An Illinois lawmaker wants to ban the sale of violent video games, including Grand Theft Auto V, following a surge in carjackings in Chicago. State Rep. Marcus Evans introduced a bill to amend a 2012 law meant to prevent children from purchasing video games that are deemed too violent.
The new language would ban the sale of video games to anybody, not just children, that depict "psychological harm." The bill would also change the legal definition of "violent video game" to include any game in which a player has the ability to "control a character within the video game that is encouraged to perpetuate human-on-human violence in which the player kills or otherwise causes serious physical or psychological harm to another human or an animal."
According to the Chicago Sun-Times, police in Chicago responded to 218 carjackings in the month of January. The city is on pace to see 2,600 carjackings in 2021. Evans claims the spike in carjackings can be traced to video games like GTA. He pointed out the many of the suspects are teens, many of who are too young to drive.
"Grand Theft Auto and other violent video games are getting in the minds of our young people and perpetuating the normalcy of carjacking," Evans said. "Carjacking is not normal, and carjacking must stop."
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