People strive to find the reason for these mass killings such as just happened at Newtown, Conn.
Some 20 years ago, video games became popular and have become increasingly violent since. In these games from what I've seen, there is a often a constant shooting of the "enemy." The player is the gunner and wins a game by the number of "enemy" he kills. Can it be said that these games could be training exercises in addition to entertainment ?
Return now to high school English class, where students often studied "The Most Dangerous Game" by Richard Connell, a story in literature about a man who lives on his own island and invites guests to wine and dine with him. Then he turns them loose on the island, explaining to them that they are now his quarry and he is going to hunt them for the kill, human killing human.
We have these young people who are accomplished and trained video game players. If they have mental problems of some sort, is it unreasonable to see them playing their "most dangerous game" by choosing a school, theater or any gathering of people as a place to play out the real, ultimate video game? They dress in the required clothing and shoot at many easy human targets and often end with suicide.
Did these slaughters happen before these video games? Guns have been around since before the Civil War, but have these mass killings? The guns don't shoot themselves; there needs to be something that drives the person to kill. Are these video games encouraging and glorifying killing?
Terry Wenger • Ferguson
