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AGS Foundation Reports
What Parents Need to Know About Guns in Video Games
executive summary
For many families in America, gun ownership is a fact of life. More than 40% of Americans live in a home with a gun, and there are about 250 million privately owned guns nationwide. And in 100,000 American homes this year, a child will receive a firearm for Christmas. Most gun owners and parents strive to teach their children the right lessons about gun use and gun safety.
But despite the best efforts of responsible parents and gun owners, there is an array of easily available video games on the market that portray gun use and gun violence in the most horrifying and irresponsible ways. While some of these games carry vague warning labels, the labels are merely advisory—they do not stop young children from buying or playing these games.
This study, conducted by the Americans for Gun Safety Foundation (AGSF), has found that in households across the country, children are playing games with startlingly realistic, computer-generated versions of widely owned guns.
In these video games, played on computers, the Internet or the enormously popular new home gaming systems, children wield virtual weapons and embark on remarkably life-like simulations of horrifying acts of gun violence and irresponsible gun use. In many cases, children can shoot, kill and maim innocent victims with virtual versions of the very shotguns, rifles or handguns that may be found in their own homes.
The study describes in detail ten video games that illustrate the wide scope of this problem. These ten games represent some of the worst gun violence video games on the market today.
In contrast, the study also looks at examples of games that portray gun use in a reasonable, safe and responsible manner.
These two games, made by the gun manufacturers Browning and Remington, are held up as examples to parents of the alternatives that exist in the video gaming market.
Key Findings
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Violent video games of all types are widely available to users of all ages, with almost no control over their content or their sale.
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The Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB), which provides warning labels on the boxes of some games, does not provide detailed information on their content (for example, the nature of the violence portrayed in the games). Furthermore, since they do not bar even young children from buying the games, the ratings on the game boxes may have a perverse result, by serving as an enticement to young players seeking a maximum level of gore.
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Games like Redneck Rampage, Hitman, and Gangsters II feature stunningly realistic graphics, with weapons that mimic their real gun counterparts in features like muzzle flash, barrel recoil, spent cartridges and ammunition reloading. Game makers also strive to replicate real-life settings, adding tremendous graphic detail to scenarios and to the carnage.
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By contrast, games like Remington Upland Game Hunter include carefully organized sections on gun safety and on responsible gun use.
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The report's message to parents is "open the box, play the game, be informed."
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About the Americans for Gun Safety Foundation
The Americans for Gun Safety Foundation is a non-profit, non-partisan organization. The Foundation seeks to educate the public about: supporting the rights of individuals to own guns, the need for better laws and stronger enforcement of existing laws to help keep guns out of the hands of criminals and children, and safe and responsible gun ownership.
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John McCain
appeared on 2,500 movie screens in Spring 2001 to urge parents and children to save lives by keeping guns locked up and out of schools. play video read more
 Gun Laws
Find out whether the Gun Laws in your state protect your rights and your safety. Print out our quick reference page, or send it to your friends via email.
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