A new study by a team from University of Missouri-Columbia has discovered a casual link between violent video games and agressive behavior. The team of researchers, "found that people who play violent video games show diminished brain responses to images of real-life violence, such as gun attacks, but not to other emotionally disturbing pictures, such as those of dead animals, or sick children." This is understandable and doesn't suggest anything more than desenitization to images. As Jonathon Freedman, a psychologist for the U. of Toronto says, "There's no way to show that this relates to real-life aggression."

He explains further, "We habituate to any kind of stimulus." This is true. If I look at pictures of flowers all day, every day, and then am shown flowers in a study, my brain response will be less than those who don't look at flowers all day long. The brain just gets used to some things.

The argument enters when a society must ask itself, "is it OK that people are desensitized to violence?" That question covers all media. We see so many crimes on TV each night, with guns and blood, that one has to wonder if the study was done on people who watch violent TV shows or movies, what the results would be.

Unfortunately, most people will see this headline and conclude that here is yet another study proving games are bad. Our lawmakers now have yet another tool in their chest to fight for unconstitutional laws regarding violent games. What people won't realize is that this is a blunt tool, meant for banging people over the head.