Americans have blamed violent forms of entertainment since colonial times. From dime novels to music, from movies to TV shows. The most recent medium is video games. Aided by crime-saturated news, many people are convinced that video game violence carries over to real-life youth crimes, such as school massacres. They think that violent video games make people violent, but that's not the case. Violent people play violent video games. Not everyone who plays video games is violent, but those who already are will play them as an outlet for their frustration and anger. If anything, video games prevent violent people from going out and killing people in real life because they can let off steam in the virtual world. People become violent due to many different factors in life. The news media looks at those young people who massacred so many students and notice that they play video games and automatically say that it was because of first-person shooter (FPS) games or MMORPGs (massively multiplayer online role-playing games), which These guys snapped and one day he woke up with the intent to kill. It's like saying that the fact that these young people ate burgers and fries is what led them to be violent. Or because they dressed as Goths, they became violent. One has nothing to do with the other. The news media fails to delve deeper and see other factors in their lives. A study conducted by the Secret Service and the Department of Education to try to understand commonalities in school violence noted that the most common trait shared was a history of suicide attempts. and depression (Olson). This is not to say that every depressed, suicidal student will become a mass murderer, but...... middle of paper ......9. Opposing points of view in context. Network. December 22, 2011.Hoerrner, Mark and Keisha. “Violence in Video Games,” Children's Voice 15 (2006): np Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Network. December 21, 2011. “The Malvo team cites the role of violent media; Movies and video games have seen the defendant brainwashed." Washington Times [Washington, DC] December 9, 2003: B01. Gale Opposing Views in Context. Network. December 20, 2011. Olson, Cheryl K., MPH, SD" Media violence research and youth violence data: Why do they conflict?" Academic Psychiatry 28.2 (2004): 144-150. Psychiatry Online. Network. December 22, 2011. "Third student dies in Kentucky school shooting ." CNN. CNN, December 2, 1997. Web. December 22, 2011. “Video Games and Violence: Myth vs. Reality.” United States Supreme Court: Brown v. EMA/Entertainment Software Association and Entertainment Software Association. Network. December 22. 2011.