President Donald Trump today delivered a statement in the wake of this past weekend’s tragic mass shootings. 20 people were killed in El Paso, Texas at a Walmart on Saturday, and nine were killed Dayton, Ohio on Sunday, marking a weekend full of deadly gun violence for the nation. After stating that America must condemn racism, bigotry, and white supremacy, as well as pointing to the perils of the Internet, President Trump later went on to say “we must stop the glorification of violence in our society.” The first item on that list? Video games.
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“This includes the gruesome and grisly video games that are now commonplace,” President Trump said. “It is too easy today for troubled youth to surround themselves with a culture that celebrates violence. We must stop or substantially reduce this, and it has to begin immediately.”
You can check out President Trump’s full remarks (or close to it — the video begins in the middle of a sentence at around 22:15) in the official White House video below:
The speech from President Trump also suggested various policy changes and other programs, including but not limited to mental health reform, social media protocols, “red flag laws” to prevent access to firearms for certain individuals, and speedy death penalties in addition to cracking down on violent video games.
This marks the latest instance of mass shootings leading to politicians wholly or in part blaming violent video games. It’s become something of a popular scapegoat whenever gun violence comes up despite there being little if any definitive evidence to link the two. It’s worth noting again that President Trump first mentions racism, bigotry, and white supremacy, which certainly seems like a set of problems entirely separate from video games and any normalization of violence associated with them.
[H/T Time]
