While Tennessee Republican Lamar Alexander didn’t say those exact words, the sentiment is definitely there.
I try my best to limit political discussions to a bare minimum around these parts. But it’s becoming increasingly difficult, given how so many lawmakers are trying to pin the Sandy Hook tragedy on video games, which is obviously going to perturb me. So I can’t help but share the following…
My favorite part? The ever so slight tinge of contempt for the First Amendment that’s exhibited at the very end.
The video is courtesy of Kotaku, and much like them, I’d like to remind everyone that Alexander is an actual elected government official, and is therefore someone that a significant portion of the population relies upon for wisdom and guidance, theoretically.
Yes, I know it’s foolish to think that a politician should have such qualities. Call me stupidly idealistic. Oh, and much Kotaku also did on their end, now is a good time to remind everyone that after many years of scientific studies, there has yet to exist any conclusive proof that games lead to violent behavior.
True, there are some that claims that a link exists (the ones that Alexander and his ilk love to pull out when the situation warrants it), but the majority of these tests are poorly conducted, so the end result is bunk. To be fair, the same could be said of the tests that say games are totally cool (which outnumber the ones that says games are bad, 5:1, btw).
But anyway, back to the subject at hand: I feel pretty terrible for every citizen of Tennessee right about now.