Nancy Pelosi: Video Games Are Not The Reason For Violence In America

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Sunday pushed back against the argument that violent video games are responsible for mass shootings in the United States, pointing to other countries where similar games are played but rates of shooting deaths are low.

[PopRocks359]

Well hey, someone over there seems to get it.

[SilentNegotiator]

Even a broken clock is right once a day. Pelosi is an absolute wingnut.

EDIT: She's not even saying that video games AREN'T the problem, just that they MIGHT not be. And that the solution to realizing that there's no concrete connection between violence and games is throwing money at it.

I'm tired of one side blaming games and the other side blaming guns when the real issue is that we ostracize too much and thus don't ever seem to catch major signs. If we treated each other responsibly, we wouldn't need to ban/greatly restrict guns to feel safe or look for scapegoats for a couple of people that snap.

[MasterChief3624]

Sorry to go off-topic, but I never understood that saying that a "broken clock is right once a day."

Can someone explain, please? :D

[Sniperwithacause]

A broken clock is right TWICE a day.

@MasterChief. IDK If your being real or not, but since there is a.m and p.m. whatever time the clock died on.... time keeps moving. everyday. Should I keep explaining common sense?

[dlpg585]

@master chief
if you're serious than a clock that's stuck at say 8 will be right twice a day. at 8 pm and 8 am. if you're trolling shame on you for wasting my time.

[skyblue14213]

@ MasterChief3624

"Even a broken clock is right once a day." is a figure of speech and/or saying. In the political realm nancy pelosi is a joke of a politician.

The stupidity that she usually seems to display frequently on a daily basis took a vacation the day she said that video games are not the cause of violence.

The figure of speech was appropriate in which pelosi mostly messes up in her political career in which (*PopRocks359*) used an appropriate analogy in saying that she generally messes up like a broken clock yet she gets things right once in a while hence the term "Even a broken clock is right once a day.".

[SilentNegotiator]

@Sniperwithacause

Broken DIGITAL clock :)

[cl1983]

Title is a complete misquote. She said games may not be the cause, but still wants to study them.
""As part of your plan, you call for more scientific research on the connection between popular culture and violence. We don't need another study, respectfully," said Wallace. "I mean, we know that these video games, where people have their heads splattered, these movies, these TV shows -- why don't you go to your friends in Hollywood and challenge them? Shame them, and say, 'Knock it off?'"

Pelosi responded that Democrats wanted concrete scientific evidence in order to write the best legislation possible, and countered that Wallace's assumption about violence in the media could be incorrect. "

[RememberThe357]

She wants to focus on gun laws and doesn't want the conversation derailed into conservatives blaming the media.

They have to study the issue of gun violence in this country and that should involve the media. I'm not concerned that this will limit what games can do, I actually think the contrary.

All they will find is what we all already know; when crazy people see crazy shit they go crazy, the rest of us just keep rolling along. If anything people with mental disabilities or problems will be limited in what they can buy.

[cl1983]

She stated legislation not referring to any groups.

[adorie]

gun violence is much deeper than just guns. Think of why we want to arm ourselves. Money, protection, Rage that comes with getting screwed over... this issue is meta and is not very simple to pin down.

While I don't own a gun, I don't think pissing on the constitution is the solution (watering down the right to bare arms)

[Mrmagnumman357]

@ Adorie, great post. You are right, I and millions of other Americans own guns. 99.9% of all US guns are never used in a single crime, so why should they take guns from law abiding citizens just because a minute group of crazies. Both parties are at fault here, reps going against movies and games goes against the first amendment. Dems going against guns goes against the second amendment. If anything should happen, we should get people in office that have read our constitution, and will stand up for it.

[Excalibur]

Yes and her and the Dems a willing to spend billions to prove what we ALL already know.

[Sp1d3ynut]

And the Reps aren't willing to spend a dime, where gun rights are at stake. They just want to pass the blame, as always.

[SilentNegotiator]

@spidynut

Why does the government need to do what the private sector has already done a million times over (prove only that games increase "aggression" in tests of non-violence and have no real effect on every day "violent acts")?

[Mutant-Spud]

Leftists hate video games because gaming is primarily a male oriented hobby and they see masculinity as a sickness, seriously these are the people who believe that testosterone is a weapon of mass destruction and that the male brain is actually just a female brain which has been damaged by testosterone.
The right on the other hand just think that grown men shouldn't be sitting around playing with what they regard as children's toys.

The Left see male aggression as horrifying and dangerous, every man is a potential rapist and murderer when his blood is up...but..
Sebastian Vettel is aggressive, it takes real masculine aggression to do what he does.
The men in Sea Shepherd are aggressive, so are the lifeguards at the beach when they're swimming out to rescue someone, so are my co workers on the construction sites when we're pushing to get things done or when we're in a potentially dangerous situation.
Yeah, video games make us more aggressive but that kind of aggression is good for men, it's how we push things forward, how we overcome problems and sometimes impossible odds.
Winning a game of team deathmatch may be small beer in the scheme of things but the aggression which comes from gaming has to be matched with self control to succeed, just like it does on the construction site or the football field.

[Thirty3Three]

For once, I agree with Mrs. Pelosi

[AznGaara]

Remember the days when videogames didn't exist and the world was at peace? It wasn't only until videogames appeared when the Percian War, French Revolution, American Revolution and World War 1 & 2 happened.

[Fairchild Channel F]

And here I thought it was all those evil comic books in the 50's that started all the chaos. Thank you good sir for edumacating me.

[MattyG]

Pelosi 2016? No? Too soon? Ok.

[BoNeSaW23]

Not funny dude. Seriously, NOT FUNNY!!!

[XXXL]

It really is scary how out of touch all these politicians are. On both sides.

[dcbronco]

So Pelosi is a semi-honest politician. Who knew.

[mynameisEvil]

Haha, that actually made me laugh. Typically, N4G comments make me facepalm, so good job. :)

[KrisButtar]

Finally they seem to be getting the idea

"When looking at the other largest video game markets around the world, there appears to be no statistical correlation between video game consumption and gun-related killings. Max Fisher at the Washington Post recently examined some of this data and found that "countries where video games are popular also tend to be some of the world’s safest"

"The other large video game markets" I believe have strict gun laws unlike the USA. Am I right?

[matgrowcott]

The USA has the weirdest relationship with guns ever. You're taught, almost subconsciously, that without weaponry you're going to suffer, you'll be unable to walk down the street without being killed. Statistically speaking, the people with guns probably won't use them, won't even put ammo in them - but it's there.

There was a guy the other day telling me that the UK was dangerous because of a lack of firearms, that our people live in constant fear. That's nonsense, but then again we've never really had guns. Trying to control them in America - especially within some more militant areas - is a recipe for civil war. If you try to take guns from the people that shouldn't have them - which is anybody who wants one because they can get one - some of those people who've never used a weapon outside of a first test the day they bought it might suddenly start trying to "defend their rights."

It's much easier to find a scape goat, especially one they have no real control over and especially when some of the people in charge would rather ban a medium they have no interest in than ban their weaponry.

[KrisButtar]

Well said, I myself live in Canada and my friends/family and I were actually talking about the states actually going to civil war, either over this or the next school massacre as it is getting closer and closer. I've always view the states as a bully country. I have American friends don't get me wrong it's not all them, it's in general.

[dcbronco]

Foreign peoples when will you learn that we Americans are crazy. It seems everything that we try so hard to protect ourselves from are the things we suffer from to a much larger extent than the rest of the industrialized world. We may never get that our need to demonize things and each other is the very thing that causes most of our problems and is destroying our country.

It's not guns, movies, video games or comic books. It's actually just Americans. We seem to be incapable of growing up.

[HonestDragon]

Living in the USA, myself, I think the gun laws fluctuate per state. Heck, for that matter, it's probably per county. I always hear things about, "You can't carry in this state if you only have a license in your state" or "You can only carry a handgun" or "You can have a handgun or shotgun in your car, but it cannot be loaded" or "Your city doesn't allow you to carry outside your home, but the state does". It's all very confusing.

We have all of these policies and laws that conflict with each others' broad definitions and that's where the trouble starts. It is through loose definition and cracks in the system that allow the wrong people to carry weapons and in some instances allow criminals to get by easier (whether they deal in guns or get sentenced for it). Trying to sift through the gun laws per city is just one way of begging for a headache.

I think that politicians should consider how other countries are faring with the relationship of pop culture and gun laws, thus seeing what it is that is different over here. Video games, film, music, and television are a universal thing after all. I don't know how gun laws are in Canada, the United Kingdom, or France, but I'm sure that video games and film don't face such scrutiny like it does here. Honestly, it makes me sick to my stomach at how delusional so many in the population over here in the States can blame a piece of fictional work for very real violence when the perpetrator is the one who hurt or killed others in the first place.

Our politicians cannot go on and make it seem like gun violence is caused by video games because at the end of the day it's people who are hurting people. Pieces of pop culture do not cause these violent acts. I just wrote a blog about that a few days ago. I do know that assault weapons are going to be facing a strict overhaul, though. We shall see where that goes in the future.

[KrisButtar]

Wow that is pretty messed up with those conflicting laws all over the place. In Canada I don't know the wording of the laws but they going something like this, any lawful person can get a license to own a gun that can only fire a single bullet before reloading, like a shotgun(a pump action one would be illegal) any guns with "clips" are illegal unless you have a restricted gun license(which only allow handguns with clips smaller than 12 bullets?) and that license is only given to police, security, people of that nature and the rest is pretty much strictly illegal.

That's just the general take on them and they do get into a lot of detail, like war vets fit in, plus it goes into background checks with include mental health checks, etc

[brettski]

Pelosi is a dirty piece of garbage.

[momthemeatloaf]

If shooter games act as a simulator to mass shootings, then can a race car game act as a simulator to racing cars? Hell no.

These old timers don't seem to understand that shooter games are extremely unrealistic and can in no way act as a simulator.

There other argument is shooter games get the killer in the mood. Ok, car racing games can get me in the mood to race, but in order to actually go race 80 mph around a sharp turn takes some sort of mental instability don't u think?

Get to the root of the real issue or these unfortunate mass shootings will continue. Dodging is denial, and denial in this case is death.

[Hufandpuf]

"can a race car game act as a simulator to racing cars?"

http://www.pooltablesusa.co...

Also, Nissan had a competition for GT players to race their cars. Turns out they were too fast for an entry level real world competition.

[Ashunderfire86]

Like I said at the bottom, these people are hippocrates they know the real problem is mental health. Now if there was drug control and the mentally ill getting real help, then gun violence will reduce dramatically. All else to do is create more jobs and better schooling with more after school programs to keep kids off the streets and out of gangs. Legalizing Marijuana and you will get the drug dealers out of business. Having all these problems resolved step by step, we are that much closer to world peace. This is very true, but not easy. I digress.

Well said man I agree with you, don't know why there is a troll around here that is giving us disagrees for the heck of it lol!!!

[Bigpappy]

So all of those kids who have guns in Chicago are mentally ill? It is too easy in this country for people to get these high powered weapons. More guns = more dead people. To have a gun you should first have something like a home to protect. All guns need to be registered and the public should not have military grade weapons.

[PS4isKing_82]

Gun violence is so much more than games.
It comes down to parenting first or lack thereof, and only gets worse as the child ages and is introduced to more forms of violence.

Then there's also the possibility of mental illness among other things.
So saying "violent games" is the cause everytime someone takes out a fun and shoots a group of ppl out of nowhere is just ignoring the real cause that no one wants to admit to: bad parenting.

Seriously, there are more forms of violent entertainment than just games.
What about violent songs? Violent movies? Even the news which shows real life events of actual violence? Huh? Why not attack them? Why are games always used as a scapegoat and other forms of media are not?

[cl1983]

Your right with it being many factors, another that you didn't mentioned is a general lack of respect of other people. Now I know Chris Wallace pointed out that congress is only going after video games and not the rest of Hollywood.

[DeadSpaced]

I like my games. So, as long as they aren't being blamed, I'm okay. (Not saying anything ridiculous done by a politician is justified if they don't blame video games.)

[Fairchild Channel F]

Listing to that whack job talk through her stretched botox face makes me want to do violence on any living creature nearby. Perhaps politicians cause violence and ought to be banned hmm?

[Dlacy13g]

That is one of the most intelligent things that woman has ever said.

[WeAreLegion]

I don't even...

[Ashunderfire86]

Ok I already talk to you guys about my view on the gun control issue, which is the mental health issue as the source of the problem. I already told many people to go to the cchr.org website for proof, which is Citizen Commission on Human Right. Ok I am about to debunk Fox News, which by the way know that psychiatric drugs cause these violence. These guys are the biggest hippocrates, watch their old news video here:

http://www.youtube.com/watc...

Now to debunk:

One of the earliest school shootings by Charles Whitman, happen in 1966 in Austin Texas. He killed 16 people total with a sniper. The drugs he was on were amphetamine and barbiturates. The first video game was Space Wars, which came out in 1961. Now I highly doubt that an old dated space shooter cause this to happen, and arcades were not around that time either. Charles Whitman was trained in the military as a marine, so that explains his skills in using a sniper. Now wait for it...Wait for it... The first violent video game was Death Race 2000(Those straight to DVD movies were based on this game)!!! It came out in 1976!!!! Many of the earliest school shootings around the world happen before this game was known!!!! I just debunked the mainstream media. Video games and guns don't kill people, people on drugs with thoughts of violence and suicide kill people.

[MasterChief3624]

Lol.. wow... an old bat who is also a politician.... is actually defending videogames.

This could be the beginning of the end of the world, everyone! This is an amazing turn of events! :D

[SAE]

End of the world will happen for bad reasons not good things like this one xD ..

[Swiftcricket]

The comments on this article is kind of worrying. Not really surprised but there's an alarming amount of people that seem to really believe video games are causing all of this violence. Considering how many millions of games that are sold I'm pretty sure most of would be dead if it were true.