Americans have blamed violent forms of entertainment since colonial times. From dime novels to music, movies and TV shows. The most recent medium is video games. Aided by crime-saturated news stories, many people are convinced that video game violence is translating into real-life crimes among youth, such as school massacres. They think violent video games make people violent, but that's not the case. Violent people play violent video games. Not everyone who plays video games is violent, but those who already are will use them to express their frustration and rage. On the contrary, video games prevent violent people from going out and killing people in real life, because they can let off steam in the virtual world. People become violent because of many different factors in life. The media is interested in these kids who massacred so many students and notices that they are playing video games and automatically claims that it is because of first person shooters (FPS) or MMORPGs (video games). massively multiplayer online role-playing game) that these kids snapped and woke up one day with the intent to kill. It's like saying that it was because these young people were eating hamburgers and fries that that's what pushed them to be violent. Or because they dressed like Goths, they became violent. One has nothing to do with the other. The news media fails to dig deeper and see other factors in their lives. A study by the Secret Service and the Department of Education to try to understand commonalities in school violence found that the most common trait was a history of suicide attempts. and depression (Olson). This is not to say that every suicidal depressed student is going to become a mass murderer, but it...... middle of paper ......9. Opposing viewpoints in context. Internet. December 22, 2011.Hoerrner, Mark and Keisha. “Video Game Violence,” Children's Voice 15 (2006): np Opposing viewpoints in context. Internet. December 21, 2011. “Team Malvo cites role of violent media; Film, video games seen brainwashing the accused. Washington Times [Washington, DC] December 9, 2003: B01. Scabies opposing views in context. Internet. December 20, 2011. Olson, Cheryl K., MPH, SD “Media Violence Research and Youth Violence Data: Why Do They Conflict?” Academic Psychiatry 28.2 (2004): 144-150. Psychiatry online. Internet. December 22, 2011. “Third student dies in Kentucky school shooting.” » CNN. CNN, December 2, 1997. Web. December 22, 2011. “Video games and violence: myth versus reality. » United States Supreme Court: Brown v. EMA/Entertainment Software Association and Entertainment Software Association. Internet. December 22. 2011.