Reggie Fils-Aime gun violence

The nightmare of near-daily mass shootings rages on in the United States. As is often the case, many in the media and government believe video games are partially to blame for gun violence. This perception goes all the way to the top, as President Trump has made that claim on more than one occasion and has even met with the ESA. Naturally, many people in the video game industry strongly disagree. This group includes Reggie Fils-Aime, former President of Nintendo of America.

Reggie decided to chime in after longtime journalist and The Game Awards creator Geoff Keighley voiced his thoughts. Keighley decided to combat the negativity being hurled at the video game industry by sharing a more positive story. Keighley explained how The Game Awards helped shine a spotlight on a man who had spent 22 years living in a refugee camp. The government of Canada was inspired by his story of bringing a community together through gaming. As a result, they offered him and his family permanent refugee status and moved them to Toronto.

Reggie says games don’t cause gun violence

Reggie shared this story to refute the negativity and referred to critics of gaming as ill-informed. He then provided some stats to attempt to dispel the narrative that games cause gun violence.

When the ill-informed are being critical of the gaming industry and community, this is a very powerful story. The facts are that countries with high per capita gaming revenue have fewer gun-shooting deaths. Except the US, where 4% of the population own 43% of the guns.

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Ben Lamoreux


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