Do video games, mental illness drive U.S. massacres?

OMG NO! The guy in El Paso wrote his reasons for the shootings. "This attack is a response to the Hispanic invasion of Texas. They are the instigators, not me. I am simply defending my country from cultural and ethnic replacement brought on by the invasion." He is against mix racing and that, "the country should be divided into a confederacy with at least one territory for each race." The only news outlet here blaming video games is Fox News. He knew full well of what he was doing, and it was premeditated because he drove 10 hours from his hometown in Dallas, TX to go to El Paso which is a border town. If video games were the culprit, these mass killings wouldn't just be happening in the United States.

Video games do not cause people to do things. If that were true then any of these other games where someone is a lawyer or a knight or a detective would show them pursuing these sorts of things as well.

Video games are just like any other form of entertainment. They are escapism, and in my mind actually help curb violence as those with violent tendencies find an outlet with games instead of doing it in real life.

No. No they don't,

If video games caused mass murders, Asia would today be the most violent place on Earth.

Not at all. Neither of these things drive massacres, but the media loves to jump on the bandwagon at demonizing games and mental illness. Okay, so maybe a tiny percentage of people with mental health issues might be dangerous if they possess a firearm, but they're more likely to be a danger to themselves than to anyone else.

You know what does drive massacres? White supremacy. Racism. Horrifyingly lax gun control measures. Politicians being bought out by the NRA. This whole macho notion that killing makes you a real man. Media outlets like Fox News talking about "immigrant Invasions" as though these people are trying to declare war on the US. Poor parenting provided by adults already indoctrinated by Trump rhetoric and the illusion of masculinity from owning and using firearms to kill. The never-ending stream of lies that come out of Trump's mouth. The dangerous messages that Trump and his administration spread to the populace (I saw today a picture of Mitch McConnell with tombstone signs bearing the names of his campaign rival and others who oppose him, which basically spreads the message that they need to die).

Videogames and mental illness on the other hand... no. They're just scapegoats to avoid dealing with the real problems. Most people who play First-Person Shooters and other violent videogames are actually less interested in handling firearms, let alone using them, than people who don't play these genres or don't play videogames at all.

There is no demonstrable link between video games and gun violence.

There is a link between gun ownership/access and gun violence.

America refuses to deal with the problem at the source, that is to say: Guns.

The problem is not bad guns. It's mental illness.

People who put guns ahead of lives are mentally ill.

Mental illness, obviously. Video games, not likely. Drug use is never mentioned, even though most shooters have a history of taking meds that have psychological side-effects ( as do 40% of Americans, who are among the world's largest consumers of drugs, legal or otherwise).

Candice Keller, a Republican state representative from Middletown, near Dayton, Ohio, where nine people were killed early Sunday has settled on "immigrants, same-sex marriage, transgender rights, disrespect toward veterans and drag queen advocates" as the causes.

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the next President of the United States of America.

On the video games blaming, I doubt it. Mass shootings predate the gaming age, so that's a non-starter.

People who put guns ahead of lives are mentally ill.

Who's doing that?

Every last supporter of the second amendment.

Who's doing that? Mentally ill people should not have access to guns or knives. Law-abiding, mentally stable people should.

Say anything except address the gun cult. This is why the killings will continue.

As I said in my previous comment, Americans have an obsession with guns, violent and wars. Over the past 200-300 years the US population has been indoctrinated that: "we are the best, we are the most powerful, we were put on Earth to control the world". this has lead to constant wars and aggression in the US trying to dictate to the globe, and to its own domestic violence. This has very little to do with Trump but everything to with the US psyche of violence and arms.

For the record, I'm asian. An asian that is against the type of gun ownership in the USA. I'm very glad that here in Asia, pretty much every country had a very strict gun control.

But you're right, there is something very wrong with some segment of the American population. The feeling or rather illusion of - "entitlement" - that they have.

It may influence in some ways but having the guns just enables them to kill easily and more.

The nation of the globe need to isolate the US until its society receives treatment for its illness.

Quarantine is a good idea but how to put it into practice? Treat it like the DPRK, I guess. Sanctions, tariffs, boycotts and so forth.

An easier solution would be education. It's quite heartbreaking to read drivel like Keller's and other eejits who present their bias and bigotry as facts.

I think people need to start differentiate between;

A) Real root cause / factor.

and B) Immediate Contributing factor / cause(s).

In my opinion, mental health is definitely the real root cause for violence, but the availability (& ease of getting one!) of guns in the USA compare to other countries is the real immediate cause & multiplying factor for the mass killing (in the USA).

So, there should be a two-pronged approach;

1) Deal with the mental health issue, trace all the red flags, educate & provide care the vulnerable ones (for the real root cause)

2) Tighter gun control, reduce the number of, & type of arms that a citizen can own (for the immediate cause)

No not at all (violent) videogames are played all over the world so maybe just maybe the fact that in the US virtually anybody can get a hold of high capacity attack riffles without much effort has something to to with the extreme level of violence that has been occuring on American soil ?

And when you combine this with the dangerous ideology of white supremacist patriot groups you are just asking for problems.

It is not the first time Republicans are wrongfully blaming the videogame industry for the horrific consequences of the Second Amendment and their NRA apologists and it wont be the last.

And if you see how well planned some of these attacks are can really speak about mentally ill people ?

According to me these people are stone cold white supremacists conducting domestic terror on almost the same level as IS.

Video games don’t kill people, Republicans do.

I wonder if there will ever be a stop to their supporting Republican mass murderers.

Serrano: "Mentally ill people should not have access to guns or knives."

This would apply to most of US society

No trump , video games do not. It is yr hate ways that is provoking all these violence in America. Pls trump stop all yr stupid excuses.

Everybody knows video games don't truly cause these massacres, even the republicans that scream this every time there is a shooting. By now, most of the US knows this is just a distraction tactic used by the republicans to avoid talking about guns as much as possible. They bring back this same baseless argument every-single-time. Distraction tactic, that's all. It allows them to say they are doing something to try and stop the gun violence, while they actually do nothing...

So now the Trumpets are admitting there is a problem, but doing everything they can to try to pretend that removing easy access to guns would prevent the overwhelming majority of these incidents.

The spin by these mentally ill gun cultists is quite terrifying.

And the killings will continue until politicians address the problem.

How long until the next mass shooting?

At least we know that Trump has not dipped any of his tiny fingers in the games industry's $135B value, and probably in too deep in the guns and military industry.

So now the Trumpets are admitting there is a problem, but doing everything they can to try to pretend that removing easy access to guns would prevent the overwhelming majority of these incidents.

For the average person, no - heavy metal music does no more/less than rock, hip-hop, r&b or jazz to spark someone to go on a rampage. Same in comparing shooting games vs. Tetris or Super Mario Bros.

But if the person in question is a raving lunatic, it could literally be anything that provides the spark to put them over the edge - opening the fridge to find someone drank the rest of their milk without asking, their favorite NBA player just got traded, or they got "killed" on level 8 of Call of Duty. Crazy is crazy, so it can honestly be anything that makes them finally go off the deep end.

As for the rest of us, it's a big fat NO.

If someone wants to kill another person, they will find a way. There are thousands of ways, just using household items or typical home accidents to kill someone. Other ways that cannot be named are possible too.

Firearms make killing easier and accomplished without much planning required.

Anyone driving 10 hrs to kill people clearly spent hours planning it. Without access to firearms, I think he still would have found a way.

The Dayton killings appear to be more of a quick temper problem. If a firearm wasn't available, he probably wouldn't have harmed anyone because he would have cooled off.

If someone wants to kill another person, they will find a way. There are thousands of ways, just using household items or typical home accidents to kill someone. Other ways that cannot be named are possible too.

Firearms make killing easier and accomplished without much planning required.

Anyone driving 10 hrs to kill people clearly spent hours planning it. Without access to firearms, I think he still would have found a way.

The Dayton killings appear to be more of a quick temper problem. If a firearm wasn't available, he probably wouldn't have harmed anyone because he would have cooled off.

So far in 2019, 144 people have been killed as part of "mass killings" in the USA. That's the total. https://www.factcheck.org/2019/08/mass-killings-across-america/

For some perspective, about 3,300 people in the USA are killed every day in vehicle related incidents.

2150 people die daily from heart disease in the USA.

Heck, aircraft accidents in 2018 killed 500 people. How many of you worry about flying?

People should be concerned about traffic safety or heart disease 23x more than being afraid of mass killings.

Just providing some perspective.

I think Obama, who I have known for many years, may be more correct.

If videogames were a factor at all in mass killings, then why do South Korea and China; two countries with a significantly higher gamer base than the US, not have mass killings? Sure they don't have access to guns, but what's stopping them from using knives, swords or other weapons? Oh right: it's because videogames aren't to blame.

Blaming mental illness is also grossly inaccurate. Only a small number of mass shooting culprits have been found to have possessed mental health issues. More often than not: they are being brainwashed. Either by the GOP, the NRA, or by Fox News. Or a combination of these three main demons. 6 months before El Paso, you had that Tomi Lahren person saying that the immigrants coming to America were "an invasion." Guess what? The El Paso shooter also said that the people he was going to kill were invaders. This isn't mental illness, this is brainwashing. Fearmongering. This is stoking racial hatred and white supremacy.

Who's doing that? Mentally ill people should not have access to guns or knives.

The state of Nevada, for one. Gun retailers in Nevada do not run background checks on anyone purchasing firearms, no mental health assessments. Heck, in the case of the Las Vegas shooter, they didn't even ask for ID, so they could potentially be selling guns to underage buyers. They don't care. The NRA and the GOP don't care either. Trump reppealed a law that the Obama administration brought into effect that required background checks on gun owners, which would have kept firearms out of the hands of people with mental illnesses. Trump, and his administration, did that. Then roll back a few years earlier to the Bush administration, who let the ban on assault rifles expire, and mass shooting incidents went up more than 200%. You want to know who's to blame? I just answered your question.

Law-abiding, mentally stable people should.

For what purpose? There are people like this who own guns. Some of those then fall prey to Trump rhetoric, drive out to a mosque or a festival or whatever, and start killing people. No history of violence or drug use, they're just poorly educated and unhealthily obssessed with the Second Amendment. There are also gun owners who are sane, law-abiding, and yet careless enough to leave their firearms in easy reach of children, who then kill each other or themselves. Mental health wasn't the problem there. Stupidity was. Being sane and law-abiding isn't enough to protect people. What is the point in even owning a gun anyway? To make you feel cool? To make you feel "like a real man"? To kill animals for sport? There's no need to own a gun in any civilised country. But the NRA love to brainwash people into thinking that they need guns. Lots of guns. Big guns = big genitals, and people believe this nonsense. Who pays the price? Innocent people do.

Video games do to an extent. Check out Mortal Kombat XI, one of the most popular video games now being played for multiple hours at a time by teenagers.

Never mind the studies thstcsau otherwise.

I think it's immigrants putting pressure on citizens that cause these shootings. Wouldn't it be great if immigrants would go back home and make their countries great?

1 cause - news coverage. 2 cause - not-so-great parenting.

If it was anything else, then more than a tiny, tiny, tiny, tiny, subset of humans would be shooters. They are not. It isn't just 1 thing.

End the news coverage beyond 1 story and never say the names of the shooters. Squash all huge social media platform posts about this as well. While we're at it, stop the Kardashians too.

These US massacres are the result of a mentally ill society  with an obsession for war and violence. Until US society changes it psyche, there will be continued war and massacres.

The nation of the globe need to isolate the US until its society receives treatment for its illness.

funkseoul: "1) Deal with the mental health issue, trace all the red flags, educate & provide care the vulnerable ones (for the real root cause).

As I said in my previous comment, Americans have an obsession with guns, violent and wars. Over the past 200-300 years the US population has been indoctrinated that: "we are the best, we are the most powerful, we were put on Earth to control the world". this has lead to constant wars and aggression in the US trying to dictate to the globe, and to its own domestic violence. This has very little to do with Trump but everything to with the US psyche of violence and arms.

Over the past 200-300 years the US population has been indoctrinated that: "... we were put on Earth to control the world". this has lead to constant wars and aggression in the US trying to dictate to the globe, and to its own domestic violence.

No those are the values of the group of people who control the US and have been doing their best to destroy the good Christian values upon which America was built on. What we are seeing now is the result of the destruction of those Christian values.

People who put guns ahead of lives are mentally ill.

Who's doing that? Mentally ill people should not have access to guns or knives. Law-abiding, mentally stable people should.

Video games do to an extent. Check out Mortal Kombat XI, one of the most popular video games now being played for multiple hours at a time by teenagers.

But video game exposure is only one in a myriad of reasons for the uptick of violence caused by U.S. males in the teens and 20s.

video games: no

mental illness: yes

guns: no

prescription drugs: yes

Mental illness is a huge factor in driving massacres all over the world.

The U.S. will never be a socialist country and Americans will never give up their guns no matter how much the Democrats want to take them. What, only the police/military and the criminals having access to guns? No thanks.

America refuses to deal with the problem at the source, that is to say: Guns.

The problem is not bad guns. It's mental illness.

Way back to slaughtering Indians by the thousands.

The biggest cause of death of native Americans at the time was by far disease, accounting for roughly half. Of the remainder, about half of those were killed in tribal warfare by other natives, and an equal number in conflict with the Europeans/whites.

Slaughters in America go way, way back, before the arrival of guns from Europe.