ROANOKE, Va. –
Majestic Allah has played video games for more 25 years and has enjoyed several mature-rated games.
He believes video games are not the reason for the recurring mass shootings.
“We can’t blame the guns,” said Allah. “You can’t blame the news or the games. You have to blame the person. You need to put the responsibility on the person's decisions.”
Majestic and Jayuan Smith, the district manager of Game Junkies, both said the popular games they play contain some level of violence, but the games do not convince one to kill.
They said it's the parent’s job to monitor both the ratings of the video games their children are playing and their children's behavioral patterns.
“Their showing aggressive tendencies, like they like to fight at school and they like to get in trouble all the time and then you go out and buy these games, then you are not being proactive,” said Smith.
Karen Pillis, the director of Youth Development for Family Services of Roanoke Valley, said being an active figure in your child's day-to-day activities is a way to prevent future emotional issues.
“As long as parents are there to provide the boundaries and the context of the game.I think it comes down more so on families and parents than video gamers to regulate.”
Allah agrees that gun violence begins at home.
“When it comes to children and everything like that, start investigating their parents a little more,” he said.