This is not just going to "go away"--
No, Let's Talk About Video Game Violence: "Adam Lanza was a gamer. This fact has been reported, re-reported, and rehashed to the extent that it's now part of the killer's capsule bio: Young. White. Male. Asperger's. Loner. Gamer. This was predictable — not just that this young, withdrawn man played games, as so many do, or that they were violent, as so many are, but also that this detail would capture people's attention; that the media would repeat it in an insinuating way, and that it would make the public uneasy. My son plays those games. My son loves those games. I play those games. . . . We can let ourselves feel guilty as we play these games, and talk about why that might be. We can allow ourselves to wonder what it means that members of Seal Team Six were disciplined by the Navy for divulging classified information in a video game consultation. We can freely ask if these games have any causal force when it comes to violence, or if they're just a reflection of the culture of a country that's been at war for a solid decade. We can feel free to acknowledge that the thought of truly violent and insane people playing and enjoying games about killing makes the stomach churn, in the same way we might be discomforted to find out a killer enjoyed beloved but violent movies. We can stop obsessing over the media blaming the games industry — it hasn't had real consequences in this country before, and it's doubtful that it will anytime soon — and take a moment to consider what's it's become, and what it should be. . . . .
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