Video games setting people up for violence

Sir, The shooting in the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown Connecticut was a terrible act of how a young man, obviously very distured and feeling he was a 'nobody', got his 15 minutes of fame.

The gunman, identified as 20year-old Adam Lanza, was found dead in the school and the fact that he had the presence of mind to take his own life after shooting his mother and 26 others, 20 of whom were children, tells me he had the rationale to know right from wrong, good from evil.

The killer had the presence of mind to attack an easy target, to shoot defenceless teachers and innocent little children. He had the presence of mind not to walk into a police station and open fire on people who could and would defend themselves. He had the rationale to know being shot by the police was not going to put his name in lights.

Slaughter of the innocents seems to be the trend by young disturbed men who want the world to know their name. There is no doubt that access to firearms, especial assault weapons and handguns in America, is quite easy and I have to think if guns were as easy to access here we would have the same problem.

But guns are only part of the problem. We see the aggression by young men every day. It is nothing new to hear of a young man being kicked to death in an unprovoked attack on our streets week after week. We have to ask ourselves where does this aggression come from?

In my opinion some vulnerable young people in their teens, who have uncontrolled access to violent interactive computer games for long periods, may be conditioned to ‘positive reinforcement’. I may be that this is a reinforcement that automatically kicks in when a young man, under the influence of alcohol or drugs, finds himself in a volatile situation.

I don't pretend to be a psychologist but I am qualified in animal behavior and in my opinion is it possible we may be training our young people, without knowing, it to grow up to be killers. Sincerely, James Pembroke, Farranfore.

■ Memorial to victims of the Sandy Hook massacre.