She tells him that she is busy, and to ask his father. His father is also busy so he asks his brother. His brother kicks him out of the room because he doesn't have time to answer his stupid questions, so he goes downtown and sees a bum in an alley.

He asks the bum, "Who's Jesus Christ?" and the bum replies, "Well, I am."

The boy, not believing the bum, asks for proof. So the bum takes the boy into the bar down the street and takes him inside. They walk up to the bar and the bartender exclaims, "Jesus Christ, are you in here again?"

Back in April, Seung-Hui Cho killed 32 people on the campus of Virginia Tech University with several media pundits claiming he trained using shoot-'em-up video games, effectively blaming video games for the 32 deaths. I was far from the only one that scoffed at the very notion. Video games for me are, if nothing else, a healthy way to release tension and anger, not build them. I think most folks that play violent video games feel the same way. They allow you to not only escape the daily grind, but vent frustration caused by it. What could be better? Vindication.

Virginia Governor Tim Kaine offered just that by commissioning a review panel into the background of Cho, which found that Cho rarely played any games at all, let alone violent ones. Here's a complete story from a gaming site about this report; the personal reaction at the bottom is the real key:

Report: Virginia Tech Massacre Unrelated to Games

According to a review panel put together by Virginia Governor Tim Kaine, the shooter during the events of April 16 wasn't really a "gamer" at all. During Cho's childhood, he played games like Sonic the Hedgehog, and during his college experience, he didn't play games at all. Revealing details inside...

In the final and very through report by the review panel commissioned by Virginia Governor Tim Kaine, it was determined that videogames were not a significant contributing factor at all in the April 16, 2007 shootings at Virginia Tech. Though the shooter Seung-Hui Cho's young life was marked by the difficulties of young immigrant, violent videogames were not his forte.

"He was enrolled in a Tae Kwon Do program for awhile, watched TV, and played video games like Sonic the Hedgehog," reads the study. "None of the video games were war games or had violent themes. He liked basketball and had a collection of figurines and remote controlled cars."

The study goes on to make other observations about his later college years. Despite obvious access to either PC or videogames, Cho was not seen engaging in gaming activities at all.

"Cho went to bed early and got up early, so his roommate just left him alone and gave him his space. The only activities Cho engaged in were studying, sleeping, and downloading music. He never saw him play a video game, which he thought strange since he and most other students play them. One of the suitemates mentioned that he saw Cho working out at McCommis Hall and saw him return to the room from time to time in workout attire. Cho kept his side of the room very neat. Nothing appeared to be abnormal -- no knives, guns, chains, etc.

"Cho's roommate never saw him play video games. He would get movies from the library and watch them on his laptop," says the study later. "The roommate never saw what they were, but they always seemed dark. Cho would listen to and download heavy metal music. Someone wrote heavy metal lyrics on the walls of their suite in the fall, and then in the halls in the spring. Several of the students believed Cho was responsible because the words were similar to the lyrics Cho posted on Facebook."

The full study can be read here. Thanks to GamePolitics for the tip.

Editor's Opinion: For myself and rest of the extended family of Virginia Tech, April 16th was a trying day to say the least. It struck many of us to our core, not thinking something like this could be possible in the quiet town of Blacksburg.

It made the time more difficult on a personal level to read accusations leveled at gaming for being a cause, if not THE primary cause, of Cho's rampage. It was the latest chapter in the book written by certain social crusaders and mainstream media to tar videogames as the source of all hooliganism.

This study shows that there are so many flawed assumptions that come from the knee jerk reactions of blowhards like Dr.Phil, Lyndon LaRouche and others. Cho had many problems, feeling isolated and social withdraw, while dealing with depression and driven to hopelessness due to perceived social pressures. What he felt motivated to do was as much a tragedy in this situation as anything else, and simply saying that it was driven by playing videogames, listening to heavy metal music or watching violent movies is overly simplistic and unhelpful. The gaming industry will never receive an apology from those who falsely accused it of being responsible for this act, but we can only hope and pray that there will be a little more sense in the future when tragedies like this occur.