On Friday, I was sitting at the computers at the Douglas Library still shocked at the horrific events in El Paso, Texas and Dayton, Ohio, helping a student write a paper, when I hear six young boys playing war games on the city’s computer’s shouting “I killed him”, “I got the gun!” “Shoot him!”
I was stunned and another adult looked at me and said, “They are desensitized to the violence due to these war games that glorifies death and violence.” Think that has a connection to the shootings? These death games? The boys, 4 to 10 years of age, had no adult supervision, and were literally obsessed by the games.
I was horrified at the screaming and approached the librarian asking for her to stop the violent talk. She was wonderful and asked the boys to talk to her. She was kind and made the kids realize that their behavior was not only disturbing to patrons, but inappropriate in a place of learning.
We don’t need another study. We need to stop encouraging violence via computer games.
Loretto Jones,
Juneau
• My Turns and Letters to the Editor represent the view of the author, not the view of the Juneau Empire.