Actually, guns can be used for legitimate and useful - life saving - purposes. Ultra violent and graphic games/movies/tv serve no useful purpose. At best, they are mindless time wasting “entertainment” (think bread and circuses) and there is no doubt they affect emotions and the mental state of those who indulge. Of course not everyone is affected the exact same way. R_Kangel makes some excellent points.
Whatever people “take in” with their sensory organs affects the mind and emtions - desires, fear, anger and so on. It’s not even debatable. It’s what people do with those thoughts and emotions that is their choice. But children and teenagers have little to no control or discrimination over their thoughts and desires.
It’s a long topic. But the bottom line is that yes, what people read/watch/listen to etc affects them in very deep ways. That is why advertising and propaganda work. And reading good, decent, uplifting literature has a different effect that junk or porn.
It’s just a simple law of nature. Humans are influenced from outside stimuli.
Should such ultra violent games etc be illegal? That’s another topic.
We’re so far off the cliff into depraved barbarity that debating whether such games etc should be illegal is as worthless as debating how many angels can dance on the head of a pin.
I’m wondering why the technical media of games couldn’t be used to teach things that are good. It’s a little-considered but very open secret that anything hell can do, other than sin, heaven can do better. But to someone used to thinking like hell, heaven seems insipid. That’s because hell has all the good stuff trapped in sin. But heaven can turn hell’s game right back around. God is waiting to be willingly glorified again. God won’t ever shove a salvation down somebody’s throat. But He will provide it gladly when asked.
Replace "ultra violent video games" with "right-wing hate radio", and you just said what the Leftists were saying after Loughner shot all those people in Tucson. You make the same argument Klinton made after the OKC bombing.
Blaming inanimate objects, no matter how low an opinion you have of them, for the bad decisions and actions of others, is dangerous. Not only is it factually wrong, but it cuts both ways. It's a slippery slope we don't want to go down.
Scouts Out! Cavalry Ho!