Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the current U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services, has once again found himself in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons. In a recent PBS interview (spotted by GameSpot), Kennedy claimed that video games and social media could be causes of gun violence in America. This comes from the same man who also believes HIV isn’t connected to AIDS, fluoride lowers IQ, and that vaccines cause autism.
The Tired Scapegoat
Blaming video games for violence is an argument almost as old as video games themselves. Yet decades of research show no credible link between violent video games and violent behavior. The actual causes of school shootings—systemic inequality, lack of mental health services, and the widespread availability of guns—are well-documented, but politically inconvenient. So, once again, the blame is shifted onto easy scapegoats.
Kennedy went further off the rails, falsely claiming that school shootings only began in the 1990s, reminiscing about an idyllic past where kids brought guns to school “and nothing bad ever happened.” In reality, school shootings were already happening by the 1950s, and the U.S. saw 100 school shootings in the 1960s alone, only slightly fewer than the 123 in the 1990s.
The trend has gotten worse in recent decades:
- 2000s: 87 deaths from school shootings
- 2010s: 263 deaths
- 2020s (so far): 216 deaths in just five years
The numbers are doubling each decade, making Kennedy’s historical revisionism not just dishonest but dangerous.
Dangerous Deflections
While Kennedy acknowledged that the U.S. has far more mass shootings than other countries with similar levels of gun ownership—a point Republicans usually deny—he immediately undermined himself by suggesting psychiatric drugs, video games, and social media might be to blame.
This is not just misinformation; it’s lethal misdirection. Psychiatric drugs are often a protective measure against violence, not a cause. By attacking psychiatric care and scapegoating harmless entertainment, Kennedy actively diverts attention away from meaningful gun reform and real public health solutions.
A Pattern of Conspiracies
Unfortunately, this is part of a broader pattern. Kennedy has previously claimed that COVID-19 was “ethnically targeted” to avoid infecting Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese people, spread pseudoscience about Wi-Fi causing “leaky brain,” and pushed misinformation on trans healthcare.
The fact that a man with such a conspiratorial worldview is in charge of America’s health policy is chilling. His comments on video games are not just ignorant—they are dangerous distractions that make it harder to address the real root causes of gun violence, leaving American children at risk in their classrooms.
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