Where Politics And Video Games Collide

Making videogames illegal doesn't help at all. Honestly, if age-inappropriate movies and music and books and other forms of art could not legally be sold to minors (they all can), there would be no problem with adding videogames to the list.

The problem is that individually targeting videogames to not be sold to children is just as illegal as targeting any of those other media forms, and contrary to this man's completely out-of-the-blue contention, there is considerably less data connecting video games to violence than there is connecting any one of those other forms of media to violence--and that despite all the recent efforts to demonize games.

Ok, scratch that, the real problem is idiots in positions of authority jumping on video games as the cause to crimes because they don't realize that a ridiculously small percentage of all gamers commit these sort of severe crimes--and don't quote me, but I'm pretty sure there was a study comparing the percentages of non-gamers who commit crimes compared to the percentage of gamers, and there was a statistically significant difference: the non-gamers are much more likely to commit crimes. Do I know this? No, I think I read it in an official government webpage, so I SAY that this is only what I THINK instead of coming across as stating fact.

Do we go around pointing to this type of data as evidence to criminalize NOT gaming? More importantly, do we use our professional positions as platforms through which to make unfounded claims which have no basis in reality or for which we have no conclusive studies? No, because it's downright immoral, and incredibly unprofessional (and, for a cop, a betrayal to those who trust you to be honest and informed about your subjects) to so wrongfully let people THINK that you know what you're talking about.

When a cop or a politician in particular says something like this, the people listening tend to assume they are saying something with the force of law behind it, something which has been conclusively demonstrated to be true, and something that they know a considerable amount about. This man, by making such a claim in the absence of actual evidence or studies, has just done an incredible disservice to the people he was speaking to, and all who will read that quote.

Thank you, Chief Jordan, for misinforming the people who trust you and furthering yet another bias so that even more people come to believe that video games are rare and inexplicable and that anyone who plays them is only a ticking time bomb and the most likely suspect in any crime. Jerk.