After more than a week of silence following the school shootings in Newtown, Conn., National Rifle Association President Wayne LaPierre finally responded to a wave of criticism from both gun control advocates and his organization’s allies. LaPierre blamed the shootings of 20 schoolchildren and six adults on “a callous, corrupt and corrupting shadow industry that sells, and sows, violence against its own people.”
The industry? Violent video games.
What LaPierre did not mention is the four NRA-licensed video games that have hit shelves since 2004: NRA High Power Competition, Xtreme Accuracy Shooting, NRA Varmint Hunter, and NRA Gun Club. On Jan. 14, the one-month anniversary of the Newtown shootings, a free iPhone game titled NRA: Shooting Range was released on Apple’s App Store. Its original rating was for kids aged four and up.
All were released with the full endorsement of the NRA, with Xtreme Accuracy Shooting offering a $10 discount on NRA memberships.
The iPhone game, created by MEDL Mobile Inc., features a virtual shooting range, as does Xtreme and High Power, as well as an outside shooting range and a simulated skeet-shoot. The guns available include the high-powered AK-47, as well as other high-powered guns like the ones used in Newtown and similar shootings.
The official app description reads that the game “offers a 3D shooting game that instills safe and responsible ownership through fun challenges and realistic simulations … (the game allows) you to enjoy the most authentic experience possible.”
According to LaPierre, “vicious, violent video games with names like Bulletstorm, Grand Theft Auto, Mortal Kombat and Splatterhouse,” along with violent movies, are a large part of why mass shootings are on the rise.
The NRA games, which received disparaging reviews from video game critics, attempt to simulate the experience of shooting a real gun, which mainstream video games do not. By contrast, mainstream games that feature shooting are simplified by the game designers to make the games more accessible and fun. In popular “shooters,” guns do not jam, firing from the hip is an effective strategy, and healing from gunshot wounds requires only ducking behind cover for a few seconds.
The difference between realistic and unrealistic shooting games raises a question: Which encourages more violence? An unrealistic game in which the player shoots aliens with lasers or a game where the player hunts with a super-realistic gun? Does beating the Joker’s goons senseless in “Batman: Arkham Asylum” champion aggression more than a game in which a gamer can learn how guns work and shoot an animal in a way that is as realistic as possible?
It’s a question that even longtime industry watchers can’t answer.
“Ask any of us in the games industry, and we’ll champion it as a creative medium capable of great storytelling and personal expression. But it’s also capable of reflecting broad societal trends — including society’s ills, brashness, and inconsistencies,” said Francisca Reyes, Editor-in-chief of Official Xbox Magazine, in an interview with popular gaming site IGN.com.
For more information on the video game issue, see Cracked.com writer Chris Rio, and writer Casey Lynch on IGN.com.