Video Games Increase Aggression: Columbine

On April 20, 1999, in the small town of Littleton, Colorado, two high-school seniors, Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris, enacted an all-out assault on Columbine High School during the middle of the school day. The boys' plan was to kill hundreds of their peers. Although they did not kill hundreds, by the end of the school day they had killed twelve students, one teacher, injured 21 others, and then committed suicide. The Columbine massacre was the 4th deadliest school massacre in United States history, and the deadliest at an American high school.

The two boys were intelligent, came from solid homes with two parents, and had older brothers. The boys met each other while attending Ken Caryl Middle School in 1993 and were involved in sports, but when the two boys entered high school they found it difficult to fit into any of the cliques.

Harris and Klebold were fans of video games such as Doom and Wolfstein 3D which are both 1st person shooter games. Harris created levels for Doom that were widely distributed, and can still be found on the Internet today as the "Harris levels." There had been rumors that the layout of these levels resembled Columbine High School but this has not been proven. Harris spent a great deal of time creating another game, named Tier, calling it his "life's work.”The game was uploaded to AOL and a Columbine school computer shortly before the attack, but appears to have been lost. One researcher argued that it is nearly certain the Tier game included a mock-up of Columbine High School. This is interesting because video games are thought to be "killing simulators" and Harris was able to simulate exactly what he wanted to do on April 20th though this game he created.

Many argue that part of the killers' problem may have been desensitization due to their constant exposure to violent imagery in such video games, as well as music and movies, believing that their obsession with these forms of media may have led them to depersonalization. The boys were fans of movies such as Natural Born Killers and the massacre has been compared to a scene from the 1995 film The Basketball Diaries in which Leonardo DiCaprio wears a black trench coat and shoots six classmates in his school's hallways. Ideas from these violent movies as well as simulations from violent video games helped the boys to carried out this killing spree. Several lawsuits against video game manufacturers were filed as a result by parents of some of the victims, but they were unsuccessful.


Video Games Teach How to Shoot: Paducah, KY

Violent video games also take a lot of heat because they teach how to shoot. It is known that the United States Military uses video games in soldier training and that it has been an effective learning tool.
 
In 1997, 14-year-old Michael Carneal brought a stolen .22-caliber pistol to a prayer group at his Paducah, Kentucky school. He had taken only a few practice shots with the rifle, yet each of the eight shots he fired hit someone. Five of them were head shots and the other three were upper torso shots, killing 8 children. Turns out Michael had learned his sharpshooting from video games, particularly Quake and Doom.