NRA: Video games kill people, not guns. And here's our video game
First-person shooter for Second-Amendment drum bangers
Just weeks after the vice-president of the US National Rifle Association blamed video games for gun crime, the outspoken organisation has released an iPhone video game.
NRA: Practice Range is a first-person shooter available from the iTunes Store as a free app for iPads as well as Apple smartmobes. It incorporates a live feed of news on Second Amendment rights and safety tips for gun owners. It also boasts of 3D simulated target practice, described as "the most authentic experience possible".
"Safe and responsible ownership through fun challenges and realistic simulations", say creators
The shooting range "strikes the right balance of gaming and safety education", according to the software's description.
NRA's executive vice-president Wayne LaPierre last month drew criticism for linking gun crime to video games, rather than gun ownership, days after the Sandy Hook school massacre. At a press conference on 21 December he said:
Guns don’t kill people. Video games, the media and Obama’s budget kill people. […] There exists in this country, sadly, a callous, corrupt and corrupting shadow industry that sells and stows violence against its own people, through vicious, violent video games with names like Bulletstorm, Grand Theft Auto, Mortal Kombat and Splatterhouse.
Don't worry, Apple App Store censors, it's educational
The NRA said the inclusion of safety tips in the game, as seen above, turn the app into a helpful training tool for prospective gunmen rather than a hypocritical Doom descendant.
The lobbying organisation's critics argued that the release of the app derails the NRA's position that games are to blame for gun violence as American politicians and lobby groups wrestle over controls on firearms in the shadow of the Sandy Hook tragedy. The game was released near enough one month after Adam Lanza shot dead 20 children and 6 adults at the village primary school. ®
COMMENTS
An NRA spokespersons said...
"] There exists in this country, sadly, a callous, corrupt and corrupting shadow industry that sells and stows violence against its own people.. and we don't like having any competition for the role"
Re: An NRA spokespersons said...
"Guns don’t kill people. Video games ... kill people."
I hate it when the "The most dumb statement of the day" prize goes so early. There's no way that's going to get topped.
Ok: Video games do de-sensitive people a bit to graphic violence and breed the kind of muppet that thinks we should equip our Army with Desert Eagles so they can 'pop heads like melons' [qv], but the NRA's defence against "guns kill people" has always been "Nah-nah-nah-nahnah: Not hey don't because it's an inanimate object and needs a person to pull the trigger, ergo it's not the GUN that does it."
Yet now apparently, my copy of 'Kill Stuff With Guns II' can pop itself out of my DVD drive and nip out to massacre a few kindergarten classes.
Re: Curious morals
Spot on.
The brief visibility of Janet Jackson's nipple was the most complained about event ever broadcast on US TV. God forbid that children (for whom, of course, nipples were designed in the first place) should see a nipple. Regular intense violence is fine though.
This is warped beyond reason.
"the most authentic experience possible"
If it's that good, you won't be needing real guns anymore.
Problem solved.
Re: An NRA spokespersons said...
"Guns don’t kill people. Video games ... kill people."
I wish this were true. I tried wiping out my school witha cassette copy of Manic Miner. I got tired before killing even the weediest first year weakling and was easily overpowered by (unarmed) teachers.
