Not since 9/11/01 have I seen the New York Daily News, which bills itself as our “Hometown Newspaper,” so editorially incensed by the NRA’s latest move. Exactly a month after the pitiless slaughter at Sandy Hook, the NRA’s riposte was to launch probably “the sickest game yet,” one that even 4-year olds can now play, to use an AK-47 to shoot targets shaped like coffins.” Yes, regrettably, you read correctly.
It seems that on the one-month anniversary of the Newtown Massacre, the National Rifle Association has launched on Apple’s App Store a free iPhone and iPad shooting game, allowing kids as young as 4 to choose a weapon to fire at an indoor gun range, an outdoor range, or for skeet shooting practice. The free game, “NRA Practice Range” offered in the Apple venue, which corporation claims to be “enriching lives,” would give 4-year olds and up a chance to be would-be snipers, a truly obscene opportunity. If Steve Jobs is not turning over in his grave, he should be now.
The free guns include a Beretta M-9 hand-gun, a Colt M-16 assault rifle with 15-round clip or a Mossberg 500 pump-action shotgun. If this doesn’t signal the pathology of the NRA catering to the sickness of millions of adult Americans, nothing does. Actually, for 99 cents extra, players can “unlock” even higher capacity guns similar to the one that Adam Lanza used in Connecticut’s Sandy Hook Massacre, including AK-47 assault rifles and M-11 sniper rifles. Oh boy! If you’d like to take a minute to throw up, I’ll understand.
In this not so lovely little NRA-licensed game, designed by MEDKL Mobile Inc., shooters can take aim at clay ducks or coffin-shaped targets with bull’s eyes at head and chest level. In between target practice, tykes can get “gun safety tips” like “always keep your gun pointed in a safe direction,” (not at your mother or innocent school kids like Adam did), and “stop shooting immediately if you think you have experienced a gun malfunction” and “use only the correct ammunition for your gun.” Isn’t that special? And whose idea was it? Maybe Satan’s!
It’s “the most authentic experience possible,” said the sell-out game makers, touting real-life gunshot sounds, an arsenal of free weapons and “fun challenges and realistic simulations.” And if you want to learn more about unlovely National Rifle Association, click here. After you read it and agree with my modest proposal, let me know. Here it is . . .
The NRA is headquartered in Fairfax, Virginia, not too far from Langley, home of the CIA. My proposal is that the agency considers drone-bombing the NRA. It’s a blue-glass faced building, with NRA in big red letters on its face, and white steel trim around it. You can’t miss it. It has wrapped itself in the colors of the flag for its perfidious purposes. Hopefully, collateral damage can be kept lower than the recent losses at Sandy Hook or Aurora I or Pakistan. And it would be a fitting blowback to the deranged, who call themselves gun enthusiasts, and take so much pleasure in shooting and killing things, from targets to animals to people, both children and adults.
Is my anger out of proportion? Is it feeding the same craziness that led to Sandy Hook? Unfortunately, and sad to say, it probably is. So I, who have never shot or owned a gun in my life, have been sucked into the mayhem. I apologize. I’m a parent of three grown children.
Nevertheless, the irate Daily News described this event as, “THE ASSULT ON AMERICA’S CHILDREN,” “NRA SPITS ON GRAVES- ‘Educational’ shoot game for kids—Parents rip app-alling hypocrisy.’”
Ironically, ever since Sandy Hook and the outcry from the President and the Governor of New York State, and the saner part of the American public to regulate assault weapons, gun sales have soared dramatically at the apparent fear that gun-goons will lose their often challenged 2nd Amendment right, which reads as follows from wiki . . .
“The Second Amendment (Amendment II) to the United States Constitution is the part of the United States Bill of Rights that protects the right of the people to keep and bear arms. It was adopted on December 15, 1791, along with the rest of the Bill of Rights. The Supreme Court of the United States, probably with a little help from their friends at the NRA, has ruled that the Second Amendment protects an individual right to possess and carry firearms.
“In 2008 and 2010, the Supreme Court issued two landmark decisions officially establishing this interpretation. In District of Columbia v. Heller, 554 U.S. 570 (2008), the Court ruled that the Second Amendment protects an individual’s right to possess a firearm, unconnected to service in a militia[1][2] and to use that arm for traditionally lawful purposes, such as self-defense within the home.
“In dicta, the Court listed many longstanding prohibitions and restrictions on firearms possession as being consistent with the Second Amendment.[3] In McDonald v. Chicago, 561 U.S. 3025 (2010), the Court ruled that the Second Amendment limits state and local governments to the same extent that it limits the federal government.”
Despite the haziness of that language, likely prompted by the NRA, the original intention was to allow gun ownership in connection with militia service, which is how the Revolutionary Army fought the British. And of course, the non-military Revolutionary War citizens were living in a wilderness and probably used weapons to hunt for their supper and for protection from larger animals like bears or boars. What’s more, it took several minutes to load a flintlock rifle, during which time today you can get enough bullets off with an assault rifle/expanded cartridge holder to kill several people. I don’t think our forefathers would approve of computer app shooting galleries for 4-year olds and up to get them on that perverse path to nowhere.
More than that, the president is now alerting us that we can’t count on national legislation for the elimination of assault weapons. Why not? I guess there are too many NRA bucks and cranks hanging around Congress lobbying against that law. The fact is that those assaults weapons were designed for the military to kill as many and as quickly and for dead-sure as possible. They were not designed for skeet-shooting or deer-hunting.
Fortunately, New York’s Mayor Bloomberg is pushing through his bill for an assault weapons ban, which is also backed by Governor Cuomo. That’s the good news.
My condolences go out to all the parents and loved ones of the Sandy Hook victims.
Jerry Mazza is a freelance writer and life-long resident of New York City. An EBook version of his book of poems “State Of Shock,” on 9/11 and its after effects is now available at Amazon.com and Barnesandnoble.com. He has also written hundreds of articles on politics and government as Associate Editor of Intrepid Report (formerly Online Journal). Reach him at gvmaz@verizon.net.
Jerry, good article but just want to point out Steve Jobs actually created the current Apple mentality of thinking their own “shit don’t stink”.
I would not only ban assault weapons. I would ban all guns. I would begin with teaching kids some good dose of caring and empathry. Instead of guns I would give them good books to read.
Sometimes people take things too far. It seems the NRA, crazed wingnuts gun supporters have done, and are doing jsut that.
I remember back in 1994 when my son was about to graduate from hisCatholic High School, we went to a shop recommended by the High School itself to buy or rent (I forget which) some tuxedo for his graduating party that evening. When we stepped into the store, the front of the store, the clothing part of it, was a front for the NRA. THEY SOLD ALL SORTS OF GUNS IN THE BACK OF THE STORE. When I voiced my appall, horror, and consternation to them .. they said I was crazy. When I called the school and spoke with the coach and the school secretary (they would not connect me to anyone else like the principal who probably had a tight relationship with the owners of the store) they just said, “thank you [for letting us know.] When the owners of the store somehow found out that I had called the school to rant and rage about just the arsenal of for-sale-weapons they had in that store that catered to young boys, one of the owners called me. He called me crazy and said that it was due to mothers like me, who ranted and raged against weapons, that people turned out to be killers.
Even today as I am writing this … I almost not only lose my breath, I get so worked up that if I am not careful I can have a heart attack.
Reading your above article makes that angry as well.
Sanity in this country has flown out the window and I blame the Bushes as the main un-corkles of the insanity bottle.
I wonder what connection there might be between the CIA, the NRA and the CIA’s former Director GWB who, at last report a couple of years ago, is the only former CIA Director who still receives daily report from them.
Re E.T. I think if you consider what it takes to get a driver’s license it will establish a good paradigm. First, you have to study a driver’s manual and take a written examination based on the rules of the road that manual contains. Second, if you pass that test you can pay to get a driving permit which will permit you to get driving lessons with either a school or a family member with a license. If you pass that driving test, you will then get a driver’s license for a stiff fee. You will also need to register your car, which requires another fee. You will also be subjected to obeying speed limits and other rules of the road and receive citations (tickets) if you don’t. You have so many points in a period (the offenses work off a point system) and if you exceed that number for that period of time, you may have your license taken away from you. If you keep under the top number of points, they will be removed from your current record in time and you can keep your license. Before you get on the road, you need to be insured with the car you’re driving, by yourself or parents. You need to have the car inspected every year and to make sure the brakes are safe, the lights, windshield wipers, etcetera. So, both you and your car have to be in tip-top shape to be on the road. If you’re caught driving without insurance, you face losing your license. Or you can be sued and receive financial penalty from a judge if you have hit some one or ruined their car. So, on and on the rules go to keep you a safe driver in a safe car. The same kind of system could be instituted for owning and maintaining a gun of any kind. I do believe that assault weapons, especially with expanded ammo-clips have no place in the panoply of gun sales. These weapons are made for war not hunting. Also, I believe in background checks. If you’ve had several car crashes or been in a mental institution, you sure as hell won’t keep your driver’s license. So the same should hold for guns. That’s pretty much it. Collosions, hitting pedestrians, and accidents concerning the property of others as well come under the insurance banner. There could be a gun insurance as well.
Regards,
JM.
Re:Paul,
That’s pretty much what I was thinking about Jobs when I said “If he’s not turning over in his grave he should be.” But thanks for reaffirming my take ont he guy.
Regards,
Jerry.
You could certainly see your enthusiasm within the articles you write. The world hopes for more passionate writers like you who are not afraid to say how they believe. Always go after your heart.
-
yes, jerry
pretty good analogy there
if only we could keep the means of death
from those that can’t or don’t respect life
we would move on to the next level
of caring for all life
we have another step to go
on the evolutionary scale
either we begin to care
for each and all
or
we are going up in a puff of smoke
with no one left to tell the tale
in other words
ban the
‘big guns’
and rein in those
that would use them
or all this is minuet
in my view
sad to say
-
Re:Rabane Million,
Thanks for your kind words. You’d be surprised how much flack you can take for expressing what you believe in, especially if its with passion that comes froms the depth of your heart. But if you have the heart to do it, it is a very satisfying experience to be understood let alone appreciated.
Best regards,
Jerry Mazza.
Re: est
Yes, your poem expresses the possibility that we can destroy life itself if we don’t clean up our gun and related violence act, and this beautiful world will be just another minuet, come and gone in a wink.
Regards,
Jerry.
-
yes jerry
i was actually extrapolating to our warrior and militant culture as represented by ‘our’ foreign
and increasingly, ‘our’ domestic policy
i knew those drones would be above us, soon enough
really talking about nuclear weapons, here
i’m not so sure some fools might not want to let a few go [fly]
we then will see, what we all are made of
if you liked twilight zone you’re gonna love this
we have an urgent task at hand
and assault rifles are the least of it
in my view
let’s start at the top and remove the means
and the ways for our destruction
i know
i grew up with it
hide under your desk, or against the wall
is this really the best we can do ?
and obviously, stop killing children !
by any means or in any fashion
-
if i was god
i’d be weeping
how have we strayed
so far from his word ?
-