I feel like banning video games just because they are violent is a little ridiculous. I think that people are violent because something in their life is missing or they are having their own issues in life. Sure, a kid might play CoD and get a knowledge about guns and how to use them, and see the images of people dying and the like, but it doesn't mean he/she is going to go shoot somebody. The problem here isn't the video games, it's the parents. They buy their 8-12 year old M rated games with guns, gore, and the like and forget about them. I feel like some parents in this day and age don't really care about their children, they just buy them a video game and then they don't have to deal with them.

People just tend to blame their problems on everything else around them, and I see this everywhere. Their kids are snotty brats and they blame it on violent video games while in reality it is their poor parenting that caused them to be like that. People that kill other people have much deeper issues than something they have seen in a video game.

However, there is one aspect of Video Games that I see as a very bad influence, especially on younger kids, and that's online play. Many times when I used to play CoD there would be a little kid on voice chat, probably 10 or so, they cuss and cuss and cuss because they think they sound cool and want to impress all the big boys playing the game. They also get teased because of their whining, high voices, annoying-ness etc, and that sort of online bullying can be pretty detrimental to a kid. My future kids will not be playing any online games (especially shooters) until they show they are mature enough in that sort of environment. They are rated "mature" for a reason.

I don't have any sources, it's just my own opinion, I personally think it's just stupid and people just find something else to blame for their problems.