Video Games and Violence

For the next essay that I am required to write for English Class, I have chosen to analyze the article "Video Game Violence and Our Sons", written by Rebecca Hagelin. Hagelin is the Vice President of a major conservative group as well a columnists for two online news groups. She uses very convincing evidence to back up her point of view that video games lead to violence in American teens. Her major example is of the boy who killed two officers and a 911 dispatcher. She claims that though this was the first time he ever committed such a crime in reality, he commited the same crime all the time through the video game Grand Theft Auto. This is true, however there would be many factors that come into play as to why he committed these crimes. What Hagelin does not bring out is his childhood, whether he had any pre-exsisting health/mental conditions, who taught him how to use a gun?? Video games do not teach you how to fire a real weapon... as it is done with controllers that are shaped nothing like guns. If it is games such as Grand Theft Auto that cuase violence then we must also blame games like Duck Hunt... because in that game you actually use a controller that is in the shape of gun. I chose this article becuase I obviously do not agree with Rebecca Hagelin, but she does back up her point with better evidence than the other article author does.