One day after a young man with a military-style rifle gunned down 22 people in an El Paso Walmart, Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick summoned a familiar boogeyman.
Noting that the killer had mentioned the violent video game “Call of Duty” in a manifesto posted online before the massacre, Patrick suggested such games play a role in the mass shootings plaguing the country.
The theory has been around for more than 20 years, but is there anything to it? Here are five things to know about violent video games and mass shootings.
Games blamed for real violence, before Columbine
One of the first widely publicized school shootings happened in Paducah, Kentucky, in 1997, when a 14-year-old freshman shot three students to death and wounded five others. Parents of the slain teens filed a $130 million lawsuit against several entertainment companies, including the makers of the violent “Doom,” “Quake” and “Mortal Kombat” video games.
The parents said the games had influenced the deadly crime, but a federal judge disagreed, throwing out the lawsuit after finding no proof.
The shooters who struck at Columbine High School in 1999 were also connoisseurs of violent games, and the parents of the victims sued game makers as well. Again, they were unsuccessful.
Sandy Hook killer played nonviolent game the most
Not long after a gunman killed 26 children and staffers at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, in late 2012, investigators found numerous violent video games at his home, including “Grand Theft Auto,” “Left for Dead” and “Half-Life.”
In a report on the massacre, prosecutor Stephen Sedensky said the games the killer played most were nonviolent titles. His favorite appeared to be “Dance Dance Revolution,” a game of footwork and coordination offered in the lobby of a nearby movie theater.
Games provoke anger, not murder
Academics have done hundreds of studies on violent video games since the 1980s, and some have found that the games are indeed associated with an increase in hostility. The title of one recent study says it all: “Violent video games stress people out and make them more aggressive.”
Another paper took a novel approach to measuring that aggression. Researchers had subjects play “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.” After playing, they were told to select an amount of hot sauce for a recipe taste tester who, they were told, couldn’t stand the condiment.
Those who played “Call of Duty” ladled out significantly more hot sauce than those who played “LittleBigPlanet 2,” a whimsical puzzle game. The researchers concluded that the violent game produced an elevated level of aggression.
Games even more popular where gun violence rare
After the weekend’s shootings put a focus on gaming, the website Vox published a chart that compared video game consumption with gun violence.
It showed that in countries where the games are most popular – Japan and South Korea – violent gun deaths are almost nonexistent.
Some evidence, though, suggests other countries might favor less violent games. Of the best-selling games in Japan last year, only one, “Call of Duty: Black Ops 4,” features realistic bloodshed.
Video games can improve social cohesion
Not long after Patrick singled out video games as a contributor to the El Paso shootings, hundreds of gamers took to Twitter to document how gaming had improved their lives.
The hashtag they used, #VideoGamesAreNotToBlame, became the No. 1 topic on the platform.
Appearing Monday on Fox News, gaming consultant Rod Breslau argued that modern video games played via the internet don’t lead to social isolation – quite the opposite.
“It really is a misconception: People thinking that people are sitting in their basement or whatever playing games, when in reality … people are communicating with other people from around the world every day, and it really is a community of people meeting each other, talking to each other, and really (establishing) friend groups,” he said.
“For a lot of kids out there … being able to sit there and play games with other people is what uplifted them. It’s what brought them into a new light when maybe they were in a dark place.”
Breslau put the clip on Twitter. By Wednesday morning, it had attracted more than 86,000 likes.
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