Charlie Kirk killing revives questions about radicalisation and gaming culture

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If Robinson does turn out to be a shooter radicalised through online gaming spaces, he would not be the first. Previous terrorist shootings in Christchurch (New Zealand), Halle (Germany), Baerum (Norway), and the US cities of Buffalo, El Paso and Poway were all carried out by radicalised young men who embraced online conspiracies and violent video games.

In each of these cases, the shooter attempted (and in all but the Poway shooting, succeeded) to live-stream the atrocities, as though emulating a first-person shooter game.

The global video game market is enormous, with an estimated value of almost US$300 billion (S$384 billion) in 2024.

As early as 2002, American neo-Nazi leader Matt Hale advised his followers that “if we can influence video games and entertainment, it will make people understand we are their friends and neighbours”.

Qn: 'Video games are a threat to society and should be banned.' Do you agree? (NYJC J2 MYE P1 2025)