The National Rifle Association has released a first-person shooter game app, called NRA: Practice Range, featuring indoor and outdoor ranges and skeet shooting.
The target practice gives players a stock gun and allows them to pay to unlock more weapons, including an AK-47 and an MK-11 sniper rifle. The app is free from the iTunes store, but the gun unlocks cost $0.99.
The app also provides links to information on gun laws and safety, NRA news, hunting season and Second Amendment legislation, but it’s clear the primary use of the app is target practice. The targets in the indoor range are roughly human-shaped, while the ones in the outdoor range are round.
And while target practice isn’t gory or violent, who was it who recently condemned violent video games? Oh right. NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre. Well this is awkward.
The few app reviews on the iTunes store express disbelief that the NRA would release such an app at this time, calling them hypocritical.
by Papershipsonfire
Even though the National Rifle Association took some flak for staying silent so long after the Sandy Hook shooting, things haven’t improved much since they jumped back into the public sphere. And the game’s release, just one month after Sandy Hook, is especially poor timing for the organization.
Yet despite the PR snafus, it’s been relatively smooth sailing in regard to public opinion polls and NRA membership in recent weeks.
