Let's (Not) Blame GTA

As I'm sure you're all well aware of, Grand Theft Auto is back in the news again. And it's not because the 5th installment launches in a few weeks.

As you may have noticed, there was a tragic shooting in Louisiana a few days ago. An 8-year old shot and killed his grandmother after supposedly playing some GTA. And boy is the media having a field day about it. Every media source from Fox to CNN to MSNBC are all saying the same things they've always said in these situations: violent video games are the cause. This kind of thing needs to stop and they need to start looking at the real reasons.

This situation has gotten so ridiculous that U.S. senators are saying that video games are a bigger issue than gun control. And nobody really seemed to bat an eye about it. Just involving this story, why aren't they looking into why an 8-year old had access to a loaded gun or why the grandmother wasn't keeping a closer eye on him? They just immediately jump to violent video game equals violent in real life.

I will admit that GTA is a fairly violent game and there's many more that are just as violent if not more so. But here's the thing, you can just as easily play these games and not do anything bad in them. For example, you can play GTA and follow all the rules of the road and such. You can play a game like Call of Duty and not pull the trigger once. What I'm saying is, is that these games are as violent as you want to make them. I think the fact that we choose violence over non-violence says a lot more about our media in general.

One of the "experts" these media sources brought in said that shooting people in a game is like practice for shooting someone in real life. If that's true why is it that I can play Madden and then not be able to know how to play real football? Or how I can play Legend of Zelda and not be a master swordsman? I just think it's high time we starting looking for the real source of these problems.