How to Frame The Debate Over Video Games and Gun Violence

The Penny Arcade Report’s Ben Kuchera has a power house of an editorial up today.

Kuchera uses Quinten Tarantino’s stark refusal to play into an interviewer gambit to see his films– specifically the gun violence heavy Django Unchained– through the lens of the Sandy Hook massacare as a prototype for how game makers should deal with the mainstream press on the issue.

I’ve always said that we need to talk about violent games, but that’s a conversation I trust to take place between the artists who make them and the people who pay for them. It should take place between parents and their children. I believe retailers should make reasonable efforts to not sell adult material to children.

As the nation continues to find ways to process what happened and how to respond the gaming community is buckling down for the usual round of scapegoating. For those of us who care about both the freedom of expression and the public safety sides of this issue, Kuchera’s op-ed is a must read.