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 Linda Thomas
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NRAapp.jpg
While criticizing the video game industry for its first-person shooter games, the National Rifle Association has released its own target practice app. They say it's educational for children as young as four. Yes, I realize I have a poor aim. (Screen grab from NRA Practice Range app for iPhone)

NRA target shooting app for kids as young as four years old

January 14, 2013 @ 4:19 pm (Updated: 8:32 am - 1/15/13 )

The National Rifle Association, which has been critical of the gaming industry in the debate surrounding potential gun control legislation, has launched its own target practice app.

Practice Range spits out facts like, "NRA programs train over 750,000 gun owners each year," and offers gun safety advice such as, "Know your target and what is beyond it."

After that, users are able to select their weapons. My only choice of firearm is the M9. It costs 99 cents to upgrade the basic firearm to a Beretta, a Browning or a Colt.

It also offers indoor, outdoor and skeet shooting modes. Fully loaded, I was set to begin shooting. I quickly discover I'm an awful aim.

According to the app ratings system, "Practice Range" is appropriate for users as young as 4 years old because it contains no objectionable material.

The NRA game "instills safe and responsible ownership through fun challenges and realistic simulations. It strikes the right balance of gaming and safety education, allowing you to enjoy the most authentic experience possible," according to the description.

The NRA app has been in development for awhile, as a way to counteract what it sees the video game industry doing - "marketing of violence to our kids."

It is far milder than the first-person shooter games I've watched my 12-year-old son play. He tried the NRA's target practice and said it's "boring."

The Entertainment Software Association is a lobbying group for a number of major companies, including Electronic Arts and Microsoft.

These companies' games, including "Call of Duty," "Halo" and other "first-person shooter" games, have come under criticism in the wake of the Newtown, Connecticut massacre last month.

The killer, Adam Lanza, was reportedly "obsessed" with video games. Police found thousands of dollars worth of violent video games while searching his home.

But the gaming industry says that violent crime, particularly among young men, has fallen since the early 1990s while video games have increased in popularity.

There are conflicting studies on the impact of video games and other screen violence.

Some conclude that video games can desensitize people to real-world violence or temporarily quiet part of the brain that governs impulse control.

Other studies report there is no lasting effect.

By LINDA THOMAS

More from Linda Thomas

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Comments (39)


  • Add A Comment

  • Kosh wrote...
    Good for the NRA
    January 14, 2013 5:57 pm
    Its about the same as playing "Space Invaders" 20 years at the arcade for 25 cents. This game is suppose to teach you how to shoot correctly and because most kids already know how to do that its boring so well done. This game is only designed for the liberal slow kids and low information voters so nice work NRA :)
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  • TwoTrees wrote...
    I've often wondered about first-person games.
    January 14, 2013 7:05 pm
    One would think that violent shooting crimes would have gone up dramatically, correlated with the rise in gaming popularity. Apparently not...though, I haven't seen the numbers.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • CH wrote...
    where you shoot and kill lots of stuff -
    January 14, 2013 7:40 pm
    see folks this is why We Americans got to take away republican guns. William a little short on flounder could you D-mail 5 lbs?
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • maplefish wrote...
    I learned gun safety
    January 14, 2013 9:38 pm
    At 5 years old. Have been an avid bird hunter with my Grandfather, Father & both of my sons. I was taught to respect your firearm and the proper way to use it. Most intelligent people don't need to stupid game to learn proper use & respect for firearms....but if it helps the small minded liberal children, well that might be a start.....
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  • Ron_Spins wrote...
    I learned gun safety at a young age too
    January 14, 2013 10:11 pm
    always got 100% on the tests.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • It's me! Ha ha! wrote...
    We Americans are the ones who will stop your Dear Leader from taking our guns ch.
    January 14, 2013 10:28 pm
    You Left wing Parrots re immaculated your Dear Leader for 4 more years of Obamunism in my America.

    If I were you, and thankfully I AM NOT, I would be sweating Assault weapons that the Dear Leader does not get IMPEACHED in 2014 when we Americans take back the Senate.

    All we need are 2/3 majority and it's Bye bye Dear Leader Obama! Back to Hawaii or Kenya. Where ever you came from!

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  • sambra27 wrote...
    it's funny when it's me, Ha ha and CH respond to each other...
    January 15, 2013 10:02 am
    because they are the same person.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • dsbab wrote...
    Target shooting games
    January 15, 2013 6:14 am
    are a better alternative to 1st person, graphics charged, mass murder video games. That said, good parenting trumps video games every time. Firearm education trumps firearm ignorance every time also.
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  • DesertRez wrote...
    I am younger
    January 15, 2013 6:26 am
    but a lot of the old timers I work with had guns in their trucks for bird hunting after school. The proliferation of video games and guns has very little to do with these nutjobs wacking people, and it seems to me that it is nothing but fingerpointing. Linda how about you do a story on correlation between psychotropic drugs and mass murder?
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  • TheNewsChick wrote...
    DesertRez
    January 15, 2013 6:55 am
    The correlation between psychotropic drugs and mass murder - interesting, I'll check into that.
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  • flipper wrote...
    Chickie
    January 15, 2013 11:52 pm
    How about an analysis of death rates in the US from Mass Murder, Cars and Physicians? Or a true study of weapons registration/confiscation in the US (Japanese Internment and weapons confiscation by FDR in 1940s and the attempts by Clinton/Obama over the past 20 years), by Hitler in WWII, Mussolini in WWII, etc.
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  • HLC wrote...
    This is target shooting.
    January 15, 2013 7:09 am
    It's a little different then the video games that have you shoot at hunan like targets don't you think? Which by the way I don't care for as a gun owner and viet nam vet although not an NRA member.
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  • Chuck Gould wrote...
    So why do the "tragets" have to resemble human profiles?
    January 15, 2013 9:04 am
    With appropriate kill zones marked in red for head shots and center mass?

    Looks like the NRA has evolved. Used to be, "We're just a bunch of deer and elk hunters who use our guns responsibly".

    Now the NRA is teaching little kids where to hit another human being in order to most likely score a kill. Fabulous. :-(

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  • Seattle Dad wrote...
    You're missing the point
    January 15, 2013 9:14 am
    Shooting a target within a profile resembling a body is not what stimulates some people. It is merely a hand eye coordination exercise. The concern with first person shooters is that the targets resemble people that you can inflict pain on and extract blood from that may cause people with fringe personalities to derive a rush and wonder what it would be like to get that higher rush with real people. The second amendment and NRA isn't for deer hunting. It's for the personal protection of the citizens. But I think you know that. If the cops and soldiers protecting my family started on these targets at age 5, they're only going to be better marksmen when they hit adulthood. Isn't that what you want?
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  • OceanPro wrote...
    Try again
    January 15, 2013 11:23 am
    4 year old boys, at least in my neighborhood, play guns all the time and this is merely a digital version.... I think you better be equal in your criticism. You better go after Nerf, Super Soaker, and Airsoft toys too....let's crack the debate wide open and our tough little boys will soon be complete sissies....
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  • sambra27 wrote...
    I have no problem with this
    January 15, 2013 10:09 am

    This is merely a simulator and nothing more. You can practice crashing planes into buildings with Microsoft's Flight Simulator and nobody seems to care about that.

    Sure, the irony isn't lost on this story, but if NRA wants to educate gun users and potential gun users at a young age, then great! I also doubt that this game in anyway duplicates the physics of shooting a gun, and probably has no parallels to the real-life practices of hand-eye coordination.

    Also, don't make this development by the NRA a liberal vs. conservative thing. I have several liberal friends who are hunters, and they are all well versed in gun safety.

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