James Delahunty
11 Feb 2013 17:27
Pelosi wants comprehensive gun violence debate that is based on evidence, and not anecdote.
The House Minority Leader, Nancy Pelosi (D), was speaking on Fox News Sunday on the issue of gun violence in America. Interviewer Chris Wallace brought up the role of video games and asked Pelosi why she doesn't get her Hollywood friends to "stop the video games."
"I understand what you're saying. I'm a mother, I'm a grandmother," Pelosi said. "The evidence says, in Japan for example, they have the most violent games and the lowest mortality from guns. I don't know what the explanation is for that, except that they might have good gun laws."
She criticized Wallace for sticking to only one part of the issue of gun violence. While she said that further examination of video games is needed, it must be in the context of a larger comprehensive look at the gun issue and based on evidence.
"I think we have to do it all. We have to take a look at these games are," Pelosi said.
"I don't think we should do anything anecdotally. We have a saying here: the plural of anecdote is not data. And so we want to know: what is the evidence? What will really make a difference here? And I think it has to be comprehensive."
Video game violence has been singled out - even by the NRA - as playing a significant role in mass shooting events in the United States, while defenders of the industry point out that the same violent video games are played in Canada, and in almost every country in the world.