Ok, any non-geeks might as well move on, cause I'm gonna get really nerdy here. D&D came out in the 70's, under the company TSR (Tactical Studies Rules), which was founded by a man named Gary Gygax. Later on, Gygax was forced out of the loop in his own company. D&D got more and more popular, and TSR produced several other games; the Top Secret spy game, the Gangbusters mafia 20's game, and the Star Frontiers space adventures game. By 82 or 83, D&D was so popular they ran a cartoon series based on the game rules with the same name.
D&D is still alive and well today, and is up to its third edition (fourth technically, but the newest one is affectionately called 3.5, they just revised the third edition). Its no longer printed by TSR though, they got bought out by Wizards of the Coast (which is the company behind the collectable card trading game Magic: The Gathering) in the late 90s, 98 I think. Not sure who actually owns what at this point, cause I think Hasbro toy company bought Wizards of the Coast or vice versa, as well.
As to the "D&D makes kids kill people" theme, there are 2 main incidents that are responsible for this: One is the story of college kid James Dallas Egbert III as told in the book "The Dungeon Master". He was severely depressed, possibly bipolar, and went down in the steam tunnels under the college to kill himself. This became the first urban legend about D&D, and perversions of his story began circulating all over, along with rumors that D&D players like to play 'live action' in the woods, in caves, in secret basement complexes, etc. The other reason was a really hideous movie that starred Tom Hanks in what was probably his first role ever, "Mazes and Monsters". In it, one of the players in a gaming group (depicted by Hanks) slowly begins to lose it, and D&D becomes his schizoid alternate reality, complete with a bit where he gets confused and wanders about in the subway system, nearly getting killed by a dragon subway train.
If you've ever played D&D, and thumbed your nose at all those stupid stories about kids becoming psychos because of D&D, or if you just like a good laugh, here's a really humorous link:
http://www.cybermoonstudios.com/8bitDandD.html
