10-Country Comparison Suggests Little or No Link Between Video Games and Gun Murders

Americans are searching for answers to stem gun violence after a 20-year-old man broke into a locked elementary school in Connecticut and killed 20 first-graders and six adults. The US has the highest firearm murder rate in the developed world, reports Max Fisher for the Washington Post. Disgusted, citizens question ready availability of weapons due to gross political manipulation of the 2nd Amendment to the US Constitution, as well as neglect of the mentally ill and ready availability of common entertainment featuring violence, particularly video games. Fisher turns to cross-country comparisons on video-game spending per capita and gun-related murders, hunting for a correlation, and points out that the data suggest “a slight downward shift in violence as video game consumption increases.” Instead, “countries where video games are popular also tend to be some of the world’s safest (probably because these countries are stable and developed, not because they have video games).” Scapegoats for gun violence are few, and policies that resist gun restrictions and responsibility are under scrutiny. – YaleGlobal