When it comes to videogames causing gun violence in America, one expert told the New York Times in the wake of the shootings over the weekend that “the data on bananas causing suicide is about as conclusive.”
Still, many prominent politicians continue to point their fingers at videogames, and, as gun-control advocates are quick to point out, just about anything other than the lax gun laws in the United States.
For instance, following the mass shootings that left 31 people dead in El Paso, Texas and Dayton, Ohio, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy blamed videogames that “dehumanize individuals,” while President Trump said “gruesome” games create “a culture that celebrates violence.”
In fact, the blame game goes way back.
Read: Politicians are wrong about video games and violence
But even if videogames do lead to more aggressive behavior, as some studies suggest, that still doesn’t explain the outsized number of shootings in the U.S. relative to other countries.
Gamers, taking to the defensive, waved this chart from Vox around Twitter
TWTR, +1.83%
on Tuesday:
Meanwhile, the #videogamesaretoblame hashtag was trending, with all the snark you might expect from the social-media mob:
