So, everyone in my Twitter feed and the cast of “Morning Joe” were up in arms about an iPhone game for kids being sold by the NRA in the wake of Sandy Hook. It turns out, the NRA behind the game is not the National Rifle Association.
Bill Keller: Sunday, 30 days after the slaughter of first-graders at Sandy Hook Elementary, the NRA launched a target-practice app for shooters aged 4 and up. The free app, called NRA: Practice Range, offers online gunslingers a chance to test their preschool skills on an M9 at a skeet-shooting range or indoors at a row of targets that look eerily like coffins. For 99 cents, little Timmy and Tiffany can upgrade to a Beretta, a Browning or a Colt.
The critics have not been kind. For one thing, the app is apparently too lame even for a 4-year-old. Justin Davis, who reviews gaming apps for IGN Wireless was unimpressed: “The default accelerometer controls are barely functional. Graphical and sound elements seem unfinished. In the outdoor shooting range the tree textures appear to just be flat 2D photographs of trees displayed in various sizes. When reloading, your weapon simply disappears from the screen for a few seconds, absent of any sound or animation. If you’re a gun enthusiast and a gamer looking for a solid shooting range time-killer on-the-go, NRA: Practice Range is not the game you’ve been waiting for.”