Town holds violent video game return

SOUTHINGTON, Conn., Jan. 3 (UPI) -- A community group in Connecticut said it is holding a violent video game return event in response to the deadly shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown.

SouthingtonSOS, a group started after the shooting as a way to help others in need, has scheduled the video game return for Jan. 12 in Southington, Conn., WFSB-TV, Hartford, Conn., reported Wednesday.

The group will accept violent video games in exchange for gift certificates donated by the Southington Chamber of Commerce, the station said.

Members of the group said they do not believe violent video games were the reason Adam Lanza, 20, killed his mother in her sleep at their home Dec. 14 before he went to the nearby elementary school in Newtown, killing 20 children and six adults before killing himself.

But, "there is ample evidence that violent video games, along with violent media of all kinds, including TV and movies portraying story after story showing a continuous stream of violence and killing, has contributed to increasing aggressiveness, fear, anxiety and is desensitizing our children to acts of violence including bullying," the group said in a release.