Leave this one alone. People cause mass shootings, not video games or guns.
Scouts Out! Cavalry Ho!
Actually, guns can be used for legitimate and useful - life saving - purposes. Ultra violent and graphic games/movies/tv serve no useful purpose. At best, they are mindless time wasting “entertainment” (think bread and circuses) and there is no doubt they affect emotions and the mental state of those who indulge. Of course not everyone is affected the exact same way. R_Kangel makes some excellent points.
Whatever people “take in” with their sensory organs affects the mind and emtions - desires, fear, anger and so on. It’s not even debatable. It’s what people do with those thoughts and emotions that is their choice. But children and teenagers have little to no control or discrimination over their thoughts and desires.
It’s a long topic. But the bottom line is that yes, what people read/watch/listen to etc affects them in very deep ways. That is why advertising and propaganda work. And reading good, decent, uplifting literature has a different effect that junk or porn.
It’s just a simple law of nature. Humans are influenced from outside stimuli.
Should such ultra violent games etc be illegal? That’s another topic.
We’re so far off the cliff into depraved barbarity that debating whether such games etc should be illegal is as worthless as debating how many angels can dance on the head of a pin.