“Extremely violent” video games and “a loss of religious concerns” contribute to gun violence and mass shootings and new gun laws are unlikely to stop mass shootings, Rep. Ken Calvert, R-Corona, said in a recent interview.

Speaking to Spectrum News 1, Calvert, the Inland Empire’s longest-serving congressman, threw cold water on more gun restrictions as the answer to a recent spate of mass shootings and gun-related deaths that killed almost 40,000 Americans in 2017, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“It seems like the cost of human life, it’s not just mass shootings, what’s going on in Chicago, what’s going on in Los Angeles is, I think, a loss of religious concerns,” said Calvert, whose district includes Eastvale, Norco, Corona, Menifee, Wildomar, Lake Elsinore, Murrieta and part of Temecula.

“I think these video games are extremely violent. There’s a number of things that are happening with our culture that we ought to look at also and I think has much more of an effect on what’s happening in our society today.”

Polls have consistently shown public support for tougher gun restrictions, and calls for Congress to enact more gun control followed mass shootings this summer in Gilroy, California; El Paso, Texas; and Dayton, Ohio. Fourteen people were shot to death in the 2015 San Bernardino terror attack, and Inland residents were among the casualties in the 2017 Las Vegas mass shooting that killed 58.

“People are going to be talking about a number of things,” Calvert told Spectrum News. “And we are going to be looking at them all but I don’t believe that any of these regs will have any effect, quite frankly, on these unfortunate, horrific shootings.”

Asked to elaborate, Calvert wrote in an email: “Like all Americans, I find these violent attacks shocking to our core as a civilized society. I don’t believe there’s one singular solution to the problem, because there isn’t one singular cause of the problem. We need to look at what steps can help us reduce extremely violent acts from occurring in the first place.”

“Americans today are exposed to increasingly violent content, more isolated from their neighbors, and less likely to practice a religious faith,” he wrote. “As people become more isolated from each other, they become more susceptible to radicalization and to an echo chamber that can misplace blame for their feelings of frustration, isolation and anger.”

Calvert’s comments, which echo remarks from other congressional Republicans about gun violence, were criticized by Democrat Liam O’Mara, one of several candidates challenging the congressman in 2020.

“The incumbent relies on dog-whistle tropes and blatant nonsense to address an issue for which we have actual data,” O’Mara said via email. “‘Loss of religious concerns’ does not lead to gun violence – look to Europe for that. Videos games do not lead to gun violence – look to Japan for that.”

“We have extensive empirical studies on what does cause mass shootings, and until Congress can admit the real world exists, nothing can change,” O’Mara added.

Another Calvert opponent, Democrat Regina Marston, also criticized the congressman’s comments.

“Congressman Calvert’s apathetic response to the rampant mass shootings by domestic terrorists and the overall increase in gun violence in the U.S. is frankly shocking,” said Marston, who also is running against Calvert. “His fallback position of blaming the lack of religion, video games, and societal breakdowns is symptomatic of a much bigger issue: he is out of touch with his constituents and has been for many years.”

Calvert, who in 2014 said the Isla Vista mass shooting “highlights the shortcomings of our mental health system,” cited in an email a policy statement on “virtual violence” by the American Association of Pediatrics, which stated: “A sizable majority of media researchers both in pediatrics and psychology believe that existing data show a significant link between virtual violence and aggression.”

The idea that video games factor into mass shootings is “a myth that is entirely unsupported by evidence,” said Christopher J. Ferguson, who focuses on video game violence as a psychology professor at Stetson University in Florida.

“At this point the evidence, from multiple data sources, is very clear that action-oriented video games play no role in mass shootings,” he wrote in an email. “Research studies find little evidence that playing such games is a risk factor for youth aggression, mass homicide perpetrators aren’t particularly inclined to play violent games, and there’s no correlation between action game consumption and violence either in the U.S. or cross-nationally.”

During his quarter-century in Congress, gun rights groups have given Calvert almost $162,000 in campaign contributions, the most of any California congressman, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

“My views on guns and violence are shaped by my experiences and the feedback I receive from both the gun-owning and non-gun-owning constituents I represent,” Calvert wrote in the email.

“However, I do not think stripping the rights of law-abiding citizens and confiscating guns, as some on the left have proposed, does anything to solve mass shootings. Outlawing the possession of weapons would only ensure that criminals have guns, while law-abiding citizens are left defenseless.”

Calvert added that he voted for legislation to improve the federal background check system on gun purchases, as well as bans on “bump stocks” that allow semi-automatic rifles to fire faster.