NRA Convention on Mass Shootings: Video Games Creating "Sick, Sick Kids"

A well-known advocate of the National Rifle Association took the stage at a convention over the weekend to criticize violent video games for creating "sick, sick kids" worldwide.

The speaker who drew connections to violent shootings and video games at the NRA Convention in Dallas is Dave Grossman, a former U.S. Army Ranger, published author, and trainer of law enforcement personnel. He has a book available titled On Killing: The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War and Society that's been read throughout the law enforcement community and has another book that's more relevant in this situation called Stop Teaching Our Kids to Kill: A Call to Action Against TV, Movie & Video Game Violence.

First reported by ThinkProgress (via Polygon), Grossman spoke for three hours during a seminar on Friday and referenced tragic shootings ranging from Sandy Hook to those outside of the U.S. and criticized the various "sick" forms of media mentioned in his book's title.

"This stuff is worldwide. Folks, I want you to understand this is not business as usual," Grossman said during the conference. "Around the planet children are committing crimes like no one's ever seen before in human history," Grossman said. "It's not about the guns, the guns have always been there. It's the sick movies and the sick TV shows and especially the sick video games around the planet that are creating sick, sick kids."

As indicated by his book's subject matter, this isn't the first time that Grossman has criticized the video game industry and media in general. It's also far from the first time that the NRA has taken a stand against video games and put the blame squarely on the games' violent content with similar messages to Grossman's most recent statement surfacing throughout the years.

After Grossman's seminar was over, Luke Barnes, the author of the ThinkProgress piece, was able to ask the speaker some follow-up questions about his message. Asking whether other factors could be playing into higher crime rates and violent events, Grossman doubled down on the stance against the current state of the "sick media."

"Those factors are important but they've always been there — poverty, etc. — they're all a given," he responded. "You gotta ask yourself what the new factor is. What we've got is this dynamic of that sick media. It's our export to the world…This media violence creates a twisted representation that it's a mean world out there and I gotta go out there and get mine."