To some policy makers, this is welcome ignorance. As satanic warriors, Harris and Klebold are useful symbols. But suggest to a Republican that lax gun control was the main culprit at Littleton, and, chances are, you will be required to listen to the standard NRA speech about the 20 or so gun laws that Harris and Klebold broke. That much of the early Columbine reportage was true. Several witnesses insisted that games of this type contribute to youth violence.
Violence is fun.
We do it for play. And yet the link between violent videogame play and aggressive behaviour remains unproven. In 1995, the government of Australia commissioned an overview of all then-existing research on the subject. Better to blame the digital devil that penetrates a child's thoughts than the metal one that penetrates his brain. Where such phobic attitudes are concerned, videogames follow a pattern set by other, much older cultural phenomena, such as pornography.