And, Right On Time, Here Comes The Blame Video Games Train For The Navy Yard Shooter

from the blame-game dept

Perhaps it makes me a cold, heartless son of a bitch, but when I read the news reports about Aaron Alexis, who shot up the Washington Navy Yard and killed several people, I immediately wondered how long it would take before we got someone blaming video games. It simply happens every time. Whether it's simple accidental shootings, the Aurora theater shootings, or the Sandy Hook tragedy, pundits and advocating blame-shifters just love to take the gun out of the shooter's hands and place it squarely at the feet of violent media. It's the kind of culpability avoidance that has so frustrated the American public over our legal system. So, again, I wondered how long it would take.

One freaking day, that's how long. It starts with an obviously distraught friend of Alexis', who it should be noted is a restaurant owner and not a practicing psychotherapist.

The darker side to Alexis's character saw him playing violent "zombie" video games in his room, sometimes from 12.30pm until 4.30am. Mr Suthamtewakul said: "He could be in the game all day and all night. I think games might be what pushed him that way. He always had this fear people would steal his stuff so that's why he would carry his gun all the time. He would carry it when he was helping out in the restaurant which scared my customers."

From there, cable news, which is the bane of all intelligence, took the stupid ball and ran with it.

New Fox & Friends host Elisabeth Hasselbeck on Tuesday suggested that “the left” was trying to make Monday’s mass shooting at the Washington Navy Yard about “gun control,” when what the country really needed was a registry to track video game purchases.

“Are more people susceptible to playing video games?” Hasselbeck wondered. “Is there a link between a certain age group or [demographic] in 20- to 34-year-old men, perhaps, that are playing these video games and their violent actions? What about frequency testing?” she added. “How often has this game been played? I’m not one to get in there and say, monitor everything, but if this, indeed, is a strong link, right, to mass killings then why aren’t we looking at frequency of purchases per person? And also, how often they’re playing and maybe they time out after a certain hour.”

Ah, the classic "I'm just asking questions" routine. Does Hasselback know she's reading from the nutso conspiracy theorist's script? Regardless, the problem is that we've seen time and time again that the evidence suggests there is no link between video games and violent behavior. Yet the response should be government monitoring of our entertainment choices? And this is from a Fox News anchor!?!?

Hey, heads up to all you folks that want to use this crime to blame guns, video games, movies, heavy metal music, football, or Pokemon: the guy had mental health issues. He was hearing voices and had already contacted the V.A. to get help. Oh, and he was apparently shuffled through the civilian contractor application process without a proper background check, because we all know the DoD doesn't have any reason to be more strict when it comes to civilian contractors these days. This was a failure on many levels, with the ultimate responsibility falling into the hands of the man who was firing the weapon into the innocents: Aaron Alexis. You know where there wasn't any culpability? Video games.

Filed Under: aaron alexis, elisabeth hasselbeck, fox news, navy yards, video games, violence, washington navy yards