14 DAY TRIAL // Dannel Malloy, the governor of Connecticut, believes that some video games lessen the impact of violence and that efforts to promote high-profile titles would be better spent elsewhere.
According to CT Post, the top elected official of Connecticut stated at the United States Conference of Mayors that, “If we spent as much time and energy on destigmatizing mental health treatment as we do in the proliferation of these video games that destigmatize violence, we as a society would make great gains.”
The governor also mentioned the incident at Sandy Hook Elementary School, which took place in December.
After the shooting, reports suggested that the gunman played and was influenced by such video games as Dynasty Warriors and Call of Duty.
Malloy added, “When we’re willing to destigmatize violence and willing to bring it home to your living room or your den and put it on a 50-inch screen when you hit someone with your semiautomatic and more points depending on how many times you hit someone with your semiautomatic, where is the social value in that? Is this the kind of thing we want to be involved in as a nation?”
The Sandy Hook shooting led to a debate about the effects of violent media, including video games.
Since then, a task force led by vice president Joe Biden has met with representatives from the industry and United States President Barak Obama has issued 23 executive orders dealing with the reduction of gun violence.
The Center for Disease Control will get funding from Congress in order to work on new research on the potential link between violent media and real-world behavior.
Two new bills have also been introduced: one aims to put a tax on violent video games while the other wants all titles on the market to have an ESRB rating.