On Friday, Vice President Joe Biden met with a number of video game industry representatives to discuss violence in the media. The meeting comes in the wake of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting that saw an armed gunman shoot and kill 26 people, including 20 children.
The meeting produced little news, with reps from Activision Blizzard, Electronic Arts, Take-Two, Epic Games, and GameStop all participating. In addition to Biden, Attorney General Eric Holder and Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius were also in attendance.
"I come to this meeting with no judgment. You all know the judgment other people have made," said Biden, referring to the fact that many people already blame video games in part for violent incidents that have occurred in the past.
"We know there is no single answer and, quite frankly, we don't even know whether some of the things people think impact on this (gun violence) actually impact on it or not," he said.
Biden is heading a gun violence task force commissioned by President Barack Obama. He has been charged with coming up with recommendations to curb or limit the threat of gun violence in the United States. So far, full details about what the task force is considering are unknown, but reports indicate that universal background checks are being considered, as well as a ban on assault weapons and high-capacity gun magazines.
Some in the industry, though, feel that it was a mistake for video game representatives to even attend the meeting with the vice president. Last year, video games were vindicated by the Supreme Court as protected under the First Amendment, and some like Gamasutra's Kris Graft believe that by attending the meeting, the industry admits some responsibility when it comes to gun violence.
"If you're among the 'game industry leaders' entertaining this question in the court of the Vice President of the U.S.A. and his task force on gun control and violence, you, my well-meaning friend, are stating that you're part of the problem, and therefore, you are part of the problem," said Graft.
In addition, the Entertainment Merchant's Association (EMA) penned a letter to Biden, asking him to refrain from yet another investigation into violent media due to the fact that numerous studies have yet to link violence in life to violence in gaming or film.
In light of these and other reports," wrote Mark Fisher, interim president of the EMA, "we would recommend that, prior to recommending another review of this topic, the federal government take stock of its existing studies and determine what new knowledge could be generated."
The letter went on to detail some of the steps the industry has already taken to ensure that violent games do not find themselves in the hands of children. Video game makers have found themselves on the defensive since the National Rifle Association attempted to pin the blame for gun violence on it, while advocates of gun control feel that the NRA is simply trying to distract people from the real issue at hand.
The gun violence task force is getting ready to release its recommendations to the U.S. president this week.
