[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 29 (Thursday, February 28, 2013)]
[House]
[Pages H811-H813]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  VIOLENT MEDIA ROLE IN MASS SHOOTINGS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Stockman). Under the Speaker's announced 
policy of January 3, 2013, the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Wolf) is 
recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the majority leader.
  Mr. WOLF. Today, I rise as the father of five and the grandfather of 
16--many of whom are of the age to play video games--to express my deep 
concerns about the lack of discussion on mental health issues and 
violent media and the role they play in mass shootings.
  As we continue to seek ways to end mass violence, in addition to gun 
safety, we must address the impacts of mental illness and, of equal 
importance, violent video games, movies, and TV.
  I have supported legislation that would keep guns from getting into 
the wrong hands. I voted for the Brady Bill in 1993, safety lock 
requirements, and provisions that help police conduct effective 
background checks. My father was a Philadelphia policeman.
  As chairman of the House Appropriations subcommittee that funds the 
Justice Department, I have increased funding for the national 
background check

[[Page H812]]

system to keep firearms out of the hands of the mentally ill and 
violent criminals. In fact, my bill provided more than double the 
funding requested by both the President's and the Senate's budget plan.
  In January, I wrote to ask Attorney General Holder to use existing 
funds to immediately improve the Nation's background check system. In 
addition, I asked the Obama administration to create a national center 
for campus public safety, which has strong support from lawmakers on 
both sides of the aisle and the Virginia Tech Family Outreach 
Foundation, a group of families and victims of the shooting at Virginia 
Tech. In fact, the idea for my bill to create the national center for 
campus public safety came from the Virginia Tech families and lead 
cosponsor, Congressman Bobby Scott from the State of Virginia. I'm 
expecting a response from the Justice Department soon. The shooter in 
the Virginia Tech massacre lived in my congressional district, and a 
number of the victims were from my district. I have met with their 
families, and I understand they are hurting.
  Dealing with mental illness has to be part of the solution. I have 
long advocated for measures that prevent health insurers from placing 
discriminatory restrictions on mental health and addiction treatments. 
I continue to remain hopeful that the nearly 20 million Americans who 
suffer from mental illness receive the treatment they need.
  Mr. Speaker, though, I was disappointed that President Obama did not 
seize the opportunity to address, in depth, the role of mental health 
and media violence as factors of mass violence during his State of the 
Union address. To only focus on guns, on just one piece of a very large 
and complicated puzzle, is simply irresponsible.
  The President said that the victims of mass shootings, including 
Congresswoman Gabby Giffords, the college students at Virginia Tech, 
the children at Sandy Hook, the high school students at Columbine, and 
the movie-goers in Aurora, all deserve a vote for gun control 
proposals. How can he, in good conscience, call for that but not 
acknowledge the fact that each one of these shooters in these events 
was mentally disturbed? How could he not acknowledge the role that 
violent media played in some of their lives?
  The President is failing the American people and the families of the 
victims by remaining frustratingly silent on these crucial issues and 
ignoring the other central factors related to mass violence of this 
kind.
  As I mentioned, in a number of tragic shootings, there has been a 
pattern of the shooters playing or even imitating violent video games.
  Let's begin with Anders Breivik, the Norwegian who shot 69 people at 
a youth camp in 2011. Forbes Magazine reported that Anders used the 
video game ``Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2'' as a simulator to help 
him practice shooting people. Anders said:

       I just bought ``Modern Warfare 2,'' the game. It is 
     probably the best military simulator out there, and it's one 
     of the hottest games this year.

  He goes on to say:

       I see ``Modern Warfare 2'' more as a part of my training-
     simulation than anything else. You can more or less 
     completely simulate actual operations.

  And who can forget that day at Columbine High School when Eric Harris 
and Dylan Klebold murdered 13 classmates and wounded 23 others before 
turning the guns on themselves? The Simon Wiesenthal Center, which 
tracks Internet hate groups, found in its archives a copy of Harris' 
Web site with a version of the first-person shooter video game ``Doom'' 
that he had customized. In Harris' version, there are two shooters, 
each with extra weapons and unlimited ammunition, and the other people 
in the game cannot fight back.
  For a class project, Harris and Klebold made a videotape that was 
similar to their customized version of ``Doom.'' In the video, Harris 
and Klebold dress in trench coats, carry guns, and kill school 
athletes. They acted out their videotape performance in real life less 
than a year later.
  An investigator at the Wiesenthal Center said Harris and Klebold were 
``playing out their game in God mode.''
  In another videotape, Harris referred to a sawed-off shotgun as 
``Arlene,'' a favorite character in the ``Doom'' video game. Harris 
said, ``It's gonna be like (expletive) Doom.''
  And now we have a report this month from the Hartford Courant that 
says that Sandy Hook shooter Adam Lanza may have been imitating violent 
video games as well. The Courant reports:

       During a search of the Lanza home after the deadly school 
     shootings, police found thousands of dollars' worth of 
     graphically violent video games.

  The paper goes on to say:

       And detectives working the scene of the massacre are 
     exploring whether Adam Lanza might have been emulating the 
     shooting range or a video game scenario as he moved from room 
     to room at Sandy Hook, spewing bullets, law enforcement 
     sources have told the Courant.

  Then he goes on to say, Mr. Speaker:

       Before he killed his mother and set off for Sandy Hook 
     Elementary, Adam Lanza destroyed the hard drive on his 
     computer, which probably kept some of the records of the 
     games he played and who he played with. He also may have 
     destroyed any chance to see if he had a manifesto or had 
     written down anything indicating that he planned the 
     shootings or why he chose the elementary school.

  Let me repeat, Adam Lanza may have been emulating a video game 
shooter or scenario as he went room to room at Sandy Hook. What parent 
cannot see this problem?
  This week, I had the opportunity to meet with a few elementary school 
principals from my congressional district. During the course of our 
discussion, the issue of media violence, particularly violent video 
games, came up. One principal said that when children misbehave in 
school and he asks them why, they will frequently say that they saw it 
in a video game. Another principal with him said the problem with video 
games is that, when young children are playing violent ones where they 
shoot or kill other characters, there are no repercussions or 
punishment, and usually the characters will even come back to life. 
This gives children and adolescents whose brains are still developing 
no sense of reality. He also said that video games desensitize kids to 
violence.
  How can we continue to ignore what common sense is telling us? Just 
take one look at the movie trailers and how violent they are. Some of 
the video games on the market today like ``Call of Duty'' and ``Halo'' 
all give points for killing another character. Players are rewarded for 
shooting people. The level of violence in ``Grand Theft Auto'' is 
astonishing.

                              {time}  1400

  Players drive around, shoot people, including police officers, pick 
up prostitutes, and then kill them. There is a racial element to it 
also.
  Soon after the Newtown shooting, I asked the National Science 
Foundation to pull together experts from across the country to look at 
the impact of all three contributors to mass violence. These experts 
include Dr. Brad Bushman from Ohio State University, along with several 
other scholars from top-tier universities across the Nation, including 
Johns Hopkins; Georgetown; Columbia University; University of 
Pennsylvania; Penn State; Carnegie Mellon; and the University of 
California, Berkeley. And we will have the list at the end of this 
statement. Earlier this month, the NSF released a report compiled by 
these experts whose names, as I said, will appear at the end of the 
statement.
  It draws on reliable evidence and a number of theories to explain 
youth violence that have emerged from decades of research, including 
research supported by the National Science Foundation, the National 
Institutes of Health, the National Research Council, and other Federal 
agencies.
  According to the report, violent video games increase aggressive 
thoughts, angry feelings, psychological arousal and aggressive 
behavior, and decrease helping behavior and feelings of empathy for 
others. The report compiled by these experts shows that rating systems 
have not kept up with the increasingly violent content of popular 
media, and there is no standard rating system in the U.S. across 
varying media platforms.
  Dr. Bushman, who holds the Margaret Hall and Robert Randal Rinehart 
chair at Ohio State University and is widely respected in his field, 
offers a solution to this issue. There could be a universal rating 
system on all media, with universal symbols that are easy for parents 
to understand. The Pan European Game Information system, for

[[Page H813]]

example, has five age-based ratings: 3-plus, 7-plus, 12-plus, 16-plus, 
and 18-plus; and six well-recognizable symbols for potentially 
objectionable material: violence, sex, drugs, discrimination, fear, and 
gambling.
  The current rating system is confusing to parents. For example, there 
is R for movies, TV-MA for TV, and FV for fantasy violence in video 
games.
  Another possible idea, which is something that I have long advocated 
for, is to put warning labels on violent video games. The report also 
quotes:

       More research is also needed on what types of individuals 
     are most strongly affected by violent video games. Many of 
     the spree shooters have been described as ``social 
     outcasts.'' Are such individuals more likely to behave 
     aggressively after playing a violent video game? Are such 
     individuals more likely to play violent games alone?

  A copy of the National Science Foundation report can be found on my 
Web site at www.wolf.house.gov. Let me say that again, because parents 
might want to look at this, and hopefully the Members of the body on 
both sides will look at it, and hopefully members of the administration 
will look at it. A copy will appear at www.wolf.house.gov. And these 
are the views of these experts.
  I am not naive enough to think that video game violence is the only 
issue here. We need to have an honest discussion about media violence, 
TV, movies, and video games. We need to have an honest discussion about 
mental health. And we need to have an honest discussion about guns.
  It is easy for the President to go after the NRA. He doesn't support 
the NRA, and the NRA doesn't support him. But will the President of the 
United States ever, ever ask the entertainment industry to get involved 
or will he continue to be silent?
  While media violence is not the only factor of mass violence, it is 
one of the easiest factors to change and it needs to be addressed, in 
addition to looking at access to firearms and mental health.
  Don't we owe it to all the victims who have been killed to look at 
everything?
  With that, Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

  Participants of the Subcommittee on Youth Violence of the Advisory 
Committee to the Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences Directorate, 
                      National Science Foundation

       Katherine S. Newman, Ph. D., Dean of Arts and Sciences, 
     Professor of Sociology, Johns Hopkins University
       Brad J. Bushman, Ph.D., Professor of Communication and 
     Psychology, Margaret Hall and Robert Randal Rinehart Chair of 
     Mass Communication, The Ohio State University and Professor 
     of Communication Science, VU University, Amsterdam, the 
     Netherlands
       Sandra L. Calvert, Ph.D., Professor of Psychology and 
     Director of the Children's Digital Media Center, Georgetown 
     University
       Geraldine Downey, Ph.D., Professor of Psychology and Dean 
     of Social Sciences, Columbia University
       Dan Romer, Ph.D., Director, Adolescent Communication 
     Institute, Annenberg Public Policy Center, University of 
     Pennsylvania
       Calvin Morrill, Ph.D., Professor of Law and Sociology and 
     Director, Center for the Study of Law and Society, University 
     of California, Berkeley
       Michael Gottfredson, Ph.D., President and Professor of 
     Sociology, University of Oregon
       Ann S. Masten, Ph.D., Irving B. Harris Professor of Child 
     Development, Institute of Child Development, University of 
     Minnesota
       Mark Dredze, Ph.D., Assistant Research Professor of 
     Computer Science, Johns Hopkins University
       Daniel B. Neill, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Information 
     Systems; Director, Event and Pattern Detection Laboratory, 
     H.J. Heinz III College, Carnegie Mellon University
       Daniel W. Webster, ScD, MPH, Professor and Director, Johns 
     Hopkins Center for Gun Policy and Research
       Nina G. Jablonski, Ph.D., Distinguished Professor of 
     Anthropology, Pennsylvania State University

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