consumers become violent. Hence, if there is an effect, children are not all equally susceptible to it.” In other words, finding out why a very small number of consumers are overly influenced by popular culture may be more useful than trying to measure the uneven and diffuse influence of movies, television shows, and games.

And that isn’t the only work the National Academy has done on video games and other media. The National Academies Press has published Deadly Lessons, a study of school shootings, that is non-committal on the question of whether there is a causal link between consuming violent media and violent behavior. Academics have presented literature reviews of the work on media’s influence on children and young adults to the National Academies of Science National Research Council Board on Children, Youth and Families. This is not a question the National Academy needs prodding from Sen. Rockefeller to consider, or that’s been ignored by other research organizations.

But it is a question the National Rifle Association and other gun control opponents would love to see energy diverted to. In a Fox News story about the NRA’s much-delayed press conference that suggested the lobby would seek to shift the debate to culture rather than to weapons bans, an anonymous source was quoted as saying: “If we’re going to talk about the Second Amendment, then let’s also talk about the First Amendment, and Hollywood, and the video games that teach young kids how to shoot heads.” That’s different from the kind of measured research that might debunk a causal link between entertainment and shootings. But it demonstrates how easily this sort of conversation can be employed as camouflage.

I have no objection to the idea that we should take the time to consider issues carefully and to introduce closely tailored legislation that will best address our policy needs. And at least Rockefeller’s bill calls for a study, rather than, say, banning first-person shooter games outright. But if the lawmakers who represent us are going to rush to respond to urgent social problems to score political credit, it would be nice if they prioritized substance instead of distractions.

[Macseed]

Oh wow. I'm getting sick of people like this. They seem to think that us kids only play Halo and Modern Warfare. That's not what we always do! Plus, people who claim violent games make you violent is a wrong stereotype. My friend loves Modern Warfare and he wouldn't dream of killing anything more than a pesky insect. I just wish they actually thought about things like guns and safety, things that will help people, instead of thinking video games kill people. Yes, it has. But tell me, how often does that happen? Like, once a year or less. Shootings like Newton or Aurora happen a lot more often. I know that Congress won't read this, but think for a second!

[Metal Snake]

You could even argue that video games were encouraging kids to do violent things long before even Doom was a thought.

[I'M A TRASH CAN]

Same with Max

[Jjs Goodman]

Yes, blame video games for a mentally ill man. Perfect reasoning.

[ClassicNickelodeon Fan 1]

HEY OFFICIALS GUESS WHAT

THERE'S THIS THING CALLED GUN CONTROL

DON'T GIVE GUNS TO THE MENTALLY-ILL

DON'T BLAME THE FUCKING CHILDREN.

[E.V.I.L.]

I seriously hate this world. I seriously... hate... this ... world.

Is the government retarded!?!??!

They teach war history in school, but people aren't violent because of that. WHAT MAKES VIDEO GAMES DIFFERENT?? And besides, I don't even PLAY gun games, platformers FTW. But seriously, I'm sick of dumbass tv-slaved adults not thinking before they say shit.

And then adults wonder why I don't respect adults "because they are older" sometimes. It's because they have the mental capacity of FOX News.

[crushingmayhem]

I remember they said the same thing about the gunman from the Virginia Tech massacre, and in that time they even proposed banning games like Grand Theft Auto, Counter Strike, etc. because supposedly the gunman had been influenced by those games. But in reality, his motive was completely different from that theory. It would be better to blame social pressure that influence the minds of these people, either by depression or mental diseases. On top of that, they need to educate children on the dangers of owning weapons and enforce laws on Gun Control which should be done after a crisis like this one.

[Macseed]

The thing that pisses me off more is that MY MOM thinks that I'm going to become Lanza because I'm always online. NEWS FLASH: You know I'd never do that!

[Wumbo]

BUT VIDEO GAMES DON'T KILL PEOPLE, PEOPLE KILL PEOPLE.

[Webizoid]

CNF hit the nail on the head. We don't need to be lectured that violent games will make us violent people. Only a few people turn out that way. Even the game junkies that do COD all-nighters don't turn into mass gunmen that kill people. LANZA WAS MENTALLY ILL. VIDEO GAMES HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH IT. Congress is just finding another excuse to make us get off of the video games and internet or whatever. It's bullshit. I'm all for doing other things, don't get me wrong. But Congress, let us play the games that we want to play. If it's gun games, that's cool. But if someone DOES become violent because of these games, there should be gun control so he doesn't get the gun in the first place. It's not fucking rocket science.

[SG19]

Looks like Congress is once again seeking an outside source to blame instead of noticing the real problem is internal. Video games usually don't drive people to mimic the actions incorporated in games because many realize it's all fake or make believe. Same goes for TV programs. My brother has been playing Call of Duty and Modern Warfare for 4 years and did he turn into a cold-blooded assassin? I think not. Still, I wouldn't expose young children to violent games or shows for obvious reasons.

[Old Man Jenkins]

When it comes down to it, the parents are really to blame for buying such violent games for their children in the first place or at least not instilling into their children's heads the glaring notion that what happens in a video game stays in a fucking video game and don't imitate it. My parents instilled that knowledge into me every time they would buy me a game, and I've played violent video games for a good portion of my life, and I'm not some gun-toting lunatic.