After the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre, a seventh grader in Newtown, Connecticut who was a “gamer” created a group to reduce “violent video games by a third in American homes.”
Max Goldstein created a group called “Played Out,” which uses the slogan “We choose not to play,” that urges people to drop off violent video games, including “first-person shooter” games. The group plans to place bins around Newtown, Connecticut where people can get rid of their violent video games.
He also said he thought it was “rude and disrespectful to the families who lost children to play these games.”
“It’s just great. I think it’s just great the kids thought of something,” Roberta Mittleman, Goldstein’s mother, said.
After the massacre, many lawmakers, like Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper (D), and public figures immediately blamed violent video games for playing a contributing role in causing Lanza to massacre 26 children and six adults last Friday, especially after reports came to light that Lanza spent hours in the basement of his mother’s $1.6 million home playing violent video games.
On Friday, National Rifle Association CEO Wayne LaPierre said movies and video games that make people fantasize about killing people were the “filthiest form of pornography.”