The Virginia Tech Massacre occurred on April 16, 2007 starring Seung-Hui Cho as a psychopathic mass murderer who committed suicide after killing 33 and injuring 22 students on the campus of Virginia Tech.
According to Cho’s roommates, Andy and John Eide, both stated that Cho had strange behaviors such as staring out a window for hours, stalking and harassing certain students, and very little social interactions.
However, as soon as the news of this massacre was played, politician Jack Thompson immediately linked Cho’s actions to video games while speaking on Fox News. After discovering that Cho had an interest in the popular game Counterstrike, Thompson declared that Cho attacked those students because his motive was influenced by games such as Counterstrike and Grand Theft Auto.
However, police investigations found out that Cho also had deep fascinations not only with video games, but also movies, TV shows, and music videos that focused on disturbing themes such as death, power, control, and hatred.
“In the lengthy study's proposals the FBI recommends training parents to track their child's use of the Internet and viewing of violent videos. No reference is made to tracking video game playing.” (Crecente, Brian. “Dissecting Jack’s Lies” http://kotaku.com/252914/feature-dissecting-jacks-lies)
In 1997, sixteen- year-old Evan Ramsey walked to his high school and pulled out a .12 gauge shotgun and opened fire on his classmates, killing two students in the process. After being imprisoned, Carol Marin of 60 Minutes spoke to Evan about his motivations. What became the main controversy that overshadowed everything else was that Evan spent long hours playing Doom.
Psychiatrist Dr. John Smith believed that the violence in Doom increased Evan’s aggressive behavior in real life and led him to the school shooting. However, what was talked less of was Evan’s life before he started playing violent video games.
“Evan Ramsey was had lived a difficult life at a young age, his father went to prison and his mother became an alcoholic. Ramsey and his brother were shipped off to a series of foster homes and suffered sexual abuse and humiliation. He even attempted suicide at age 10 and struggled to control his temper.” ("Rage: A Look At A Teen Killer - 60 Minutes - CBS News." Breaking News Headlines: Business, Entertainment & World News - CBS News. Web. 06 Sept. 2010. <http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/1999/08/17/60II/main58625.shtml>.)
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