Correction appended

Governments across the country are debating measures to prevent massacres like that which occurred in Newtown, Conn. late last year. While D.C. already has strict gun laws—including bans on high-capacity magazines that some gun control advocates want instituted nationwide—U.S. Attorney Ron MachenRon Moten, a Ward 7 activist and ally of former Mayor Adrian Fenty, wrote in a Washington Post op-ed in late December that he wants the city’s legislators to act on violent video games:

Now we have seen the horrific massacre in Newtown, Conn., and we’re having the same conversation all over again. For District residents, the violence displayed in Newtown is all too familiar. In 2010, five young people were killed and nine wounded in the South Capitol Street massacre, only a few miles from where our president resides. Data show that murder is down in the District, but this is misleading to some degree. Since 2005, thousands have fallen victim to assaults, stab wounds and gunshots — all of which our children act out daily in video games that grow more violent all the time.

And yet some continue to argue that our violence-infested entertainment cannot possibly influence an individual to commit acts of terror. They are wrong.

In the op-ed, Moten says he wants the D.C. Council to again consider a bill that would make it harder for minors to buy explicit and violent video games. In 2005, a majority of the city’s councilmembers backed a bill introduced by then-Councilmember Adrian Fenty that would have levied fines on retailers who sold such games to minors, but it floundered over constitutional concerns. A watered-down alternative was passed a year later that established a fund to educate parents on violent and sexually explicit video games.

“It’s time for the District’s legislators to bring back the bill ensuring that parents and merchants are obligated to keep these games out of the hands — and minds — of our children. Additionally, we must ensure that every child in America who needs mental health services gets them, while also stopping them from self-medicating through violent games. Remember, hurt people hurt people. Let’s all be responsible and act before the next massacre,” Moten concluded.

Correction: This post originally reported that the column that appeared in The Washington Post was written by Ron Machen, the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia. It was written by Ron Moten, the founder of the anti-violence group Peaceoholics.