President Trump will discuss violent video games Thursday afternoon with a diverse group of industry leaders, lawmakers, and conservative cultural critics.
A list of participants was shared by the White House a few hours ahead of the 2 p.m. event, called after Trump suggested last month that violent games may lead to mass shootings, a contention unsupported by mainstream scholarship.
Industry representatives include Mike Gallagher, CEO of the Entertainment Software Association, a video game trade association that preemptively circulated pushback, video-game maker ZeniMax Media CEO Robert Altman, and Take-Two Interactive CEO Strauss Zelnick.
Take-Two Interactive owns the well-known video game franchise “Grand Theft Auto,” in which players commit violent crimes including carjacking and vehicular homicide. ZeniMax Media produces the first-person shooting games “Doom,” “Risk,” and “Prey.”
Other participants include Pat Vance, president of Entertainment Software Rating Board, an ESA-established nonprofit that since 1994 has reviewed video games to apply warnings for violent content, Brent Bozell of the conservative Media Research Center, and Melissa Henson of the Parents Television Council, a group founded by Bozell in the 1990s that has argued against depictions of sex and violence.
Three lawmakers were invited: Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., Rep. Vicky Hartzler, R-Mo., and Rep. Martha Roby, R-Ala.
The White House also invited retired U.S. Army Lt. Col. Dave Grossman, author of two books on violence in society, including “Assassination Generation: Video Games, Aggression, and the Psychology of Killing.”
Grossman hosts an adapted section of the book on his website. It contends: “There is strong evidence to indicate that the indiscriminate civilian application of combat conditioning techniques as entertainment may be a key factor in worldwide, skyrocketing violent crime rates, including a sevenfold increase in per capita aggravated assaults in America since 1956.” Mainstream research has found no connection, however.
Grossman has attempted to popularize the term “killology” for research into the desire to harm others, and likens such research to the previously taboo study of “sexology.”
An excerpt from Grossman’s other book, “On Killing: The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War and Society,” is also available on his website, arguing that people with concealed carry license have a duty to carry their weapons at all times.
“Everyone needs down time. But if you are authorized to carry a weapon, and you walk outside without it, just take a deep breath, and say this to yourself… ‘Baa’,” he wrote.
It’s unclear if the event will be broadcast in full, as have other events convened by Trump following a Valentine’s Day massacre at a Florida high school, where 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz allegedly murdered 17 people with an AR-15-style rifle.
In a statement, the White House spokeswoman Lindsay Walters said Thursday: “As we continue to work towards creating school safety programs that protect all children, the President will be meeting with video game industry leaders and Members of Congress to discuss violent video-game exposure and the correlation to aggression and desensitization in children. This meeting will be the first of many with industry leaders to discuss this important issue.”
Ahead of the meeting, the Entertainment Software Association reached out to reporters on Wednesday, offering their take on Trump’s contention that violent games may cause violence.
The trade group said: “Video games are enjoyed around the world and numerous authorities and reputable scientific studies have found no connection between games and real-life violence. Like all Americans, we are deeply concerned about the level of gun violence in the United States. Video games are plainly not the issue: entertainment is distributed and consumed globally, but the US has an exponentially higher level of gun violence than any other nation. The upcoming meeting at the White House, which ESA will attend, will provide the opportunity to have a fact-based conversation about video game ratings, our industry’s commitment to parents, and the tools we provide to make informed entertainment choices.”
