Though the games the NRA cited were TOTALLY out of left field.
Midway
As noted earlier today, the NRA held a press conference to address the tragedy in Newtown, CT. They had promised to “offer meaningful contributions to help make sure this never happens again,” and to be completely honest, I really thought that they would put something on the table to that effect.
But no, they place the blame squarely on video games, along with movies, as most people expected. The entire response can be read here. Though the thing that stands out is what they chose to cite…
There exists in this country a callous, corrupt and corrupting shadow industry that sells, and sows, violence against its own people.
Through vicious, violent video games with names like Bulletstorm, Grand Theft Auto, Mortal Kombat and Splatterhouse. And here’s one: it’s called Kindergarten Killers. It’s been online for 10 years. How come my research department could find it and all of yours either couldn’t or didn’t want anyone to know you had found it?”
Mortal Kombat? Really? Yes, it’s violent as hell, but it also lack guns what so ever (well, there’s one character who has a gun, but it’s totally out of place and practically a joke). And it’s often cited by anti-violent video game advocates… from like ten years ago.
Though nothing beats Splatterhouse for God’s sake. I can’t remember if that game has guns in it either since I was literally 9 years old the last time I played it.
Hey, at least they mention Bulletstorm, which is fairly recent. But if you’re going to build a case against video games, you should do it right, by citing more recent and more relevant titles, like Call of Duty or Halo. Yeesh.
Though the real, totally out of left field game is Kindergarten Killers. At first I thought it was a stupid joke, but turns out, it’s an actual game (though good luck trying to play it; my guess is everyone is trying to give it a go, hence why its locked up).
It’s some ultra obscure web game from circa the mid 2000s, and definitely looks and plays like one. Talk about totally random. But back to being totally out of touch…
Then there’s the blood-soaked slasher films like “American Psycho” and “Natural Born Killers” that are aired like propaganda loops on “Splatterdays” and every day, and a thousand music videos that portray life as a joke and murder as a way of life. And then they have the nerve to call it “entertainment.”
But is that what it really is? Isn’t fantasizing about killing people as a way to get your kicks really the filthiest form of pornography?
Again, Natural Born Killers? Jesus Christ. What’s the lesson here? If you have a week to put together an official response to a heinous tragedy that everyone is looking to associate you with, for goodness sake, don’t come up with something that literally sounds like it was written 15 minutes beforehand, while sitting on the toilet.