There have been many attempts to censor media, first it was comic books, then movies, and for the past 47 years been it’s video games. This latest argument started with Matt Bevin. He is the governor of Kentucky and days after the Stoneman Douglas shooting in Florida Bevin had this to say in an interview on the Leland Conway show Bevin states that “guns are not the problem. We have a cultural problem in America. You look at the ‘culture of death’ that is being celebrated. There are video games that yes are listed for mature audiences, but kids play them and everybody knows it and there’s nothing preventing a child from playing them, that celebrate the slaughtering of people.” In other words, guns are not the problem, video games are. Unsurprisingly most of the politicians who support this claim take significant contributions from the NRA. That includes Trump and Matt Bevin.

A recent study by the University Of York shows that there is no correlation between violent video games and real life aggression. What the governor is doing here is trying to find an easy solution to complex problem. He is outwrite just ignoring any of the actual problems and taking the simple solution of blaming something completely unrelated. As if he doesn’t even care about the lives that were stolen, the kids and teachers who would still be with us if it weren't for these poor regulations and laws. The firearm death rate in America is 10.2 per 100,000 people, but the firearm death rate in finland 3.6 per 100,000 people. America has 6.6 more deaths per 100,000 people. The sad part is it’s not just politicians that are against video games there are also religious figures, news outlets, and even our President. When Trump first got word of these violent video games manipulating young people's minds, Trump proposed there should be a rating system for games, even though there already is a rating system for games that is widely used.

Whether you’re pro-gun or not there is no denying the fact that there is a growing problem in America that must be stopped.  The Parkland shooter was able to buy a gun legally despite the fact he was a minor, received mental health treatment, and expelled from his previous school due to violence. I don’t believe that there are enough restrictions on guns.  Instead of blaming violence seen from video games as a cause for gun deaths, the country should be looking into mental health, age, previous crimes, etc.

As a sophomore in high school I shouldn’t have to worry about dying at school, I shouldn’t have to go through lockdown drills, no one should. The fact that there are protests happening around the country trying to bring light to these problems while our president ignores millions of people and comes up with these imaginary solutions that will ultimately fix nothing is outwrite disrespectful and disgusts me.