A couple of weeks ago, two kids shot up a school. But this didn’t happen in the United States where this kind of act seems so prevalent. No, this happened in a small town in the Philippines. The Tacloban School Shooting left three dead and several injured and is only the second school shooting incident in the country. But it is the first one where the act seems to be the one without an actual target; the first “official” one was more of an assassination attempt on a political figure. Still, as school shootings, especially one with several deaths, are definitely news worthy in the Philippines as this doesn’t happen here usually.

Of course, this led to a lot of confusion as to the motives of the suspects. And, lo and behold, there had to be one powerful political figure who would blame the Tacloban School Shooting on video games. Enter Interior Secretary Jonvic Remulla who, after getting information from the police, that one of the shooters played a violent video game called Gorebox, was quick to blame this specific game and video games as a whole for the incident. He is now leading the call to, not only ban Gorebox, but all video games with violence. In fact, the President of the Philippines himself said he was open to the suggestion!

If this story is something you’ve heard before, that’s because you have. It’s been ages since my colleague on this website has talked about this exact topic ad nauseam. I honestly thought this topic had been put to bed so I never really bothered to write about it. But, with this renewed vigor of blaming video games for real life violence once again reeling its ugly head, I think it’s time I put in my two cents on the subject. Why can I do that? Well, that’s because I’ve been playing these so-called “violent video games” since I was a kid!

First off, in all my time of playing video games, have I thought of actually doing something like going on a shooting spree? No. But, according to the people who blame real-life violence on video games, that should be the only thing on my mind! And I have played it all! From 2D shooters like Contra, to the first ever 3D shooters like Wolfenstein 3D and Doom, these were just some of the games I’ve played that should have warped my mind and made me a nihilistic sycophant mass murderer. Yet I haven’t even had the slightest thought of doing such a thing. And I’m betting the majority of gamers who played those very games haven’t as well. So, based on my (and a lot of other gamers’) experience, playing multiple violent video games throughout their formative years isn’t enough to turn us into the killers we should be.

But that’s just me giving anecdotal data, right? What does science have to say about this? Well, here’s the thing: studies actually do say playing violent video games does cause heightened aggression in players. But “aggression” is way different than violence, especially when it comes to doing an actual violent crime like a mass shooting event. When we talk about aggression, it’s more like pushing a person during a heated argument, not mowing them down with bullets. So, overall, this is all just a myth until there is more evidence to prove otherwise.

Also, I guess we have to talk about the Tacloban School Shooting and the investigation itself. Does the evidence suggest that a video game like Gorebox created these monsters? Not really. For one, both of the shooters didn’t play Gorebox. Only one of them did. To be fair, it was indeed the one who did most of the shooting. Still, you would think, if Gorebox was to blame, both of them would’ve been playing that game heavily, no? Another thing is, after some more investigation was done into both of the alleged shooters, the general consensus (so far) is that Gorebox wasn’t really the trigger for the mass shooting. Rather, there is a link to, you would never guess, extremist terrorism.

Yes, according to the Senate hearings into the matter, the shooters were “groomed” online into becoming the shooters by a nihilistic extremist network. Now, it is probable that the “groomer” did contact these kids through a game like Gorebox, you can’t say it’s the game’s content that turned them into the shooters. It was another person who turned them into that. And it turns out Risa Hontiveros, the one heading the investigation, says that she herself is not pushing to ban video games and that gamers are not the enemy here.

However, despite this, the damage has been done. There is, once again, renewed talk about how video games cause real life violence again, despite being a dead topic for years. Gorebox is not available in the Philippines right now as there is a temporary ban on the game as of the moment. But there is talk that the ban will be permanent as the developer declined to join the Senate investigation to address security concerns. Like I said, the President of the country is even considering a total ban on violent video games as a whole because of this incident. And, let me reiterate, the supposed violent video game wasn’t the main cause of the school shooting. While I will concede it may have been the video game that was the medium where the “groomer” contacted the shooters, it wasn’t the video game itself that made them want to shoot people. It was another person doing the urging.

So, why do politicians like Jonvic Remulla have this kneejerk reaction to video game causing real-life violence? Well, it’s a tale as old as time: they need a scapegoat. It’s so easy to blame big problems on things we find foreign to us. Before, it was comics that was causing truancy amongst the youth. At a time, rock and roll was called “the devil’s music.” Same thing can be said for rap music. If it’s different from what we think is “normal,” well, it’s gotta be evil, right?

Thankfully, there are still some sane people in the world. As I said, Risa Hontiveros is not blaming video games. There are also other Philippine senators coming to the defense of video games. However, I’m still worried that they might place some “protections” on video games that might be overreach. The country does have a history of passing outrageous laws like putting restrictions on vlogging in public places. Honestly, I do hope they, at the very least, consult with the actual gaming community in the Philippines if they want to pass some form of restrictions.

Still, it’s hard to believe that, in 2026, at a time when most people, kids and adults are playing video games, people have the gall to blame them do this day.

What’s your take on violent video games causing real-life violence? Let me know in the comments section below!