Senator links video games, assault rifles and Sandy Hook shootings

Speaking yesterday at a press conference in which a group of Democratic Senators and Representatives announced a proposed assault weapons ban, Connecticut Sen. Christopher Murphy drew a link between video games, "assault weapons" and Adam Lanza, the Sandy Hook Elementary school shooter.

"I think there's a question," Murphy said, "as to whether he would have driven in his mother's car in the first place if he didn't have access to a weapon that he saw in video games that gave him a false sense of courage about what he could do that day."

Sen. Murphy went on to say that, had the proposed "assault weapons" ban been in effect on the day of the shootings, "there would be little girls and boys alive today." You can listen to Sen. Murphy's comments about 42 minutes into this CSPAN video.

Sen. Murphy's is the latest in a string of questions and accusations raised about possible links between video games and violence in the wake of the shooting. Yesterday, West Virginia Sen. Jay Rockefeller's reintroduced legislation that would direct the National Academy of Sciences to conduct a "comprehensive study and investigation of the connection between violent video games and violent video programming and harmful effects on children." Earlier this month, President Obama directed the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to conduct research into links between "video games, 'media images' and violence."

You can find more of Polygon's coverage of the various proposals and initiatives taken in the wake of the Dec. 14, 2012 shootings in our storystream below.