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Americans are just off their head and it's a gun/pill popping culture over there. They are happiest when killing each other or invading other countries. Has nothing to do with videogames but just being A-holes.

I actually wrote my senior thesis on this topic. (Not saying that gives me authority on the matter, just that I've had to look into this a fair amount)

Personally, this is what I found. Video games can cause short-term stress and anger. Video games also desensitize you to certain things, if done enough. That's also the reason why people have become desensitized to violent events in the news. The more of the same thing you get, the more apathetic you become.

The issue here is that anger isn't a long-term emotion. I can't remember the exact timeframe, but if I remember correctly, the average length of a spout of anger is around 12-15 minutes.

That's why you have the Gary Alcock case where he killed his 1-year old daughter while playing Xbox. It's a reaction, not a planned thing. Mass shootings aren't usually spontaneous acts. Especially with video games, since you're in one place and for the mass shooting you have to prepare for a moment to get the weapons, ammo and other stuff and usually go somewhere else too. By then the anger will have subsided and if the person were to continue, they'd be acting on other impulses, not the anger itself, which means that the killing wasn't created from video games.

You also do have the Final Fantasy killer, who killed his family with a katana while claiming he was fighting for one of the characters in the game. But that's disassociation and that isn't caused by games. Though, obviously, odds are they provided the backdrop for his line of reasoning and perhaps did actually attribute to it due to the amount he played.

Overall, I don't think they cause mass shootings, but they do cause people who already have deeper issues to act out thanks to the anger. The video game isn't the gun, at best it's the trigger.

While I think one could create game that could potentially be the catalyst for a violence, saying that video games are the cause of mass shootings is simply ludocrious.

As you point out, video games are universal but regular mass shootings are not. I don't agree that gun control is a whole other discussion - it is the obvious factor in the US-specific mass shooting epidemic. People get upset and make regrettable decisions everywhere ("to err is human..."), it's just that the consequences are very different with wide access to a tool designed specifically to let someone quickly kill multiple people with minimal training and expertise.

There is definitely evidence to suggest that violent video games can increase both aggression and lethality, but its significance pales in comparison to firearm access.
Violent music lyrics increase aggressive thoughts and feelings and exposure to violent media (games, films and music) increases aggression. I've certainly been assaulted while alone in public a couple of times by strangers that thought they were UFC fighters, and a friend was hospitalised for months when it happened to him. In the same way that USA has an epidemic of gun violence, Australia has an epidemic of "one punch assaults" (over 100 deaths in the last 15 years): https://youtu.be/Esapgv5AuYY

Violent video games can increase someone's lethality by allowing people to rehearse violent acts that they, and the vast majority of other people, would not otherwise perform (operant conditioning in the terms of psychologist B. F. Skinner). This is the reason that modern armies conduct live fire exercises and train with human-shaped targets instead of bullseyes, as they did before WW2. A review of American WW2 soldiers found that less than 25% of soldiers shot towards the enemy when in position to do so, and only 2% shot to kill. https://youtu.be/zViyZGmBhvs
The US military now spends a lot of money developing video games, producing the America's Army video game series as a recruitment, training and propaganda tool, and having involvement in many of major military game series, such as Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six. Full Spectrum Warrior was developed from their in-house training simulation Full Spectrum Command.

So, to answer your question, yes video games do contribute to mass shootings but nowhere near as significantly as access to firearms.

Thoughts and Prayers (6:44)
https://youtu.be/QdWOptGFfjE?t=404

This again..... 🙄

everybody who blames real life violence on video games is just a fucking muppet. easy as that.

especially in a country where the president spreads hate himself and you can buy guns and ammo just like it's bread and butter.
video games are just easy to blame, as always.
everybody knows but nobody acts accordingly. that would mean attacking the real causes (most likely) of the problemen and that would cost lots of voters (most definitely). also the suitcases of money from the NRA would stop coming in and we don't want that, do we?

If it is video games fault than I would like to know what video games Stalin and Hitler did play.

Video games are the root of all evil - Jack Thompson

"Contribute" yes. It's a fact that some mass shootings have been carried out by gamers.
Contribute to the overall number of mass shootings, that is.
Just in the same way that other things do.
The over-abundance of access to guns in the States contributes to the fact a few of those mass shootings have been carried out by gamers. But one of the biggest contributing factors to mass shootings is pent-up anger and hate towards one's self, towards others that you feel may have wronged you, or even that they SHOCK disagreed with you. Seriously though, if guns were as easily accessible, and as relatable as they are in other parts of the world, I'm sure the statistics would be similar. And nobody give me a gun.

Just my 2¢.

EDIT. ...and then I read what zeruel said. lol...

the human being started to go wrong the moment he lost respect (for everything)

"Video games don't make people more violent, and I'll kill anyone who disagrees." - The Gord.

I dont think playing a video game makes you more violent. Not from what i know.

Just remembered that there was some research that showed that kids playing video games had a better grasp of morals than those who didn't.

nope.

I blame hate speech proliferation and accesibility to guns

90s all over again

Video games are played the world over yet mass shootings mostly occur in the US, so rather than blaming video games, we must look for something specific to the US that could explain this phenomenon.
But what could it possibly be, surely not the widespread availability of the very thing mass shooters use to shoot people...

Yeah because when you buy a game it comes with a shotgun or rifle.

anyway films are also responsible for mass shootings, look to cool!!! so they are resposible also! all people know it!

books also!!!
and friends that talk about shooting etc....

Much like the increasing number of rape victims in europe is directly correlated to the uprise of hentay games on steam — fact

Won't somebody please think of Bowling?

The problem that many people tend to forget is that mass murder is nothing new to humanity, always was and always will be those who are inherently cruel to others. I mean, if not video games, a sick person will have other means to project its violent nature, don't necessarily need to be an entertainment, could also be just an idea, how many people have died because some crazy person was killing in the name of a god or some cult. Anything can be dangerous in the wrong hands, especially if those who seek to kill have easy access to weapons, but still, if this was not the case and they want to kill so bad, I highly doubt that this would stop them.

So if video games make people violent, then how do you explain the start of wars like Korea, WWII, WWI, the Civil War? Basically every human event where mass killings and wars, a well as psychopaths were involved LONG before the advent of video games. Was it video games what made John Wilkes Booth kill Lincoln? Or Lee Harvey Oswald to kill JFK?

NO! People fear change. They fear the unknown. And what they fear can lead to violence. Remember what Tommy Lee Jones said in Men in Black. 'A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky, dangerous animals and you know it'. And when groups form a collective, then it can be VERY dangerous. They can spread fear and hate through social media and others will blindly believe it. Just as it was blindly believed over the course of the entirety of human existence when it was just word of mouth.

One example- the story of Moses. It has been proven that at the time it would have taken place, there was a sand bar in the Red Sea high enough for people to walk over to the other side. By the time word got back tot he Pharaoh and his subjects, Moses had parted the sea and then closed it in on the pursuers.

Another example are the racial, financial and most ESPECIALLY religious and political differences between us. Those reasons alone are why mankind can, and never will, be able to achieve peace.

So the word of a group can be misconstrued and turned into much worse. And when that happens, people can get violent and acts like this can happen.

So to end this rambling, NO! Video games, movies, TV and music (well, I'm still not convinced about rap music :P ) do NOT make people violent. It's the racist, bigotry. hate and fearful environment they are raised in and the community they come across that can make people violent. Unless they are born like that. And humanity is to solely blame for it as we are the single most violent and violence prone race on this planet.

Video games are played world-wide, those mass shootings happen almost exclusively in the USA. USA, the place where everyone can own a gun and very little to no regulations exist. What a strange coincidence...