“Bam, Bam, Bam” those are the horrific sounds that many families lose their close members and friends. Who do they blame it on? Music, Television Shows, Peers, Parents, one thing they most think about is video games. How could really good people come from 4.0 students to people living off the streets shooting people? Well my answer is that it is not video games that lead to these peoples actions. Sure, there are horrible games like the Grand Theft Auto series that let you be a Russian mafia gangster and shoot up the whole town. Then there are games like Need for Speed that let you go down a freeway at 185 mph. and have you running into civilian cars and having five cop cars chasing you at the same time. But so far there hasn’t been a school shooting or neighborhood drive by that was eventually influenced by video games.

Sure it seems logical to blame that harmless x button for your sons evil ways but long time statistics have proven that once when games hit the market, the number of violent crimes in the united states has significantly gone down. Now you ask yourself how this is true. Well if you think about it long enough like I have, you realize that these games let you have these wild stress relieving fantasies and let you not go to prison for life or have you on death row. These games let you get away from the gangsters across the street asking you to do drugs or the bully’s that call you names at lunch. They let you have your way, and not have you in a prison cell the rest of your life.

Even some video game series specifically tell you to not try these events at home. Like at the begging of Need for Speed Carbon, one of the main characters specifically tells you to never try the stunts that you do in the video game and to make sure you always wear a seat belt. Even if you are not 17 years old you can not by the most violent video games that are on the market. Each video game that is produced has to be rated by the E.S.R.B rating company and on the back of each game it says why it is rated the way it is. So for most people that have common sense, they would know how bad the game is before either playing it or letting their kids pay it.

One thing that I look at as a positive thing for violent video games is that they are a very good stress reliever. If you have ever came home from a long day at school were it just seems like nothing just went your way, you always have that little burst of anger that would lead to something that ended up having you get in trouble. So what do you do? If you have a game of Grand Theft Auto all you have to do is put the game in the console and it instantly relieves that flush of anger that is trapped inside of you.

I admit that I play these supposedly horrid video games but that’s because playing those Viva Piñata games don’t really appeal to my interests. When I am playing video games I want some more excitement like high speed cop chases and an intense sniper mission where you have to kill over 50 terrorists by yourself, jumping on mushrooms though, is defiantly not exciting.

One of the most obvious thing that does influence violence is music. In video games you don’t hear characters talk about how they like to gang bang and kill their wives. This is exactly why people should not be blaming video games because they are not the main influence at all. If you want to point fingers, point fingers at music and T.V shows not video games.

So, anytime you see your friends or brothers and sisters play video games you may not see to be appropriate. Think of the points that I have made about how nothing that is violence related has been linked to video games. Think about how the violent crime rate in the United States has significantly dropped since video games have become an American phenomenon. Think about how sometimes, these games can actually save some people’s lives.