Are video games as bad as some people make them to be?

Video games have been taking a blow left and right from both the media and parents, for teaching our kids violence. Personally, I think that if you believe that video games are evil, then you need to stop buying them for timmy or jenny (made up names) and place security camaras in there rooms so you know what they are doing at ny given moment. I do not dislike people who have their own opinions about the gaming industry, but you can not just point the finger at someone for doing something because they saw it in a video game. I understand that parents may get upset exposing their children to these things, but video games don't MAKE anyone do anything. It may give kids the IDEA of ways to do something, but it doesn't come out and say "OK timmy, I want you to go down to the gun store, then go shoot some random people on the street.". Now many of you might be thinking of a certain game series that does just that. . . Grand Theft Auto. First off, I played GTA and to be honest, the only reason its taking so much crap for "inspiring" violence is because it gives the player freedom to do what he/she wants to in a modern society. Secondly, in my personal opinion, the game relieve stress, because if i get mad, I just play that game for awhile and I will forget why I was mad. "Well what about the hot coffee incident?", is another popular question I hear a lot. People need to understand that Rockstar isn't responsible for this, a hacker was by unlocking the code and putting it up for download online. " Well what about all those games with blood and guts in it? Yea, What now smart guy?" Every video game out there is rated by the ESRB, and on this rating they put down the why the rating is what it was. Unfortunetly, parents never read these at all (well a majority anyways) if they're buying timmy a rated M (mature) game at the age of 8, then it's their fault if they think that is the reason for his violence, but they blame the game and make a big thing out of it. So now, the rest of the gaming world suffers for it. Let me take an example, The Columbine Shooting. Now, they say that they have evidence that the kids involved with that said that video games gave them the idea. Let me point out one word from my last sentence, IDEA, meaning that the game didn't physically get up and started speaking to the students saying "Go get some guns and shoot up your school.". I have a question for you nay sayer's out there that think my last statement is wrong, Where did they get the guns in the first place? or how about the fact that they planned this whole thing without dropping any kind of hint to the parents. And in the end, parents blame the games. Former attourny Jack Thompson once said (and this is an actual quote ""Any letter from a video gamer like you would deepen his concern. Are you actually so confused that you think gamers have any influence on anyone? Gamers are considered by normal people to be cretins. Get used to it." If that is what the world wants to believe then let them, but don't place the blame on something without looking furthur into whatmay have been the real reason. Video games don't hurt people, but combined with a person who is unstable in their emotions (well just about anything combined with unstable emotions could end badly) could take ideas from the game and apply to real life, yet at the same time video games aren't real life. Just a thought.