President Donald Trump will be meeting with representatives from the video game industry next week. The meeting is spurred by the recent shooting at a Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.
The president is looking at all options to stop the gun violence that doesn't involve outlawing assault rifles.
Violent Video Games
Following the school shooting in Parkland, Florida, Trump fell on the old violent video games cause violent behavior trope to explain the school shooting. Now, he will be meeting with executives that make those same violent video games that he was talking about.
During a meeting on school safety, Trump shifted blame toward video games for recent shootings.
"We have to do something about what [kids are] seeing and how they're seeing it," said Trump. "And also video games. I'm hearing more and more people say the level of violence on video games is shaping more and more people's thoughts."
Then during a live meeting with Congressional leaders, Trump once again brought up video games as an excuse.
"The video games, movies, the internet stuff is so violent," said Trump during the live meeting. "It's so incredible. I get to see things that you wouldn't be—you would be amazed at. I have a very young son who I look at some of the things he's watching and I say, 'How is that possible?'"
Research shows that this may not be the case with school shooters.
School Shooters Stay Away From Video Games
Research shows that few school shooters play video games. While 70 percent of high school students overall play video games — only 20 percent of school shooters play video games.
Villanova University psychologist Patrick Markey says that there is no connection between video games and school shootings.
"All we can really say for sure is that there does not appear to be a link at this time between violent video games and school shootings," said Markey. "And if there is a link, it goes in the opposite direction."
He added that shooters such as the Virginia Tech shooter, Seung-Hui Cho, didn't play video games at all. Adding that school shooters tend to do things that aren't normal for people their age.
Research shows that the that the United States is the only country where a lot of video games are played and people frequently shoot each other. The number of guns might be more problematic than violent video games.
