Expert: Video Games “New Easy Target” to Explain Societal Violence

A week after a horrific shooting at a Connecticut elementary school killed 20 first-graders and six educators, the Wayne LaPierre of the National Rifle Association (NRA) doubled down on his stance that more guns, not less, increase security while pointing to a slew of media, including video games, for inspiring violence that could unfold in the form of a mass shooting.

Video game guru Marcus Beer told NBC4 on Sunday that the medium has become the "new easy target" in an attempt to explain why gunmen carry out mass slayings.

"This is something that has been trotted out over the years," Beer said. "And it’s not just been video games. In the ‘40s and ‘50s, it was comic books. Then it was television, then it movies, then it was rock and roll, then it was rock music. Then it was rap music."

Beer said those who blame video games, or any other media, for violence in society "don’t really understand the new media at the time, and therefore think its evil."

According to the Washington Post (video embedded below), the United States is the lone outlier among the top video-game consuming nations that also have a high gun-related murder rate.

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