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Take-Two Interactive CEO Strauss Zelnick stated in an interview with CNBC that blaming video games for mass shootings is 'disrespectful' to the victims and their families.
Last week, President Trump attributed ‘gruesome and grisly video games’ to the tragedies that occurred in Texas and Ohio. Additionally, Walmart withdrew advertisements for violent games from its stores, and ABC and ESPN cancelled its broadcasts of the Apex Legends tournament highlights ‘out of respect for the victims and all those impacted.’
When queried on President Trump’s comments, Zelnick said, ‘The truth is, it’s disrespectful to the victims and the families to point the finger at entertainment.’ He explained that entertainment of any medium is distributed and consumed globally, yet the U.S. is continually affected by mass shootings. ‘Gun violence is uniquely American and that has to change, and that will only change if we address the real issues,’ Zelnick asserted.
If games were proven to incite violence, the Take-Two CEO stated he would halt production entirely: ‘In the same way that I wouldn’t choose to market substances that cause people to get sick.’
According to the Gun Violence Archive, at the time of writing there have been over 255 mass shootings in the U.S. this year. There is no causal link between violence and video games.
