Out of my cold dead hands…

Are these people on crack?

I mean we all know they are a lot of monster raving loonies in the US when it comes to keeping hold of their guns.  The recent mass murders in the US at the Aurora cinema in Colorado, the Oregon shopping mall incident and and the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut have just turned the heat up to potentially allow the Obama administration to make some huge sweeping changes to gun legislation in the US – should they choose to grab the third rail and go for it.  Their main opponent in this of course is the NRA – them and that lunatic Alex Jones who really needs a Valium and a good lay down before he has an aneurism or something!

At a press conference after the Sandy Hook shooting (which by the way was interrupted by another mass shooting in Pennsylvania where nine more people were shot at and several killed by a random shooter firing from his truck at State Troopers), the CEO of the NRA, Wayne La Pierre said, and I quote, “There exists in this country, sadly, a callous, corrupt and corrupting shadow industry that sells and stows violence against its own people through vicious and violent video games.”  This among his many other public statements mean we should be able to safely assume that Mr La Pierre is anti-violent video games and pro-gun.  And that’s fine.  A person can be both of those things… hell, I think I have been both of these things for many years myself.

BUT… he doesn’t get to be both of those things and then just in time for the one month anniversary of that horrible, unthinkable tragedy in Newtown, Connecticut, be the NRA spokesman for a new first person shooter game application released by the NRA themselves, that enables users to download violent a shooting game to their smartphones! But wait, it gets worse.  Let’s aim that NRA Practice Range shooter app at kids – just like the little ones who lost their lives at Sandy Hook…

NRA: Practice Range is a video game about guns. It enables people ages 4 and up to shoot at coffin-shaped targets, where bull’s-eyes are where the human brain and heart should be. Now, for $0.99 more, users can upgrade to an MK11 sniper rifle — designed for ages 4 and up.”

practice range gun app for children

Four and up.  It took me a minute to digest those words.  Four and up.

A four year old doesn’t have a grip of what is right and wrong.
A four year old doesn’t understand the difference between fantasy and reality.
A four year old can’t read or write or understand complex concepts.
A four year old can’t apply logic or reason or be expected to have a sense of social responsibility to his fellow man, so why the fuck would anyone make a first person shooting game and then market it to FOUR YEAR OLDS!?!

My son is nearly 12 and I don’t let him play first person shooters.  Guns are tools that can be very dangerous if misused or treated flippantly.  He’s nearly 12 and I dont want him to be confusing the seriousness of using firearms at the range with the so called ‘fun’ of engaging in violent video games.  FOUR AND UP!  While I was engaging in shock, horror and disbelief at the sheer idiocy of the NRA, Yaleman sent me this info from Apple iTunes which could explain how this game could have been automatically designated appropriate for this age group:

age appropriate guidelines for apple itunes applications apps

So apparently a video game designed to encourage preschoolers to shoot at ‘coffin/man’ shaped targets with bulls eyes painted on the brain and heart, with upgradeable semi-automatic weaponry is classified as containing ‘no objectionable material’.

Well, I for one, as a parent and a gun owner, find this material to be fucking objectionable, big time!

Tell me what you think