background information.

i was having a conversation with a co-worker this morning who shoots competitively in marksman contests. we were talking about video games and first person shooters, specifically. he said, well, he didn't really think people should play those kinds of games because, you know, all the school shootings. he has 3 sons, the eldest of which is in his second year in university.

i said, look. your sons know how to shoot a gun. they know how to hold it, how to aim it, how to handle it. they've seen you set an example by shooting a rifle for sport.

all i know how to do is click a mouse.

whether or not video games encourage violent behavior is something i'm going to leave up to the psychiatrists. anyone who's played a game knows it certainly has psychologic and physical effects, including adrenaline rushes, rapid heartrate and breathing, and so forth. but for any kid who has picked up a gun and shot someone, there was someone else who had a gun, who taught that kid how to use it, and who introduced the kid to that culture.

i'm not against gun ownership. i believe they knew what they were doing when they wrote the second ammendment because history has shown that one of the best ways to control a population is to criminalize weapons ownership. but we need to sit up and ask what's going on that high school kids take a gun and go shoot up a school, or that people want to own assault weapons that frankly have no other purpose than to kill a fair amount of people in a short amount of time. no one's going to take an AK-47 deer hunting. you're not going to need it for self defense, either. but don't blame videogames when you've got a loaded gun in an unlocked cabinet, and you've taught your kid how to use it.