NRA debuts shooter game weeks after Newtown

It's been about a week less since Wayne LaPierre, executive vice president of the National Rifle Association, responded to that incident with a press conference calling for armed guards in schools, tighter monitoring of the mentally ill -- and accountability from the makers of violent video games.

His following words from that press conference are the main reason why the NRA's release of the first-person shooter "NRA: Practice Range" in Apple's (AAPL) App Store for iPhone and iPad are a newsworthy event: 

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.

"NRA: Practice Range" doesn't feature mystical, circa-1992 fighters ripping an opponent's heart out or a 1988 horror villain lookalike taking a machete to zombies and ghouls to save his girlfriend, but it does allow users to shoot at body targets with a red spot used to mark center mass.

The NRA argues that those targets aren't human beings, but even "Bulletstorm" and "Grand Theft Auto" don't mark the human heart for a practice kill. They're also marketed with "M" ratings making them unsuitable for gamers younger than 17. The morning "NRA: Practice Range" was released, the App Store labeled it appropriate for ages 4 and up.

As Business Insider noted the day LaPierre made his video game statement, this isn't the first time the NRA has dabbled in the video game industry. Their games usually consist of shooting at skeet and targets and have been criticized for their blandness by gaming sites like IGN and Gamespot. At their bloodiest, offerings like PC game "NRA Varmint Hunter" allowed players to shoot at prairie dogs and groundhogs.

“NRA: Practice Range” is little different, though it does allow gamers to upgrade to AK-47 assault rifles and MK-11 sniper rifles for 99 cents more. Game designer and scholar Ian Bogost, who wrote about video games' role in the recent gun debate for The Atlantic, told gaming site Kotaku that "Practice Range" actually fits into the NRA mission well and criticism of it could be spun into a further indictment of violent shooters.

"It's another specimen in the NRA's ongoing effort to present gun ownership and use as a part of a practice of sportsmanship and as participation in an existing community of 'responsible gun owners,'" Bogost told Kotaku. "Contrary to immediate reaction among some of the game playing and development community, the NRA's presentation of the game as an educational tool fit for kids will read as consistent with their overall project and message among NRA supporters.”

The NRA's strategy may blunt critics like Forbes video game writer Paul Tassi, who played through the game and lamented its wonky controls and obvious gun safety messages including "Never use alcohol or drugs before or while shooting" and "Always keep the gun pointed in a safe direction." But Tassi's conclusion bears no less weight: A poorly assembled game app released less than a month after the NRA had some strong words for the video game industry only makes it appear out of touch, especially when the Washington Post's entire global desk points out the dearth of evidence linking video games and real-life shootings.

Nintendo didn't draw this kind of criticism in the 1980s for its Zapper light gun or "Duck Hunt" and "Hogan's Alley" target shooting games, but it didn't release them weeks after declaring its entire industry responsible for a national tragedy, either.

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