Video Games Are Not The Villains
The immorality of the NRA lying to the public after school children were massacred in Connecticut is a symptom of the right wing noise machine ignoring both reality and morality. The NRA, while trying to convince us that guns don't kill people, is now trying to convince us that “virtual” guns kill people.
We are not the only developed nation that spends money on video games. In fact we do not spend the most per person on video games. For the purpose of testing the NRA theory that there is a correlation between video game use and deaths by firearms, let's look at the four developed nations that have the highest video game sales; The United States, Japan, South Korea and the United Kingdom.
If the NRA theory is correct, we should see high rates of death by firearms in these countries also. Listed Below is the amount of money spent on video games per 100,000 people in each of the four countries.
MONEY SPENT ON VIDEO GAMES PER 100,000 POPULATION
Country US$ Per 100,000
South Korea $10.0 Million
Japan $5.5 Million
United Kingdom $4.7 Million
United States $4.3 Million
So clearly South Korea should have over twice the deaths by firearms per 100,000 that the United States has.
NUMBER OF DEATHS BY FIREARMS PER 100,000 POPULATION
Country Firearm Deaths per 100,000
South Korea 00.13
Japan 00.07
United Kingdom 00.25
United States 10.20
THE UNITED STATES HAS OVER 78 TIMES AS MANY FIREARM DEATHS PER 100,000 THAN KOREA WHEN KOREA SPENDS 2.3 TIMES AS MUCH ON VIDEO GAMES PER 100,000
Maybe there is some other reason. Let's look at gun ownership per 100,000 in these same countries.
NUMBER OF PRIVATE FIREARMS PER 100,000 POPULATION
Country Private Firearms per 100,000
South Korea 1,100
Japan 600
United Kingdom 6.600
United States 88,800
THE UNITED STATES HAS OVER 800 TIMES AS MANY GUNS PER CAPITA THAN SOUTH KOREA
VIRTUAL GUNS DON'T KILL PEOPLE, REAL GUNS DO!