United States Secretary of Heath and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Has identified video games as a possible contributor to gun violence and mass shootings across the country. While not singled out among the possible factors that could play into the country's high rate of gun violence, Kennedy said federal officials are investigating the possible links between video games and mass shootings.
Much of the United States' recognition of mass shootings was kicked off by the Columbine High School shootings in 1999, in which the pair of shooters' fandom of id Software's FPS Doom was regularly cited as one of the influences behind their violent behavior. The incident resulted in the murders of 13 people, most of whom were fellow students, and video games have been commonly brought up as talking points in gun violence discussions in the years since.
YouTuber Law By Mike is Suing Roblox
YouTuber and lawyer Law By Mike announces plans to sue Roblox as a wave of legal action and controversy around the platform continues to rise.
U.S. Government Researches Link Between Video Games and Gun Violence
In a recent video shared by PBS NewsHour, Kennedy acknowledged the United States' unusually high number of shootings, noting, "this is not happening in other countries." Pointing out a sharp rise in mass shootings since the 1990s, the health secretary listed a number of potential factors that could be seen as sources of the rise in gun violence, including the use of unspecified "psychiatric drugs," social media, and video games, stating that the National Instutute of Health is looking into all these potential factors. He's not the only federal executive to have expressed concern, as President Donald Trump called for regulation of the video game industry during his first term following the shooting-related deaths of 20 people at a Texas Walmart, with Kennedy's recent comments once again putting game companies back into an uncomfortable spotlight.
Kennedy's own personal life has been severely affected by gun violence, as during his childhood in the 1960s, both his father, Senator Robert F. Kennedy Sr., and his uncle, President John F. Kennedy, were gunned down in successful assassinations. But his recent comments seemed more targeted at mass shootings since the 1990s. So far in 2025, more than 300 cases involving at least four deaths or injuries have been recorded by Gun Violence Archive. Earlier this year, Activision was pulled into a school shooting lawsuit centered around the 2022 incident at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, denying that its Call of Duty games influenced the deaths of 19 students and two teachers there despite the shooter reportedly being a regular player, and expressing the creators' First Amendment rights in development of the games.
Video games are not the only form of media to feature guns, and some highly respected creative minds have spoken out and even altered their works to avoid potentially glorifying shootings. In 2023, Avatar: The Way of Water director James Cameron cut several scenes involving guns, expressing in an interview that he is disgusted by gun violence and that he has regrets about some of the violent scenes he included in the early Terminator movies roughly three decades ago.