The myth of the violent gamer

There??s been a lot of buzz on the legislative front about what ??to do?? about violent video and computer games.

This is a red herring if ever there was.

I??m not looking to let the cyber game industry off the hook for its sundry stupidities (Do we really need a game reenacting JFK??s assassination?) But laying blame for the coarsening of society and the desensitizing of so many of our youth at the doorstep of the game development community is a cop-out.

In the search for root causes, has anyone noticed how religion has figured in recent stories about shooting incidents leading the national news? Terry Ratzmann last month went on a shooting rampage. Should we infer any link to his regular church attendance? The local cop interviewed by the Associated Press believes the motive the motive had something to do with the church.

And what to make of Dennis Rader, a man who was president of his church council and described as a faithful Christian? These days he??s in policy custody and accused of being the notorious BTK killer.

Well, you get the point.