After the tragic events in Erfurt last week, where a recently expelled pupil went on a gun rampage and killed 16 people, German opposition leader Edmund Stoiber is calling for a ban on violent games.

Apparently when the expelled pupil, Robert Steinhauser, carried out the attack wearing a black mask and dark clothes. He spent much of his time playing computer games, his favourite being Counterstrike.

This was a very tragic event, and I think the reasons behind it need to be analysed so that at the very least the authorities can try to stop something like this happening in the future. There is no way I want to get into a gun-lobby debate as this is not what this article is about. Here I think Stoiber is being too reactionary, what if Steinhauser constantly watched the Simpsons and copied Itchy and Scratchy?

I know in the UK, about 10 years ago a similar thing was mooted when two 10 year olds murdered a toddler after playing violent games, but such a view was subsequently rejected.

But in a liberal society can you really stop something like this happening by banning a contributing factor (which is mostly innocent). Shouldn’t states instead try to identify such social problems in education before anything like this happens again?