Interestingly, it is the most vocal supporters of the gun lobby who, as usual, blame video games for Tuesday’s tragic event, the mass murder at Ulvade Elementary School in Texas.

Unfortunately, as we know, the Texas incident is far from the first. There have been several mass shootings in the United States in the last month alone. On 14 May, 10 people were killed in Buffalo, New York, by an 18-year-old gunman whose manifesto claimed that white supremacy and far-right conspiracy theories fueled the attack. And on 24 May, an 18-year-old man killed 19 children and two teachers in a Texas elementary school. These horrific acts have reignited the gun control debate in America.

Despite this, the National Rifle Association (NRA) held its annual convention in Houston, Texas, where politicians, including Texas Senator Ted Cruz, spoke.

In his speech at the NRA convention, Ted Cruz suggested that mass shootings in the US result from problems such as people playing violent video games and not going to church.

He said that a combination of these two factors and others are affecting young Americans. “Tragedies like the events of this week are a mirror forcing us to ask hard questions, demanding that we see where our culture is failing. Looking at broken families, absent fathers, declining church attendance, social media bullying, violent online content, desensitizing the act of murder in video games, chronic isolation, prescription drug and opioid abuse, and their collective effects on the psyche of young Americans,” said Cruz. Those in attendance applauded Cruz after his remarks.

Ted Cruz’s comments were not well received on the internet, especially since the Texas elementary school shooting happened just a few days ago, Cruz is a state senator, and the NRA’s convention is being held in Houston.

“Cyber-gaming” perpetrator…?

Texas Department of Public Safety chief Steven McGraw used that epithet to describe Salvador Rolando Ramos at a recent press conference.

Investigators continue to look into the perpetrator’s background as they try to piece together the exact timeline of events leading up to the 24 May elementary school shooting. Meanwhile, the local police have received much criticism for their apparent refusal to enter the school after Ramos barricaded himself in a classroom with his victims.

At a recent press conference, Steven McGraw, head of the Texas Department of Public Safety, admitted that law enforcement made some poor decisions in responding to the shooting and also said that authorities were still trying to find out the “why” of the massacre.

“We haven’t gotten into the why, okay?” is how McGraw put it at the press conference.

“We know the individual was also into cyber gaming, in that regard, and group gaming.” Many have interpreted this statement to mean that violent video games were the shooter’s inspiration, but McGraw’s comment could also be interpreted to mean that there are more people Ramos met through video games.

Regardless of what McGraw meant by his comment, there are already those pointing the finger at violent video games again – see above. This, of course, ignores the fact that violent video games are available worldwide, yet the only country with a consistent problem with mass shootings is the United States.

There have been numerous studies on video game-inspired violence over the years, and no evidence has been found that directly links violent games to real-life violent crime.

The First Amendment protects video games, but they are often used as a scapegoat when this happens. However, there is something eerie about the way politicians with strong ties to the gun lobby and the NRA, such as Ted Cruz, will point the finger at anything just to avoid facing the fact that in some states in the US today, it is much easier to legally obtain a semi-automatic assault rifle at the age of 18 than a bottle of beer…

Source: ABC Action News, Twitter

Texas Senator @tedcruz blames video games for school shootings like the recent one in Uvalde pic.twitter.com/JO8AMH1IoD

— Dexerto (@Dexerto) May 28, 2022