Beyond this Place of Wrath and Tears

I apologize in advance for this more serious post. I am likely preaching to the choir, but perhaps this will crystallize any thoughts and opinions you might have as well.

This topic has been brewing in my brain and my heart for about a month now. In fact, at the time of starting this post, it is January 14th, a full month after the tragedy at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, CT.  I've had some time to process this, as best as any human being can process what transpired that day. The raw feelings have given way to a bit more thoughtful, objective attitude. Being the news junkie that I am, I've poured over every news article, editorial, or general opinion posted to various news outlets. I promised myself I wouldn't grow bored or desensitized, but the news organizations seemed to do that for me. Reading material has waned and the age old battle between the NRA/gun-owners and gun-control advocates wages on. People are back to pointing fingers and offering extreme knee-jerk reactions as ideas, but anything of common-sense substance is far from materializing. I'm hopeful, but reading the news as often as I do drives one to be more than a bit skeptical and cynical.

I, myself, am a Connecticut resident. I've been immersed in the aftermath as I'm sure Colorado and Virginia residents were immersed in the similar tragedies in their states. Local radio and local TV were steeped in the mourning process while the national media outlets flocked to Newtown, CT for probably the first time ever. I haven't seen or felt such a collective weight on the people around me since perhaps 9/11. It weighed on me and my wife, and we know absolutely nobody impacted directly by this tragedy. I am unapologetically human, and so I write to help facilitate catharsis. The following constitutes my own thoughts and opinions, shaped by my experiences on both sides of the issue as far as Video Games and Gun Violence are concerned. I could talk about the minefield of other issues, but I would need a lot of whiskey.

I'm also a transplant to Connecticut from the wilds of New Hampshire. The land of Live Free or Die. I grew up with guns in the household, ones for hunting ducks, deer, and squirrels. Even some guns that were meant  for... paper targets and tin-cans. Well, in a perfect world anyways. My point is, I have had my time behind the trigger on numerable occasions. I even discovered that I had a knack for rifles and nailing clay pigeon targets with shotguns. I'll admit it was enjoyable and I completely understand where the passion for gun-ownership comes from. However, I was taught to have respect for the instruments that are made to play songs of death and destruction. I bear no malice towards these tools, even after this most recent tragedy, but I don't deny the purpose for which they're made. I have no illusions about the difference between a .30-06 and an AR-15. One can put food on the table and the other can shred targets to tiny bits without so much as a by-your-leave. They both deserve respect and caution, but I'm definitely more comfortable with only one of them being in the hands of an average joe, whom may or may not treat them with the same respect and sense of responsibility. And maybe herein lies a big part of the problem. Respect, and ultimately the responsibility.

And on top of all this, I am a gamer as well. Weird, right? What the hell have I been doing on this blog to suggest otherwise? Games were a part of my life around 5 years before guns ever entered the household. I fondly remember my first tastes of Battlezone and Wolfenstein 3D and all the other First-Person Shooters as I graduated through Doom, Quake, Goldeneye, Half-Life, Call of Duty, and all the various Battlefield titles. And many many more in between. Beyond FPS titles, I have engaged in some of the most graphically violent game titles out there. The Grand Theft Autos. The God of Wars. The Mortal Kombats. Most of these are not for the faint of heart and I'm not even scratching the surface. Maybe I was born with an innate sense of right and wrong, because I was never sat down and explicitly taught the same sense of respect and responsibility relative to violence as it is portrayed in video games, as I was with guns. And I didn't get talked to about the same content in movies. Or TV. Or books. And yet I feel that the influences of the media I have grown up with have not been ingrained in my personality or behavior towards my fellow human beings. Perhaps I'm an outlier, but I try not to kid myself. Have any of you had "the talk" about violence in media while growing up? I'll get back to that thought in a minute.

So with all this in mind, you can imagine the confusion and mix of emotions I feel when I have heard and seen many radio opinions, TV opinions, and internet opinions about how it's obvious that video games are to blame, or at least partially to blame for gun violence. There are plenty of lawyers, politicians, and parents out there crusading for the banning of violent games and perhaps even violent content in other forms of media. But mostly video games. Somehow they reason that by choosing to be the puppet-master to a digital avatar that performs violent acts, it will translate to the puppet-master being susceptible to transferring those violent behaviors and skills of destruction into the real world. The manipulation of pressure switches and potentiometers is the gateway drug to actual triggers? I don't follow that logic. I am someone who actually enjoyed target shooting and the aforementioned games never once made me yearn to resume those safe, legal, gun-related activities. Now, most rules are not absolute. Will there be individuals that enjoy violent media and decide to explore violent behavior in the real world? Yes, but they are thankfully far and few between and almost always have other issues contributing to their transgressions towards society. The relationship between our thoughts and our actions is messy and can never be boiled down to such a clean-cut cause and effect. 

Here is one way to lay out this, in my opinion, false causality. Saying violent media causes violent behavior is like saying skydiving causes thrill-seeking behavior. I think they have it backwards. Someone who is prone to violent behavior, for whatever reason, is also likely to enjoy viewing violent media. And one who seeks thrills will likely seek diving out of perfectly good airplanes into the great blue sky. Behavior guides our decisions on how we spend our time. And that type of behavior is shaped by deeper things than video games and movies. I come back to my earlier point of "the talk" about respect and responsibility. Had I instead been taught that you can treat guns with a fast and loose attitude, I'm guessing that would have shaped my behavior and attitude much differently. And I'd probably have a self-inflicted gunshot wound scar to prove it.

But how can it be that, devoid of a heart-to-heart conversation about violent media, I (and you) do not recklessly blend the behaviors we witness in the virtual realm into our own behaviors? I think this can be chalked up to the human condition. We can balance the unreal and the real, without the two being mixed up and confused with each other. But we are also susceptible to the education and training we experience through parents, teachers, friends, siblings, and mentors. If we learn the proper "right vs wrong" that a free and civil society demands, then sad and horrible events like Sandy Hook Elementary School, Virginia Tech, Aurora, and Columbine become outliers of the human condition. And living in a free society, we have to come to grips with the outliers. They can and will happen because it is synonymous with our freedom. I am reminded of Benjamin Franklin's quote: "Those who give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety". 

I'm not saying we should accept what happened in Newtown, CT as a matter-of-fact. Absolutely not. Are there solutions that don't throw the baby out with the bathwater? I sincerely hope so. Banning violent video games will impact violent behavior as much as banning skydiving will impact thrill-seeking behavior. Would I be disappointed if Assault Weapons were once again banned, or at least incredibly regulated? No. At the same time, would I be disappointed if it was harder for underage kids to access M-rated games? No. There has to be some common sense way to approach these issues. I'm not anti-gun or pro-gun or pro-video games. I am pro-common sense and pro-responsibility. There will always be people rallying against violent video games and other media, but the best we can do is demonstrate behavior that negates their concerns. Lead by example. Don't let the media be the only active sources of information for yourself or your children. They will get a lot from what they see, hear, and read... but this is where responsibility starts popping up again! Crazy. Why not show your kids how to live in a civil society that can balance the extremes of the human condition? Both gamers and gun-owners can be a force for good in the world, but this task does not come without its challenges and responsibilities.

/rant

I know there are a multitude of factors when it comes to violence in our society. Especially when it involves guns. I fully expect to hear some varying opinions, and I encourage it. There are 26 brighter stars in the night sky, and they deserve every conversation we can have on this topic, as do those who have fallen before them.


Sláinte
-WF