The U.S. masses have been waiting for President Obama to finally divulge what he had in mind regarding gun control in the country. He finally made a rather long speech, detailing out what reforms he has proposed to that end. Among these was his advise to launch research into the effects ‘video games have on young minds.’
Naturally, the gaming industry was on top of that comment as soon as President Obama had uttered it. Some started vehemently criticizing it and deeming it as a misguided move by Obama and an attempt to keep the limelight off the real cause of gun violence, namely the easy and quick ownership of all kinds of guns and rifles.
However, it is tantamount to exaggeration to say all of that. President Obama simply mentioned video games in a single sentence and that too, merely to suggest that studies may be carried out about video games to discern their effect on the minds of youth.
The single mention, too, was done while the President was talking about kickstarting Center for Injury Prevention and Control (CPC) into action. In the past, IRA and pro-IRA lobbyists have steadily cut down funding for all gun-related search carried out by CPC. Not only that, previous governments had also stopped federal agencies from sending out any data about gun-related crimes to CPC which has effectively rendered the group incapable of studying gun violence and the factors causing it.
Preisident Obama has now requested the Congress to approve $10 million to provide CPC with the required resources so that it can carry out a detailed research into a whole range of possible causes of gun violence and then provide advise as to how to prevent it.
So to say that President Obama somehow thinks that video games promote violence, is a mistake. At best, President is simply trying to find a balance between the demands of both the right and the left. And the research by CPC is meant to have a huge scope, with the video games being only a minor part of it.
Courtesy: Arstechnica
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