Gaming has been blamed for gun violence for decades, with politicians on both sides of the aisle often using violent video games as a scapegoat. The theoretical link betweenvideo games and real world violencewas brought up yet again, as one of the prosecutors in the ongoing and highly publicized Kyle Rittenhouse trial asked about the defendant’s history playing first-person shooter games, specifically namingCall of Dutyas an example.
For the uninitiated, Kyle Rittenhouse is on trial for killing two people and injuring another on August 25 in Kenosha, Wisconsin. The then-17 year old Rittenhouse traveled to Wisconsin from Illinois with a rifle, allegedly to protect property and provide medical aid while protesters demonstrated against the police shooting of Jacob Blake, which triggered civil unrest not unlike theGeorge Floyd murderearlier that summer. Amid the protests, Rittenhouse shot and killed Joseph Rosenbaum after Rosenbaum allegedly tried to take Rittenhouse’s rifle from him. Rittenhouse later shot and killed Anthony Huber who is said to have hit the defendant with a skateboard and tried to take his rifle as well. Finally, Rittenhouse shot and injured Gaige Grosskreutz after Grosskreutz approached the defendant while armed with a handgun.
Rittenhouse’s attorneys have argued that he acted in self-defense, but the prosecution has suggested that his history of playing violent video games speaks to the contrary. While Rittenhouse was on the stand, Kenosha County Assistant District Attorney Thomas Binger asked him, “Isn’t it true when you would hang out with Dominic Black you’d playCall of Dutyand other first-person shooter video games?” Rittenhouse said that he would “sometimes” playCall of Dutyandother FPS gameswith Black. “And those are games in which you use weapons like AR-15s to pretty much shoot anybody who comes at you, correct?” Binger continued.
Rittenhouse responded by saying, “It’s a video game where two players are playing together. I don’t really understand the meaning of your question, to be honest.” Binger then said, “Isn’t one of the things people do in these video games, try to kill everyone else with your guns?”
“Yeah, it’s a video game. It’s just a video game. It’s not real life,” Rittenhouse responded.
Numerous studies over the years have shown that there isno direct link between real world violence and video game violence, yet the narrative seems to persist that video games should be blamed for gun violence. And with some of theworld’s top politicians pushing that narrative, it seems like it’s something that will continue for some time.
