'No Significant Relationship' Between Violent Games & School Shootings

A very reasonable-sounding researcher at Texas A&M International University recently published his conclusion that there is "no significant relationship" between violent video games and school shootings. Writing in the Journal of Investigative Psychology and Offender Profiling, Professor Christopher Ferguson touches on just about every relevant reference from Cooper Lawrence's idiotic Mass Effect tirade to the lack of evidence at shooting scenes like Virginia Tech, the Utah Trolley Stop mall shooting, and the Northern Illinois University shootings. His conclusions? Anti-gaming-violence campaigners need to quit the hysterics:

Moral panics may emerge from 'culture wars' occurring in a society... politicians, news media and social scientists, arguably [have] motives for promoting hysterical beliefs about media violence, and video games specifically. Actual causes of violent crime, such as family environment, genetics, poverty, and inequality, are oftentimes difficult, controversial, and intractable problems. By contrast, video games present something of a 'straw man' by which politicians can create an appearance of taking action against crime...

And in regards to school shootings specifically:

School shootings, although exceedingly rare, are an important issue worthy of serious consideration. However, for our understanding of this phenomenon to progress, we must move past the moral panic on video games and other media and take a hard look at the real causes of serious aggression and violence...

Sad that it takes a scientist to say what's been common sense to gamers from the get-go: games are not the problem, but people who would rather focus on games than the real problem - they're a real problem! Letting an ignorant population of legislators create rules for something of which they possess no real understanding is, well, lame:

It has been the observation of this author, for instance, that the majority of individuals critical of video games are above the age of 35 (many are elderly) and oftentimes admit to not having directly experienced the games. Some commentators make claims betraying their unfamiliarity, such as that games like Grant Theft Auto 'award points' for antisocial behaviour... despite that few games award points for anything anymore, instead focusing on stories.

Word. Now if only we could get the numbnuts in charge to listen to sound counsel.

Researcher: No Link Between Violent Games & School Shootings [GamePolitics]