Senate Judiciary Ranking Member Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, blamed violent videogames...
Senate Judiciary Ranking Member Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, blamed violent videogames for acts of mass violence, during opening remarks at the committee’s Wednesday hearing on gun violence. “There are too many video games that celebrate the mass killing of innocent people…
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-- games that despite attempts at industry self-regulation -- find their way into the hands of children,” he said. Grassley noted that Anders Behring Breivik, the shooter who in 2011 killed 77 people in Norway, told a judge that he trained for the attack by playing Call of Duty. “Where is the artistic value in shooting innocent civilians?” said Grassley. “I share Vice President Biden’s disbelief of manufacturer denials that these games have no effect on real-world violence.” The Entertainment Software Association had no comment. A spokesman for the International Game Developers Association said “it is vital that the U.S. government focus on what works rather than seeking scapegoats in the entertainment industry,” in an email statement. “That plan has always failed, whether the scapegoat was Elvis, crime novels, comic books or Shakespeare’s plays. It won’t work when the scapegoat is a video game.”