Funnily enough...
..and video games are already being blamed. Rather than, oh, say, gun control, or the lack thereof....
...I think the comment about video games deserves a little more consideration rather than simply laughing at it...
That's not to say that violent video games cause mass shootings. They don't. You might as well think that Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment causes axe murdering. But they are an indicator into the attitude of the culture that generates them.
Mere possession of guns doesn't cause mass murdering either - though it is true that if you make guns impossibly hard to get hold of you will probably limit occurrances, or change them to machete attacks. Look at the Swiss - lots of guns and few massacres.
The problem for the Americans is that they have a culture of using guns to settle arguments. They look back to their pioneering Western days, and have this image of good and bad - white hats and black hats. The hero has to shoot the villain. While Europeans have a nuanced view of living together and are prepared to accomodate others - or look for ways in which opposing groups can live together (an attitude brought on by their history of interminable internecine warfare), the Americans are not inclined to 'live and let live'. In America 'a man's got to do what a man's got to do', and defend his rights.
It is this attitude which results in people with real or imagined slights taking a gun to a school or a mall and shooting people. You will see the same attitude in American action films and videos. They don't cause violence, but they are a reflection of a society which sees violence as a suitable way to settle a quarrel. Gun control is simply addressing a symptom. Ideally, you should go for the cause...
Biting the hand that feeds IT
