Do Video Games Make People Violent?

People began to think that the mass shooters were imitating by the video games and saying that the person that committed a mass shooting like the one in the Washington Navy Yard in 2013 was inspired by the games he played (Nguyen 2). However, there is no scientific or medical proof that people can be violent in real life because of video games. Even if someday there will be research that says violent games can make people violent in real life, people can be absolutely sure that it is not as significant as people can see. The statistics by the ESRB shows that there are more than 52% of United States population that play video games, but homicide statistics have also shown downward trends since the 1980s. Furthermore, mass shooting incidents
that involved more than 14 victims were twice as high between 1966 and 1991 than 22 years until 2013 (Mass Shootings Are on the Rise—and Falling). In short, with the rise of video game sales in United States, the statistics of homicide and crime should have shown an upward trend if violent video games could make people violent in real life; however, in reality, homicide rates have decreased almost 50% since 1991 and crime rates have shown downward trend since 1980s. This, indirectly, further proves that even if violent video games have negative effects on aggressiveness and a tendency of committing crime, it is really insignificant on the population.