While I was driving my mother this to the pharmacy to pick up medication, she mentioned that there was a mass shooting in a school in Connecticut. This was news to me since I didn’t look at my computer or watched any TV yet. So while she was in CVS, I got out my cell phone and looked up what happened on the CNN News App. In case you don’t know what happened, look at this article before continuing reading.
http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2012/12/14/shooting-reported-at-connecticut-elementary-school/?hpt=hp_t1

So when my mom returned to my car, I mentioned new details on what happened, including the amount of casuals, which turns out to be around 30 fatalities, about 20 of them being children. We were both taken back hearing this. After reflecting regarding what happened, my mom mentioned that the killer, who was thought to be Ryan Lanza at the time, may have done this because he was influenced by violent video games. Being aware of my mother’s way of thinking, I corrected her by saying that there was been no reports of the killer playing any video games. I also mentioned that even if video games happened to factored in, it’s not the fault of the video game developers, but rather the parents are to blame, since they should be aware of what activities their child partakes in. Thankfully, my mom realized the points I made were valid and redacted her statement.

Unfortunately, there are other people out who have jumped the gun and already were blaming video games. When the killer was first identified as Ryan Lanza, people looked him up on Facebook to gain some more information about him. There, you can see that under ‘liked pages’, you can see Mass Effect is. So with that, people put two and two together and began blaming Mass Effect.

You can find many of this kind of comments on the Mass Effect Facebook page.

I just want to make a point that please do not jump to conclusions based on a minimum amount of information. I’m sure I have said this before in another article, but I’ll say it again. Video games are not the cause of this. Adam Lanza, who is now properly identified as the shooter, is to blame. I’m imploring you, the reader, to please inform yourself as much as you can before formulating an opinion.

Our sympathies, from all of us at NUReviews, goes out to the victims and families of Sandy Hook Elementary.