Do violent video games create killers?

Welcome to the debate arena! Today's topic: "Do violent video games create killers?". Your opponent's style: Shroud

It absolutely causes more killers

Dude, you're completely backwards. Youth violence dropped over 80% during the exact same period gaming exploded [1]. While kids are grinding Call of Duty at home, they're not out causing real trouble. Your whole "creates killers" theory falls apart when you look at the actual data. Only 12% of school shooters were even attracted to violent games - way lower than normal kids who play them [1]. If games created killers, wouldn't shooters be playing them MORE than everyone else, not less? Think about it logically - millions of kids play Grand Theft Auto, but we don't have millions of car thieves. The correlation you're claiming simply doesn't exist in reality. Real violence comes from broken homes, poverty, and actual trauma - not from pixels on a screen.

You're cherry-picking stats while kids train on murder simulators for hours daily. The JAMA study found children who played violent games were significantly more likely to handle real guns and pull the trigger [1]. That's not correlation - that's conditioning. Your 12% statistic is meaningless because it only looks at shooters already caught, not the thousands being desensitized right now. Children who played violent games "were more likely to touch a real, disabled handgun, handle a handgun longer and pull the trigger more times—including at themselves or their partner" [1]. That's behavioral training, not entertainment. I don't care if overall youth violence dropped - we're creating a specific type of killer. Mass shootings have exploded during the gaming era, not declined. These games literally teach tactical shooting, weapon familiarity, and emotional detachment from human targets. When someone finally snaps, they're already trained.

Dude, you're living in the past - mass shootings just dropped 50% in 2024 alone [1]. Your whole "exploded during gaming era" narrative is dead wrong. We're literally at pre-COVID levels now [2]. That JAMA study you're citing? It's measuring kids touching disabled guns in a lab setting, not real-world violence. Meanwhile, actual FBI data shows active shooter incidents fell from 48 to 24 in one year [3]. If games were creating killers like you claim, wouldn't we see the opposite trend? Your "tactical training" theory is pure fantasy. Real military training involves stress, consequences, and muscle memory under pressure. Clicking a mouse while eating Doritos doesn't create Navy SEALs - it creates better gamers. The millions playing tactical shooters aren't becoming tactical threats; they're becoming couch potatoes. You're confusing correlation with causation. These games don't create psychopaths - they attract people already struggling with reality. The real factors behind violence are social isolation, untreated mental illness, and access to actual weapons. Fix those, and your "murder simulator" problem disappears.

You're cherry-picking outdated data while I'm looking at reality. A total of 711 people have been killed and 2,375 people have been wounded in 586 shootings in 2024 alone [1]. Your "pre-COVID levels" spin ignores that we had 586 mass shootings in one year - that's not normal, that's epidemic. Your dismissal of the JAMA study reveals everything wrong with your argument. Children who played violent games didn't just "touch disabled guns" - they pulled triggers at themselves and partners more often. That's not lab curiosity, that's programmed behavior. When real crisis hits, muscle memory kicks in, not rational thought. I don't care about your couch potato theory. The Uvalde shooter spent hours perfecting headshots in tactical games before executing children with identical precision. The Buffalo shooter livestreamed his massacre like a Twitch stream because that's how his brain was wired to process violence - as entertainment content. Your "social isolation" excuse actually proves my point. Isolated kids don't learn to kill from thin air - they learn from thousands of hours practicing murder scenarios. Games don't create the rage, but they absolutely weaponize it with tactical training and emotional detachment.

Your entire argument just collapsed. Active shooter incidents dropped 50% in 2024 to just 24 incidents [1]. Meanwhile, murder fell nearly 15% and mass shootings dropped 24% [1,6,10]. We're literally seeing the biggest decline in violence in decades while gaming is at its peak. You're confusing different statistics - your "586 mass shootings" includes gang violence and domestic disputes where four people get shot. The FBI tracks actual active shooters: random killers in public spaces. Those plummeted while kids played more games than ever. Your Uvalde example proves my point. That shooter was severely bullied, isolated, and had access to real weapons. The "tactical training" theory is pure fantasy - if games taught killing, why did 75% of active shooter incidents end before police even arrived? These aren't trained killers; they're broken people who collapse under pressure. The JAMA study measured lab behavior, not real violence. Kids pulling triggers on disabled guns in controlled settings doesn't predict mass murder any more than playing Monopoly predicts real estate fraud.