Over the weekend, a 22-year-old man went on a stabbing, shooting, and vehicular rampage in Isla Vista, California that left seven people dead (including himself from a reportedly self-inflicted gunshot wound) and 13 others injured.

Cultural historian Richard Slotkin talks about Newtown shooter Adam Lanza in a rather lengthy interview with journalist Bill Moyers. The interview touches upon some other topics as well, but a fair bit of it is spent discussing Adam Lanza's behavior, his fascination with guns and violent video games, and his deep study of school shootings dating back to the late 1800's.

On this week's show hosts Andrew Eisen and E. Zachary Knight talk about the latest GamePolitics poll, players being banned from the video and chat services one Xbox One and the PS4, the preliminary Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting report, and Scale Labs claiming copyright on all those Walking Dead videos. Download Episode 79 now: SuperPAC Episode 78 (1 hour, 5 minutes) 75 MB.

An indie game developed by a man from Sydney, Australia is getting national attention this week because of its controversial subject matter: the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting that happened almost a year ago in Newtown, Connecticut. Politicians, journalists, parents of victims, Connecticut state officials, and even the National Rifle Association have weighed in on the game, "The Slaying of Sandy Hook Elementary."

It must be hard for the mainstream media to continue with the hypothetical that Washington Navy Yard shooter Aaron Alexis was heavily influenced by playing violent video games in the wake of new evidence released by the FBI on Wednesday. The FBI released a note written by Alexis prior to his shooting rampage that led to the killing of 12 people. His rampage ended when police shot and killed him. In the note, Alexis says that ultra-low frequency attacks had unsettled him enough to kill:

Christopher J. Ferguson, chair of the psychology department at Stetson University goes head-to-head with Dr. Brad Bushman, professor of communication and psychology at Ohio State University in two different editorials on CNN.com.

An article on ABC News tries to determine how violent video games fit in with real-world violent behavior. The report focuses on what Michael Ritrovato said about Washington Navy Yard Shooter Aaron Alexis' obsessive gaming habits.

Ritrovato, who has been name checked in a number of stories for these comments, tells ABC News that the former Navy reservist was obsessed with military-style video games:

The new Fox & Friends host, Elisabeth Hasselbeck (formerly the lone conservative on ABC's The View) suggested during the Tuesday morning show that "the left" was trying to make Monday’s mass shooting at the Washington Navy Yard about "gun control." Instead she pointed out that the country doesn't need a national registry for guns, it needs one for to track video game purchases.

In a new report, the conservative news network tries to link video games to gunman Aaron Alexis, who killed 12 people before police shot him dead at the Navy Shipyard in Washington where he worked earlier this week. While the report goes into great detail about the gunman's troubled past - including issues with mental illness and multiple run-ins with police, the focus of the Fox story is about his video game habits.

Government Security News offers an interesting story on a recent speech given by Lt. Col. Dave Grossman, who you may recall is the man associated with "Killology" and the man who often refers to first-person shooter video games as "murder simulators." No doubt emboldened by recent shootings in the United States, Grossman is probably finding it easier to spread his anti-video game message.

Update: Keen-eyed readers may have noticed that two items among all the crap that was hauled out of the Lanza residence were an "NRA certificate for Nancy Lanza" and a copy of the "NRA Guide to the Basics of Pistol Shooting."  This has lead many to assume that the Lanza's were NRA members.  As such, the National Rifle Association was quick to release the following statement:

Senator Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) pounced on a New York Daily News report published on Monday about the investigation into Sandy Hook Elementary school shooter Adam Lanza. Rockefeller, who has long been a critic of video games has been pushing for a study on the impact of violent video games on children, said that most of the popular titles played in America contain “often obscene levels of violence."

Rockefeller also hinted that it might be time for something the government enjoys doing - some good old fashioned censorship:

Lieutenant J. Paul Vance of the Connecticut State Police issued a brief statement yesterday in response to a New York Daily News report detailing particulars of the Sandy Hook Elementary school shooting that occurred last December. An anonymous source attending a law enforcement seminar in New York leaked supposed information from the investigation about the shooter, Adam Lanza, claiming that he had a spread sheet filled will data from other mass shootings.

During a panel discussion on CBS' popular Sunday political show Face the Nation, former FBI profiler Mary Ellen O’Toole said that politicians rushing to blame video games for the shooting in Newtown, Connecticut are misguided because the evidence does not support their theory.

"It’s my experience that video games do not cause violence," O’Toole told CBS News."However, it is one of the risk variables when we do a threat assessment for the risk to act out violently."

Yesterday Congressman Mike Thompson (D-CA) released "A Comprehensive Plan That Reduces Gun Violence and Respects the 2nd Amendment Rights of Law-Abiding Americans," which details the recommendations of the " Congressional Gun Violence Prevention Task Force." While there are plenty of recommendations on guns and curbing gun violence, mental health issues and school safety, there is a portion of the report dedicated to violent media.

On this week's show hosts Andrew Eisen and E. Zachary Knight talk about the President's call for research on the effects of violent video games on youth (as they related to gun violence) two horribly conceived state laws related to video games, and the latest GamePolitics poll. Download it now: SuperPAC Episode 37 (1 hour, 1 minute) 56.1 MB.

According to a Polygon report, the video game industry executives and other interested parties that met with Vice-President Joe Biden's Gun Violence Commission walked away feeling that they were unscathed, and that Biden was looking for general input on media and violence.

The International Game Developers Association (IGDA) Anti-Censorship and Social Issues Committee Chairman Daniel Greenberg has written a letter to Vice-President Joe Biden calling for more studies and offering the organization's assistance and expertise as the Vice-President's task force on gun violence meets with various groups about solutions to the problem on mass shootings in America.

In an interview on CBS This Morning Republican New Jersey Governor Chris Christie said that a frank discussion on a myriad of issues will be the only way to seriously curb gun violence in America beyond a discussion about gun control. That discussion should include violence found in some video games, substance abuse, and mental illness.

Reuters is reporting that the National Rifle Association, victims of gun violence, gun safety groups, gun owners, and unnamed representatives from the film and video game industries will meet with Vice-President Joe Biden's task force set up to come up with solutions and answers in the wake of the Sandy Hook elementary school shootings in Newtown, Connecticut that resulted in the death of 20 children and six adults.

Drawing conclusions based on a lack of evidence is not mutually exclusive to politicians in America and in Europe, as evidenced in this Peninsula report. According to the publication, one politician in the Philippines is indirectly blaming video and arcade games for the recent rash of shootings in the country.

The Entertainment Merchants Association (EMA) has sent a letter to Vice President Joe Biden offering its input on the effort he is leading to develop policy recommendations to address the Newtown, Connecticut tragedy that resulted in the death of 20 children and six adults.

Final Update: A number of things about our previous story are proving to be erroneous as more details about the shooting today in Newtown, Connecticut comes to light. Here is what we know so far:

Adam Lanza, and not Ryan Lanza (his older brother) has been identified as the shooter. His brother Ryan Lanza, who lives in Hoboken, New Jersey is being questioned by police. Lanza's father, who lives in Connecticut, was similarly questioned, one of the law enforcement officials said.