I played several violent video games during my childhood and early adulthood, and wasted several more person-weeks playing them. Despite playing America's Army, I was never recruited by any army, and besides sometimes wishing violent tyrans would taste their own medicine, I do not consider myself particularly violent.

If violent video games were a costly distraction for me, it seems they may have been a very different kind of distraction at a political level. For an even longer time, and at a much higher cost: human lives, as politicians blame games instead of focusing on efficient ways to reduce gun violence.

Thankfully, it seems that ignoring NRA-funded groups, this side of the distraction may be coming to an end.