In science, you form a hypothesis to explain an event and then test it against the available evidence to see if your logic is sound; if it’s not, the hypothesis fails and you discard it and form another one to attempt to explain what’s happening. The hypothesis being put forward by several politicians, including President Trump, is that video games – in concert with mental health issues – contribute to the recent rise in mass shooting incidents in the United States, specifically with regard to the shootings in Gilroy, California, Dayton, Ohio, and El Paso, Texas that collectively claimed 34 lives and left 66 more wounded in the span of less than a week. But even a quick look at the rest of the world disproves this hypothesis so quickly and obviously that it’s hard to believe it was even suggested with sincerity.

Even if you’re skeptical of the established science that draws no clear connection between games and violence, the United States does not exist in a vacuum. This means we can look at similar countries with similar cultures and gaming habits to see if this hypothesis bears out. If games were, in fact, the cause of America’s epidemic of mass shootings, then logically they would have the same effect on any country where those same games are played – which is nearly everywhere. Spoilers: they do not, and America’s frequency of mass shootings is unique in the world. This effectively rules games out as the cause.

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Countries like Canada, The United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand are all immediately comparable to the US in that they all share a common language, and to some degree all share a large amount of popular culture. All of them have a large gaming market, and here at IGN we see significant readership from those countries. And yet, while none of them is completely free from horrific gun massacres (New Zealand being the most recent victim of a racially motivated attack) the rates of mass shootings per capita in all of those countries are dramatically lower than that of the United States.

“ Even a quick look at the rest of the world disproves this hypothesis quickly and obviously.

the NRA successfully lobbied Congress to pass a law in 1996 preventing the Centers for Disease Control from studying the effects of gun violence. But others have taken up the cause: The Gun Violence Archive is a nonprofit effort to track incidents within the US and classifies a “mass shooting” as an event in which four or more people are killed or wounded (which is a more valuable metric than the number of fatalities, which many sources use), and counts the current number at 255. This was the source of the number from the viral tweet that contrasted the number of 2019 shootings in the US with 24 other countries, most of which it lists as zero. Though it’s difficult to verify that with comparable stats for countries such as Switzerland or Italy, the mere fact that few detailed statistics have been compiled indicates a much lower rate than the US.

Searching The Guardian, a UK-based news site, for gun crime reveals only a handful of incidents this year, all of which involve single victims – and that’s for a country of 66 million. Canada (population 37 million) has had more mass shootings than the circulated number of just one incident this year when you factor in non-fatal shootings, including four people killed in British Columbia in April, a June incident in Toronto where four were injured during a Raptors victory celebration, and another just last night where five were injured at a nightclub. But even multiplied by 10 to reflect the population difference, that’s a drop in the bucket next to America’s staggering number.

The numbers on this viral tweet might not be 100% accurate for all countries, but it's close enough to draw a sharp contrast.

Beyond English-speaking countries, we can look at others in Europe and Asia, none of which show the same pattern of mass shootings. Most notably Japan, which is widely known as one of (if not the singular) most gaming-friendly cultures in the world, has effectively zero mass shootings in a country of 128 million. Even factoring in Japan’s mass stabbing incidents (there’s been one this year, in which two were killed), the per-capita rate of these attacks is nowhere near that of the United States.

“ Mental health is also an element of the plague of shootings, but again, America is not alone.

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For these reasons and others, this hypothesis simply doesn’t stand up to scrutiny, and is clearly an attempt at scapegoating video games for the problem when there are far more obvious culprits. Specifically, absurdly lax gun laws that make access to extremely deadly weapons (complete with high-capacity magazines) and piles of ammunition trivial even for those with a history of disturbing behavior, combined with an increase in overtly racist and divisive rhetoric coming from influential figures ranging from YouTubers to the president of the United States himself. Seeing some of that same language used by Donald Trump referenced in the disturbed manifestos authored by recent mass shooters makes it painfully clear where at least some of these criminals are drawing inspiration and confidence.Those are the problems that need the focus of our lawmakers in the wake of tragedies like this. Trotting out the same tired argument is a cowardly attempt to avoid taking meaningful action on the real issues that might actually have an effect on the rate of mass shootings in the United States.

Dan Stapleton is IGN's Reviews Editor. You can follow him on Twitter to hear gaming rants and lots of random Simpsons references.