Donald Trump announced this week that he’s going to be meeting with video game developers in the United States to get them to tone down the violence. He, as well as many other Republicans, believe that video games are what is causing the violent behavior of people in the US. There is no evidence to back up these claims, but it prevents them from having to address the REAL problems, as Ring of Fire’s Farron Cousins explains.
Transcript:
Earlier this week, Donald Trump during discussions about gun control in the United States said that he plans on having a meeting next week with the developers of video games here in the United States to try to get them to curb the violence. Because Donald Trump, as well as many other Republicans in this country, believe that video games are the reason we just have so many mass shootings here in the United States.
So after announcing that he has a meeting planned next week with video game developers reporters started reaching out to video game developers who said this is the first they’ve ever heard of a meeting with Donald Trump next week. So according to all of the video game developers that have been interviewed, including all of the large ones here in the United States, none of them have been told about any meetings on their books next week with Donald Trump to discuss violence in video games. Which, to be honest is a good thing. They do not need to have a meeting with Donald Trump. They do not need to curb the violence in their video games because it’s not causing mass shootings.
Now, you may disagree with the violence in video games. You may not like it and that’s fine. That’s your prerogative. However, if you’re going to attempt to link the two, you better come armed with some information because right now there is no factual evidence that suggests any kind of link between violent video games or movies or music and mass shootings here in the United States.
The average video game user’s age in this country is 35 years old. 90% of people under the age of 18 are with their parents when they buy the video game. So only 10% of children are out there buying video games that their parents are not aware of. That’s not what the problem is. The problem is that people can get their hands on firearms too easily in this country and that needs to be fixed.
But what Donald Trump is doing here, which is something Republicans have been doing for decades, is they’re trying to change the subject. They’re trying to say it’s a cultural issue here in the United States with all the violent video games and movies and music. Same thing they did after Columbine. They blamed it on Marilyn Manson and all that horrible music that all the kids were listening to these days. That’s what caused these. No. What causes it is that we have people in their teens, who can’t even legally vote some that can’t even legally drive, but they can go purchase an AR-15 without their parent’s consent. Without their parents even knowing about it.
That’s what the problem is. The rest of the world has the same kind of music and video games and movies available to them and they don’t have these problems. The problem isn’t the media. The problem is the guns and the Republicans are going to do everything possible to keep this conversation focused on anything other than the guns.
