Video Games and Violence

[Professor Marvel]

In a different thread Gen. Jackson wrote

While I agree with the gist of your opinion written herein, your statement concerning video games in relation to teaching violence and being a causation of said has no basis in scientific fact. You state your thesis without verifiable references.

The hypothesis that video games are the indirect cause of violence in impressionable young people is false. In truth, most social and psychological research regarding this topic has shown repeatedly that there is no such link between increased aggression, criminality, and the propensity towards anti-social behavior.

In actuality, "violent" video games may do the opposite in that it provides a venue, and outlet if you will, to vent a persons aggression and pent-up emotions. Like professional boxing or wrestling, which of course are violent sports but socially acceptable, video gaming may provide an avenue in which to release one's aggression without any actual or perceived harm.

An uniformed person could postulate that the sport of Cowboy Action Shooting is linked to violence, and that those involved in said, is teaching men to be aggressive and may lead them to criminal and / or anti-social and psychotic behavior. In other words, CAS may cause men to be violent - it could cause you to take your high capacity lever actions, sawed off shotguns, and powerful .45 Peacemakers to murder twenty elementary school children and that you are all a bunch of gun nuts. In the study of philosophy this would be called a logical fallacy; In layman's terms this would be referred to as "hogwash." The same as your statement regarding a link to video gaming and violence is also hogwash.

I hope that my analogy has been succinct.

Thanks very much -

for the benefit of our readers, a definition of "anectdotal evidence"  and it's problems:

"The expression anecdotal evidence refers to evidence from anecdotes. Because of the small sample, there is a larger chance that it may be unreliable due to cherry-picked or otherwise non-representative samples of typical cases.[1][2] Anecdotal evidence is considered dubious support of a claim; it is accepted only in lieu of more solid evidence. This is true regardless of the veracity of individual claims."

I can certainly accept that "violent video games" "may" be a release in many "well balanced" people.

Regarding organized "real-life" activities such as Organised CAS shooting or Organized Boxing, Martial Arts, etc:
I believe that these Organized activities not only provide an outlet but also specific structure that includes discipline, safety, rules (and following them), positive role models,  immediate consequence to actions, and a certain positive moral structure. These are all not just promoted but enforced; further the "learned" discipline and role model behaviour carries over into everyday real life.

For example, if you screw up and drop your revolver, you incurr a non-negotiable DQ. Game Over. If you throw a tantrum over it, you will get a stern talking to and/or invited to leave.

In Boxing or on the Martial Arts Mat, participants are closely monitored. Good behaviour is taught and encouraged. Bad behaviour is not tolerated.

The above is not the case in illegal fight clubs, or video games. In video games especially there are no good role models, moral behaviour is not rewarded;  one can choose to be a "bad character" and otherwise intolerable behaviour is encouraged.
Such behaviour becomes  learned and  lauded online and I maintain this carries over into real life, based on experiential results.

General, as I stated in the other thread, I do not have studies at my disposal. I would be very interested in any studies you can offer, detailed data (raw if possible, altho I admit it is unlikely) and especially "who paid for the study", any possible agendas and links to organizations etc.

I have done or been involved in studies in the past, and I can relate that maintaining a neutral unbiased position is often difficult.
Often, a study is biased from the start as the intent was begun with a desire to prove a given thesis rather than objectively explore it. In Psychological areas especially I have witnessed disconcerting actions of the principal researcher merrily throwing out any data that they felt was invalid (ie did not fit their theory) !

I would be very interested in any studies you can offer, but I believe it is important to also pay attention to
"holistic anectdotal data" which is nearly universally dismissed but  often can offer interesting insights that a rigid study
can miss (or may be deliberately designed to ignore).

I can relate empirical anecdotal evidence based on numerous conversations regarding certain especially gory and violent games:
- since adults may "forbid" them they are much more attractive to kids
- younger kids not yet exposed to such gore are initially "freaked" and get nightmares (as from horror movies) but gradually become inured to it.
- kids 12 or older embrace the gore much like my generation embraced the "Living Dead" movies
- "certain kids" begin seeking an increasingly higher level of gore and violence
- "certain kids " those who spend "too much" ( really quantitative, huh? ) time on such games  show further signs of antisocial behaviour
- "some kids" have difficulty differentiating between acceptable actions and consequences in real life vs games.
- "some kids" (like "some people" on the web) get easily wound up playing the video games and carry the intensity over into "real life" and require timeouts or discipline until they "wind down".

Here is another hypothesis - perhaps such games are not as much an influence to unacceptable behavior.  Perhaps the already anti-social and ill-adjusted people are simply attracted to these games ?

I still maintain my suggestion that video games can "train" behaviour; I do believe it is somewhat obvious  

yhs
prof marvel

[PJ Hardtack]

Well, Prof, your last line may be your best. Violent video games may well attract those predisposed to violence and affect them in such a manner as to cause a disconnect between play and reality.

I know that in cases of criminal violence in Canada, one of the things of interest to the RCMP and Crown prosecutors is the genre of movies and games owned and/or rented by the accused. It aids in the psychological profiling of suspects.

As a result of criminal misuse of guns, particularly mass shootings in this country, gun owners are regarded as "criminals in waiting" and mere gun ownership marks one as a 'person of interest'. Yet we know that statistically, a licenced hunter, competitive shooter or collector is the least likely to commit a crime with a gun.

It would be politically incorrect for me suggest the demographic that is the cause of the prevalent attitude.

[Camille Eonich]

Do you  know how many millions of people play video games on a daily basis?  Now how many people that play video games on a daily basis go out and kill people?

It used to be that rock music caused people to kill people then it was the movies or violent cartoons.

Some people's brains aren't wired correctly and sometimes those people make a conscious decision to hurt and or kill other people.  It's happened since the beginning of time and it will continue to happen until the end of time unless we learn enough about the human brain to be able to identify those people before they make those fatal decisions.

Music, guns, knives, video games, movies, cartoons whatever those people's obsessions are really have nothing to do with it much the same as creating more gun laws will not prevent them from finding a way to carry out whatever plan it is that they eventually decide on.


Jim Jones studied religion and killed with Kool Aid.

[PJ Hardtack]

And cartoons published in a Danish newspaper caused Muslims to riot, burn cars and kill people .....

For a police perspective on Newtown, check out: http://www.policeone.com/active-shooter/articles/2058168-Lt-Col-Dave-Grossman-to-cops-The-enemy-is-denial/

[Camille Eonich]

PJ thank you for linking that!  It's excellent .

[Professor Marvel]

Well, Prof, your last line may be your best.

Greetings PJ -
would that be "Supplying useless advice for All Occasions" ?

yours in humor
prof marvel

[rbertalotto]

A "Graphic Video Game" every now and then probably has no effect on encouraging a violent or anti-social behavior.  But playing graphic - violent video games 8-10 hours a day MUST have a negative effect on some young, impressionable physios.

Ad to this Reality TV and MTV and the most sane person on planet earth will develop a "twitch"..........

If you've not watched MTV lately or ever. I suggest you spend a few hours and see what our youth are being influenced by. It will blow your mind!

To all the above add a huge dose of internet and the whole concept of responsibility and what is acceptable and what isn't is totally lost....

"Nature abhors a vacuum....remove God from school and your life in general and evil with take up residence........"

[Professor Marvel]

From PJ's link, a reader's comment:

Posted by Evidence8 on Thursday, December 02, 2010 05:41 AM Pacific
"42 years on the job, and retired; last month I was at a local college, giving a presentation to the Criminal Justice students, along with my Criminal Profiler. She gave them Lt. Col. Grossman's stats on school shooters ALL being gamers who were addicted to violent video games, and one youngster, all dressed in black, wearing his NYPD ball cap in the reverse/lock position; decided to challenge her on the issue, ". . . because everyone plays video games nowadays!" She articulated the Col.'s data, once again, pointing out that violent video games are used to train our Green Berets, Navy Seals, and Army Rangers, and studies have shown that the brain scans of those who get too much of this activity are altered as much, or more than Heroin/Cocaine/Ice addicts, but this youngster would have none of it. Video games are much too prevalent, he reiterated.  "  ....
 ...

I had "thought" i remembered such studies, I will try to locate such data and studies.

yhs
prof marvel

[GunClick Rick]

All good points~

[Camille Eonich]

It would be very difficult in this day and age to find a kid, especially males, who doesn't play some type of "violent" video game so it doesn't surprise me at all that the ones involved in these horrendous crimes do.

I've been an avid gamer myself for many years.

Speaking of violent games, in CAS we actually use real guns against imaginary enemies.  We sure aren't pretending that the targets out there are merely targets in a shooting gallery.

Be careful, very careful.

[Professor Marvel]

It would be very difficult in this day and age to find a kid, especially males, who doesn't play some type of "violent" video game so it doesn't surprise me at all that the ones involved in these horrendous crimes do.

I've been an avid gamer myself for many years.

Speaking of violent games, in CAS we actually use real guns against imaginary enemies.  We sure aren't pretending that the targets out there are merely targets in a shooting gallery.

Be careful, very careful.

Greetings Camille -

I believe I understand your point and direction, but There is a huge difference, as I stated above -

--------------------
"Regarding organized "real-life" activities such as Organised CAS shooting or Organized Boxing, Martial Arts, etc:
I believe that these Organized activities not only provide an outlet but also specific structure that includes discipline, safety, rules (and following them), positive role models,  immediate consequence to actions, and a certain positive moral structure. These are all not just promoted but enforced; further the "learned" discipline and role model behaviour carries over into everyday real life.

For example, if you screw up and drop your revolver, you incurr a non-negotiable DQ. Game Over. If you throw a tantrum over it, you will get a stern talking to and/or invited to leave.

In Boxing or on the Martial Arts Mat, participants are closely monitored. Good behaviour is taught and encouraged. Bad behaviour is not tolerated.

The above is not the case in illegal fight clubs, or video games. In video games especially there are no good role models, moral behaviour is not rewarded;  one can choose to be a "bad character" and otherwise intolerable behaviour is encouraged.
Such behaviour becomes  learned and  lauded online and I maintain this carries over into real life, based on experiential results."
--------------------

It is not so much the "so called violence" as it is the lack of positive role models, the isolation, etc.

Yes, we in CAS "go bang with real guns and live ammo" .... BUT the differences are enourmous and fundamental:

- We are the "good guys" shooting at "bad guys" - in many of the video games you can choose to be the criminal.
- In our game the result of the shot is a "ding!"  - in the video games, they see graphic and realistic wounds and lots and lots of blood. ( I still maintain this can lead to a "numbing" )
- In our game there is postivie social interaction - in the video games there is mainly isolation
- In our game there are safety rules and consequences  - in the video games there are none
- In our game there are consequences to bad behaviour - in the video games there are none
- In our game there is considerable training and positive reinforcement - in the video games there is none
- In our game you earn your score and deal with it - in the video games there are reset buttons and do-overs

Also, as  Rbertalatto pointed out:

A "Graphic Video Game" every now and then probably has no effect on encouraging a violent or anti-social behavior.  But playing graphic - violent video games 8-10 hours a day MUST have a negative effect on some young, impressionable physios.
Ad to this Reality TV and MTV and the most sane person on planet earth will develop a "twitch"..........
If you've not watched MTV lately or ever. I suggest you spend a few hours and see what our youth are being influenced by. It will blow your mind!
To all the above add a huge dose of internet and the whole concept of responsibility and what is acceptable and what isn't is totally lost....
"Nature abhors a vacuum....remove God from school and your life in general and evil with take up residence........"

I am not looking to blame or  ban video games, but to understand the influence and consider ways to ameliorate such an influence on the impressionable border-line types.


yhs
prof marvel

[Camille Eonich]

Do you play video games Professor Marvel?  Most gamers these days don't play in isolation.  Many games require a team in order to progress through the game.  The best of those teams generally have many rules and very often includes rules of conduct when interacting with people not on the team.  They are very organized, have applications for gaining spots on the teams.  They have forums set up to exchange information when not in game and they have ventrilo or some means of communicating by voice while playing.  Often those teams of people become very close friends and they have long term relationships with the people on those teams very often meeting and staying in touch in person.

Many gamers attend LAN parties where everyone lugs a PC into one place that has set up equipment that will handle the load and they play games all night or all weekend.  There are gaming conventions with costume contests and all types of other events for the convention goers.  Much like the SASS convention.

From a seminar given by Jane McGonigal, a woman who received her Ph.D. in game research from the University of California, Berkeley.

1. McGonigal began her talk by saying that "the opposite of play isn't work; it's depression." In clinical trials, video games have been shown to outperform medication for dealing with anxiety and depression. What's more, games help young people become more resilient in overcoming physical, emotional and social challenges.

2. "10 Positive Emotions" that gamers experience while involved with video games are joy, belief, love, surprise, pride, curiosity, excitement, awe and wonder, contentment and creativity. Many commercial game developers understand that a game's success comes about from how many strong feelings it provokes in people who play the game. Therefore, a lot of conditions are built into games that bring forth those aforementioned emotions. "What else can people do that elicits ten positive emotions?" said McGonigal.

Most video game involvement is both social and cooperative because young people build relationships as they play with friends, acquaintances and even strangers. It has also been found that students who play games with their parents feel closer to them.

3. Unbelievably, ADHD symptoms are lessened when gamers who have attention deficit problems play their favorite video games. In addition, gamers with Autism Spectrum Disorder seem to increase their social intelligence after playing these games.

4. Based on solid scientific evidence, videogames may actually fill basic human needs that the real world fails to satisfy. McGonigal predicted that skilled gamers will be an important resource for solving some of the world's most pressing problems.

She mentioned a paper in the prestigious journal, Nature, that describes how 57,000 gamers with no previous background in biochemistry participated in a 3D game called Fold-it, to "fold virtual proteins in new ways that could help cure cancer or prevent Alzheimer's Disease." University of Washington scientists pitted supercomputers against these gamers and guess what: In more than half the games, the gamers beat the supercomputers! Apparently, kids who play games develop remarkable logical thinking, problem solving, observational, strategic, multi-tasking and visual skills.

5. Unlike video games, McGonigal says that today's real world is often missing something. Research shows that a good video game offers four key elements in having a happy, meaningful life: satisfying labor, hope for success, a strong social connection with other people and the opportunity to be a part of something larger than yourself. If that's not enough, video gamers have nearly a 30 percent higher creativity competency than non-gaming peers.

Here are some other useful links that dispute that in the average child video games are not harmful.

http://ideas.time.com/2011/12/07/video-games-dont-make-kids-violent/
http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/health/story/health/story/2011-09-14/Dont-study-the-video-game-study-the-player/50406018/1
http://health.usnews.com/health-news/family-health/childrens-health/articles/2011/02/23/violent-video-games-may-not-desensitize-kids-study



As many people have false assumptions about videos games as they do guns.  The gaming community is as diverse as gun owners and we do live real lives and are productive members of society.  One of the largest video games in the world generates huge charitable contributions by selling virtual pets and mounts to the players.  If you go to their forum right now there will be threads there talking about the tragedy that happened Friday and you know what, they are probably talking about all the gun nuts that run around waving guns on the street and are just waiting for a reason to shoot someone.  There are probably many there saying that the only reason that anyone needs an "assault weapon" is to kill another human.  Many of them don't understand why anyone needs and kind of gun even for personal protection, that's what cops are for right?

Again, millions of people play video games for hours on end every day and yet millions of people aren't out shooting up elementary schools every day.  Mentally unstable people are mentally unstable despite their pastime not because of them.

[Gen. Jackson]

Professor Marvel,

Well I wrote a rather exhaustive reply, and unfortunately failed to save my work and the lights went out momentarily. I am so angry I could spit bullets ( no pun intended ).

Very quickly:

I am a social scientist. I understand human behavior.

But allow me to be a gentleman and refer you to Miss Camille Eonich as I think her reply is rather close to what I wanted to convey. I may give a more thorough response in the near future, but right now I am major pissed to have written my response in a scholarly fashion only to have it disappear in the blink of an eye.

So sorry.

[Dusty Drifter]

"Nature abhors a vacuum....remove God from school and your life in general and evil with take up residence........"

Well said!!

DD

[Professor Marvel]

My Dear Camille and General -

Thanks very much for your thoughtful and thorough reponses ( and promise of more - General,  I sympathize AND empathize!). I appreciate having access to actual studies and I hope I have not caused offense as that was not my intent, and if I did so it was unintentional and I do appologise.

My intent is to take an engineering approach and ask questions, many questions. It is my nature to question almost everything and I periodically use discussions to try to test causality; at times links between cause and affect are not apparent, and at times they are in fact nonexistent; yet if the question is not asked, then an answer will not be forthcoming.

I did postulate earlier, that perhaps the attraction to certain games, clothing, paraphenalia, etc is merely symptomatic amongst some of those prone to these acts.

As an inverse experiential example, my Lovely Spousal Unit and I were attending a July 4th celebration in a city park, and a group of extreme Goth Kids were off by themselves at one picnic table. All black torn clothing, black lipstick and fingernails (boys too) dozens of piercings, died Mohawk or spiked hair, spiked collars and armbands, the works.  They suddenly jumped up and raced across the park, to the great consternation of some citizens. My Wife and I looked on with interest as they rushed past us to
greet an elderly woman they knew and help her get her picnic things from the car to her chosen spot.

Thus I keep reminding myself that one should not judge a book by it's cover, nor whitewash a group by the actions of one member.

I am familiar with Second Life, RPG's, "some" multi-player games such as WOW and many of the single-player games such as the infamous Grand Theft Auto, which is one of the "bad game examples" - yet GTA is so dated,  so you can see how far behind the times I am. I am unfamiliar with the team-based games of which Camille writes, and appreciate her comments thereon.

My personal experience has been to see people (some of whom are distant family members) retreat into playing games apparently to avoid social interaction, sometimes using the excuse (specifically in WOW) that the game "is" their social interaction.  (Like I never did that as a youth - hah!     books, my darkroom,  and amatuer radio were my retreats)

Whereas we in CAS and re-enactors avoid reality by playing cowboy-and-indian    

I hope you can understand that I find "too much" of such behaviour (especially in young adults)  troubling and perhaps indicative of attempts to avoid reality rather than develop real-world social and coping skills.

At the same time it is becoming apparent that the "virtual reality" of the Web ( why look, here we are discussing this on CAS City!) is becoming the new norm and new social skills are developing to accomodate the limitations of the tools.

Pray,  continue as I really wish to learn more (rather than sounding like a ranting grumpy old fart.)

yhs
prof (inquisitive) marvel

[Camille Eonich]

Thanks very much for your thoughtful and thorough reponses ( and promise of more - General,  I sympathize AND empathize!). I appreciate having access to actual studies and I hope I have not caused offense as that was not my intent, and if I did so it was unintentional and I do appologise.

I'm certainly not offended and I appreciate a good civil discussion on most anything.

As an inverse experiential example, my Lovely Spousal Unit and I were attending a July 4th celebration in a city park, and a group of extreme Goth Kids were off by themselves at one picnic table. All black torn clothing, black lipstick and fingernails (boys too) dozens of piercings, died Mohawk or spiked hair, spiked collars and armbands, the works.  They suddenly jumped up and raced across the park, to the great consternation of some citizens. My Wife and I looked on with interest as they rushed past us to
greet an elderly woman they knew and help her get her picnic things from the car to her chosen spot.

I love this, expect the unexpected.






Whereas we in CAS and re-enactors avoid reality by playing cowboy-and-indian    

I hope you can understand that I find "too much" of such behaviour (especially in young adults)  troubling and perhaps indicative of attempts to avoid reality rather than develop real-world social and coping skills.

All things in moderation.

When things like this happen I think that it's human nature to want to do something, anything even if it's not right.  We search and search for a reason for why it happens and what could be done to stop and we look at the killer's life through a microscope and determine that someone some where should have known when in reality there was no way anyone could have known.

[Gen. Jackson]

General, as I stated in the other thread, I do not have studies at my disposal. I would be very interested in any studies you can offer, detailed data (raw if possible, altho I admit it is unlikely) and especially "who paid for the study", any possible agendas and links to organizations etc.

Professor Marvel,

You asked if I could provide raw data concerning my argument. Basically you are requesting primary research, albeit I most certainly could if I fancied undertaking such a venture and have done so literally dozens of times, but I am not inclined to do so only because that would be far too exhaustive and time consuming for this particular forum. And frankly, I think most people here would find it rather boring. Not nearly as interesting as discussing why newer Marlin lever actions, which is now owned by Remington, have "gone down the drain" in reliability ( i.e., the infamous Marlin jam ).

Secondary research is an option, but that would require endless quotation in an acceptable format such as the "chicago" style or APA type format - since the topic is sociological and would result in a "merry-go-round" debate. I no longer engage in research, but rather I am a clinician. I do not wish to divulge much more than that, as my personal life is not important nor is it particularly exciting.

No, video gaming is not a causation of violence in our culture. Rather, what we have here is a break-down in the moral fabric of our society; from many different factors that have already been alluded to by previous posters. Someone that would commit an unspeakable atrocity goes far deeper than the mere past-time of video gaming.

Such a person already had a deep seated pre-disposition to committing such an act that was triggered by social stressors. This school of thought is referred to as Socio-Biology. They may have a biologically inherited mental illness. For example, schizophrenia is now considered an inherited illness that may lay dormant for many years before manifestation even into later adulthood. The triggers for manifestation of certain mental illnesses could run the gammit of almost anything, as it is still a mystery as to what exactly causes the illness to surface. Some suggest a chemical reaction in the right global hemisphere that regulates emotional control. Others suggest man-made environmental factors such as toxic waste or other unnatural external stimuli. Still others postulate that emotional abuse of an adolescent in their formative years by way of parents, caretakers, or especially the child's peers will cause withdrawal from normal human interaction, and their repressed anger from this abuse may eventually express itself in uncontrollable rage, homicide or suicide.  

Another factor may be the result of pharmacologically induced abnormal behavior resulting in psychosis that otherwise may not have occured if the patient had not been prescribed psychotropics in the first place. Some physicians are over prescribing psychotropics to the point that they are being passed out like candy from a pezz dispenser for any perceived "abnormal" behavior no matter how trivial; even to very young children whose behavior is quite normal for their age group ( i.e., Ritalin ). These powerful medications not only alter mood and emotion, but also appear to alter a person's cognitive functioning and their very personality to the point of extreme aggression or worse.

So then, you can see that there are far more reasonable explanations as to why someone might go off the deep end, and it most certainly isn't video games. That is an easy target in an effort to explain a very complicated psychological conundrum as well as a uninformed attempt to define the moral disintegration of our society. Which is exactly what is occurring.

Good evening to everyone.

[Cliff Fendley]

I will have to say this. Col. Grossman makes some very good points on video games, TV, and just other things like the media attention this stuff gets, that can alter already unstable minds.

Another things to point out is he is not saying video games will alter every mind but they train one to be able to get in that zone and kill very accurately and willing once that person cracks.

These young kids doing this have a better accuracy rate than our trained police officers, some of the kids had never fired a real gun. Once that unstable mind is in that zone their brain is programed to kill.

Grossman points out similar measures have been used to get soldiers engagement rates up from well under 40% in WWII to almost 100% today.

I personally have seen my nephew and others play some of these games and my kid is not going to have them. I have also listened to Col. Dave Grossman's entire six hour "bulletproof mind" seminar. Before defending any video game one should play them and listen to Grossmans seminar, especially the part on what's causing our kids to kill.

[PJ Hardtack]

Lets hope that there is similar discussion and dialogue going on amongst law makers and politicians. I'm honoured to be among such erudite company.

Some of you are aware of a similar school shootings that have taken place in Canada, both of them in Montreal, Quebec. I won't comment on that further, save to say that Quebec is the sole province to challenge the scrapping of our long gun registry; two others with intervenor status.
The differences between the Newtown tragedy and those that occurred at L'Ecole Polytechnique and Dawson College are: (a) the victims were college students, not elementary pupils; and (b) no one present offered resistance or protection to the victims.

In the case of the L'Ecole Polytechnique shootings, sixteen female engineering students were gunned down with a Mini-14 by one Gamil Gharbi (aka Marc Lepine), a self-avowed anti-feminist and son of an Algerian immigrant, known to be a wife beater. This is the event that lead to the establishment of our now defunct long gun registry.
In the Dawson College incident, the shooter was one Gil Kimveer, who used a Beretta 'Storm' to shoot his victims. Both were licenced gun owners with registered weapons and both fit the psychological profile - loners, socially isolated, etc.

At L'Ecole Polytechnique, the male students were ordered out of the room. They left, abandoning their sisters to their fate, and any claims to manhood they ever had. At both schools, no one offered resistance or help until the shooting stopped, including police. Both shooters terminated themselves.

The point to all this? Several:

-The teachers at Newtown exhibited the highest courage and devotion imaginable, putting themselves in harm's way to save the children.
- The police cannot protect, predict or prevent such incidents; only the people on site.
- The 'victim mentality' inculcated in today's youth has done them a disservice.
- "Gun Free Zones" are "killing grounds"
- Armed citizens are the best defence against such attacks.

Check out: http://jpfo.org/filegen-n-z/school.htm

P.S. - My wife called me to see "The Doctors" today as 'Dr. Phil' was the guest speaker on how to explain events like Newtown to children.
He made the comment that while he didn't think that playing violent video games was turning people into psychopathic killers, for someone predisposed to anti-social violence through a mental disorder, it could have that effect through disassociation and a disconnect with the impact of their actions.
He did say that statistically, more such events happened over the last 30 years than ever before and the interval between them is lessening.

Many 'normal' people are turned off by violent video games and movies, just as they are by the bombardment of info on the MSM covering the latest bombings and civil wars around the world. While we should be concerned, it's bloody depressing, especially at this time of year.