With their back up against the wall in the fallout of the Sandy Hook tragedy, the National Rifle Association pinned blame on the video game industry and other facets of entertainment.
The organization’s Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre lashed out against the games industry for, in his mind, glorifying violence:
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?
The NRA believes that movies and television are equally complicit:
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.”
In the immediate wake of the incident in Connecticut, the National Rifle Association remained silent and disabled their Facebook page as the gun control debate ramped up. Those aren’t actions of a group who truly believes that the culture they promote had no hand in anything.
In any case, this deflection of blame is pathetic. Instead of trying to have a productive, cooperative conversation about how to avoid these issues in the future, LaPierre chose a desperate, sad route, in an appearance widely panned as disastrous. This type of stunt is wholly inappropriate right now. Reinforcing the “prepper” mindset using crude fear tactics is not okay.
Anti-video game lawmaker Leland Yee agrees:
Now, rather than face reality and be part of the solution to the widespread proliferation of assault weapons in America, they attempt to pass the buck. More guns are not the answer to protecting our children, as evident by the fact that armed guards weren’t enough to stop the tragedy at Columbine High School. The NRA’s response is pathetic and completely unacceptable.
Granted, Wayne LaPierre and his ilk kind of blamed everything for what happened at Sandy Hook. Gaming, movies, music, television, gun-free zones, government funding — nothing escaped the NRA’s reach.
Maybe their goal wasn’t to make any sense. Maybe they just wanted people talking about them. Maybe they just wanted attention. After all, the National Rifle Association has their hand in the video game pot. NRA Gun Club, NRA High Power Competition, and NRA Varmint Hunter are all titles they’ve slapped their brand on.
So yeah, I’m gonna go ahead and say that they just wanted a little attention, and they’ve achieved their goal.
Source: National Rifle Association
Source: Business Insider
Source: Kotaku
