With a major question mark still hanging over the possibility of meaningful gun reform, President Donald Trump may be turning his attention to regulating video game makers instead.
The commander-in-chief will [reportedly](http://thehill.com/policy/technology/376836-white-house-to-hold-meeting-with-video-game-industry-on-thursday) meet with industry executives on Thursday to discuss their role in preventing violent behavior.
But New York Magazine Select All Associate Editor Madison Malone Kircher says game makers are not the problem.
“Studies have shown there really is no connection between violent video games and violent actions,” she told Cheddar Monday. “The American Psychological Association came out a year ago and said to politicians and to the media [to] stop equating the two. There’s a link to a rise in slight aggression, but there’s insufficient evidence to say that these games lead to violent gun deaths.”
In a meeting with survivors of last month’s Parkland, Fla., shooting and other attacks, Trump suggested first-person shooter games and other seemingly violent content should be subject to a ratings system. One does already exist.
And Malone Kircher says Thursday’s confab is unlikely to result in more constraints on a system that’s already so highly regulated.
“It’s a pretty stringent system as it is now,” she said. “This has been through the Supreme Court. California in 2011 ruled that you can continue to sell these games to kids, and that was fine.”
For the full interview, [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/inside-trumps-flip-flop-on-gun-reform).
In a post-election press conference, President Trump vacillated between subdued and combative as he called Tuesday's election ー in which Democrats took control of the House and several pivotal governorships ー a "very close-to-complete victory."
The Democrats may not have gotten quite the blue wave they were hoping for ー but for women in politics, Election Day was an indisputable success. "I think the night was better than you thought it would be going in. I'm seeing something like a pink tsunami, compared to that Democratic blue wave," Bustle senior political correspondent Erin Delmore told Cheddar on Wednesday.
Microsoft will continue to provide technology to U.S. agencies and the military, despite the objections raised by employees over how the products are being used, specifically with regard to immigration and border control. "We will be proactive in using our voice," said Microsoft President Brad Smith, speaking to Cheddar from the 2018 Web Summit in Lisbon, Portugal. "We think we'll be more persuasive if we're engaged than if we withdraw."
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The 2018 Midterms may well go down in U.S. history as an election of firsts, with historic wins for Muslims, women, and LGBTQ candidates.
Michigan became the first Midwestern state to fully legalize recreational marijuana on Tuesday ー one of four states with marijuana-related legislation on the ballot in the 2018 midterms. Marijuana was one of the key issues up for review on multiple state ballots on Election Day Tuesday alongside criminal justice reform.
Americans woke up on Wednesday to a different political landscape ー if not the blue wave Democrats had hoped for. On the strength of female candidates and first-time voters, the Democrats successfully flipped the House of Representatives, gaining at least 23 seats, with more than a dozen yet to be called, according to the latest race calls from the Associated Press as of Wednesday morning.
Cheddar is following the election returns as they come in.
Political fixer-turned VC Bradley Tusk doesn't think it's sufficient to just bring voters to the polls ー he wants to bring the polls to them. "We know, fundamentally, democracy works when a lot of people vote, and it really doesn't work when very few people vote," Tusk told Cheddar on Tuesday.
The nation may get greener on Tuesday night. "There's a lot more senate and congressional races in which marijuana has become an issue than ever before," Cannabis Voter Project Director Sam D'Arcangelo told Cheddar's CannaBiz on Tuesday. "Marijuana now more than ever has become an issue that politicians are talking about."
