Some blame video games for mass shootings, but recent studies say otherwise

PHOENIX (FOX 10) -- On Monday, President Donald Trump blamed mental health, social media and video games as the causes behind two mass shootings on El Paso, Texas and Dayton, Ohio.

"We must stop the glorification of violence in our society. This includes the gruesome and grizzly video games that are not commonplace," said Trump.

It's a blame game the video game industry has heard many times before. The debate really took off after the Columbine High School massacre in 1999 in Colorado, when authorities found the shooters were frequent players of video game Doom. Ever since, politicians from both parties and plenty of parents have made the connection between video game violence and real-life violence.

Conclusive evidence, however, doesn't seem to be there yet.

In Tempe, Game Depot sells just about every game you can imagine, but owner Dave Pettit doesn't buy the argument that violent video games lead to violence in real life.

"Long before video games came, we went through decades of blaming D&D (Dungeons and Dragons) and role-playing games with people issues," said Pettit.

In 2011, the U.S. Supreme Court weighed in, ruling it could not find a clear connection between violent video games and aggressive behavior.

Several video games put pretend weapons in the player's hands, with life-like looking graphics. Many gamers, however, point out there are far fewer mass shootings in other countries, where violent video games are also popular.

Pettit admits gaming can be addictive and isolating for some, but he isn't nearly ready to play the violent video blame game.

"Those terrible things happen too often, but to niche it into one industry is difficult. There are so many different factors," said Pettit.

The American Psychological Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics both take a firm stance against children and teens playing violent video games. At the same time, several recent studies do not show a direct correlation between these games and similar behavior in real life.