Red’s Corner is a weekly column by Paul "ReDeYe" Chaloner released every Thursday exclusively at Cadred.

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Tim Kretschmer may not be a name many of you are a familiar with, but the recently deceased 17 year old German is the latest gunman to murder people at a school shooting and then turn the gun on himself. He also happened to be a bit of a gamer and after some startling “coincidences” were reported by newspapers the day after the shootings, video games once again came under the spotlight.

For the record, Mr Kretschmer killed 15 people at his former school using a 9mm hand gun before escaping the scene using a hostage to drive him away. He was later cornered by Police and shot and wounded before he turned the gun on himself. That he is no longer here to tell people why he completed this atrocious act is part of the problem, because in the aftermath of this tragic set of events, people are always quick to look for answers and even quicker to blame the easiest target. In this case, it fell to video games despite a plethora of other likely reasons being put forward by sensible people.

Now before we go any further, people will come to this site, read the column and say “ah but of course Mr Chaloner will defend video gaming, he supports it, its obvious he would be saying this”. Obvious perhaps, but I would prefer to look at this in an impassioned, unbiased and logical way before being simply rejected as a blind supporter of video games. If I was presented with hard evidence that video games were strictly causing people to run amok in schools killing innocent people, I would be more than happy to make a stand against those publishers causing the “problem”. I do after all, have three young children myself and I am not insensitive to the loss of life taken by another.

Far Cry 2: Making kids shoot down choppers with deagles since 2008

In this terrible case there are a huge number of factors going on, which likely, collectively played a part in the death of 15 people and the gun man himself. International newspapers irresponsibly reported that it “could” be video gaming due to this scheming murderer having played Far Cry 2 the night before. The Times reported that he had “spent from 7.30pm to 9.40pm playing Far Cry 2, in which the player takes on the role of the killer.” Sadly, for my defence against those blaming video games, there was more “evidence” that what he carried out at the school had more than just an echo of the game.

The Times also reported that Kretschner hijacked a car (something you have to do in Far Cry 2), shot people in the head (apparently Far Cry 2 rewards the player for doing this) and he wore camouflage gear (like the one used in the game). He used a Beretta 92, the very same gun shown in “vivid detail” according to The Times in Far Cry 2. I don’t deny all of these things together make it look like he was heavily influenced by the game, but that is no different to being influenced by a violent film or perhaps having a father who keeps guns and has trained his son how to use them from an early age. I still cant see the link between Far Cry 2 and him then going on a gun rampage around his old school, unless of course I missed the German school that featured in Far Cry 2…

It also emerged that he had played Tactical Ops and Counter Strike and according to one Newspaper he had recently spent more and more time playing the latter. Ah, that must be it then; he shot all of those people because he played more Counter Strike recently. It could also be because Tactical Ops is so terrible. I have played it and it made me feel like murdering my cat it was so bad, but killing 15 people due to it being bad seems a little far fetched.

Ignoring my obvious facetiousness, what really was to blame? Sadly we will never know and instead we are left to speculate, but surely intelligent, high profile people don’t have to jump on the video game bandwagon without looking at all of the (far more) logical explanations?

For example, let us take a look at the lads’ upbringing. It appears through various reports that he was, for want of a better phrase, rather spoilt as a child. His father even arranged for him to play an exhibition match with a top Table Tennis player for his 11th birthday. Many who knew him called him “unremarkable”, indeed, even his grand parents (the only family members to go on public record since the shooting) described him as someone who “didn't have many friends, I suppose because he was such a quiet type. But he was a friendly person, if you know what I mean."

Slightly more worrying and possibly (just a hunch here) playing a big part in the reason he started shooting people was his father teaching him at an early age how to use hand guns. His father had taken him to the local gun club shooting range as early as age 8. It may also have had something to do with him stealing ammo and a gun from his fathers’ vast arsenal of weapons. Obviously, teaching him how to use a weapon doesn’t give him a motive to kill people, no more than a video game does in fact, but it does give him the ability and skill to do so. Who knows what would have happened had he not had the training, perhaps he would still have killed people, but it’s unlikely it would have been so many.

Perhaps he was also enraged that he had been rejected by a girl at a New Years Eve party, after all, she was one of the first people he shot dead. He is also said to have warned people via a chat room that he was about to embark on a killing spree at a local school using the nickname “JawsPredator1”. It was also the school he had previously attended, offering many other potential motives.

Who's who? Tim Kretschmer (left) strikes a resemblance to Angry German Kid of YouTube fame

I guess though, with so many links to video games and the Internet, its no surprise to see people blaming them both for this horrific set of crimes, but any sane man would look at the other evidence too, especially as it’s far too big to ignore.

It doesn’t help having videos on YouTube called “angry German kid” beating up his PC over a game of counter strike. Although just for fun and not to be taken too seriously, the chap in the video does bear a striking resemblance to the shooter which is rather worrying.

Gaming and the Internet are soft targets with so few people ready to defend them, unless, like me, they have some form of vested interest. Fortunately, there are still some sane people who can look at this with dispassionate objectivity.

Walter Hollstein, a sociologist working with the Council of Europe, told The Times. “It’s nonsense to assume they turn adolescents into school shooters. A variety of factors, such as helplessness, anger and loss of control, must come together for them to become the trigger, but the games themselves don’t make anyone a killer.” Hallelujah.

Despite a hugely successful and popular eSport industry in Germany, the government have been less than helpful towards the video game industry over the years, but perhaps Germany’s law makers should be worrying more about gun control than whether a game shows red blood. They should be looking at social responsibility issues rather than trying to ban YouTube and perhaps giving simple parenting lessons, like don’t teach your children how to use a gun at the age of 8. Easy after the event maybe, but isn’t that just common sense?

Yet again then, it appears that to sell more newspapers, the headline grabbing attention hits on video games without just cause. No shock there for us, but little compensation to the families who have lost loved ones either.

Whilst I cant begin to understand the pain the victims families are in right now, I am sure they are looking for answers but I will contest that despite the grief they are suffering right now, they simply wont find any solace in blaming video games or the Internet and would implore them to not have the wool pulled over their eyes by a government hell bent on destroying an industry which was built by a different generation and that they don’t fully understand.