Vice President Joe Biden lead his gun policy task force into a meeting Friday with video game industry representatives, who defended their trade against blame for tragedies like the recent Connecticut school shooting.

According to the Associated Press, reps said violent crime had in fact fallen since the early 1990s even while the popularity of their products has steadily risen nationwide.

Biden said this wasn't about blaming any one party. “I come to this meeting with no judgment. You all know the judgments other people have made,” the vice president said at the start of Friday's meeting. “We’re looking for help.”

President Barack Obama appointed his second-in-command to head up the task force in an effort to find new approaches in diminishing gun violence around the U.S.

In an unfortunate choice of words, Biden said he was "shooting for Tuesday" to submit recommendations, going on to say, "We know that there is no silver bullet" in preventing future incidents like the December tragedy in Newtown.

Friday's meeting focused on the potentially dangerous influence of "first person shooter" games, following on the heels of a discussion Thursday with gun advocates.

From AFP: 

The vice president questioned whether there had been a "coarsening of our culture" over the years, but admitted he did not know the answer to the question.

Biden has been meeting all the "stakeholders" with interests in the guns issue, including victims of violence, law enforcement organizations, hunting groups and members of the gun lobby.

On Thursday, the National Rifle Association said that Biden cared more about stamping out gun rights than protecting school children after its representative attended a meeting with Biden.

"We were disappointed with how little this meeting had to do with keeping our children safe and how much it had to do with an agenda to attack the Second Amendment," the statement added. The Second Amendment to the US Constitution enshrines the right to bear arms.

Asked about the NRA's attitude, Biden said: "I thought we had a very straightforward, productive meeting."

On the other side of the debate, gun safety advocates are pushing for expanded background checks, which they say may be a more realistic solution than attempting to reinstate a ban on assault weapons. 

The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence said some 40 percent of gun sales happen with no background checks, such as at gun shows and by private sellers over the Internet or through classified ads.

“Our top policy priority is closing the massive hole in the background check system,” the group said.

While not backing off support for an assault weapons ban, some advocates said there could be broader political support for increasing background checks, in part because that could actually increase business for retailers and licensed gun dealers who have access to the federal background check system.

“The truth is that an assault weapons ban is a very important part of the solution — and it is also much tougher to pass,” said Mark Glaze, director of Mayors Against Illegal Guns.

[View the story "Task Force Takes On Video Games, Social Media Reacts" on Storify]

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