Dumb, insulting, outrageous, and tone deaf were all words Gov. Dannel P. Malloy used to describe the National Rifle Association following its release of a first person shooter app on the one month anniversary of the Newtown shootings.
Monday saw some of the families of the 26 victims who were killed during the Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings gather to start national dialogue on gun violence, mental health, and school safety.
It was also the day the NRA chose to release its new shooting app, called NRA: Practice Range. The free game, which is approved for children as young as four years old, lets users shoot at targets, some shaped like coffins.
“How dumb can you get? How insulting can you be? How outrageous can your behavior be? How tone deaf can you be? You can quote any one of those,” Malloy said after he was asked about the game at an unrelated press conference.
“The idea that they decided, on the one-month anniversary, to release that . . . I’ve been on the app. You can push a button and hear the sound of a gun going off. It’s clearly, you know, it’s offensive,” he said.
Malloy wasn’t the only Connecticut official critical of the gun lobby on Tuesday. U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy released a statement suggesting that the group is “intent on continuing to insult the families of the victims of Sandy Hook.”
State Rep. Stephen Dargan also commented on the app at a press conference, calling it “in bad taste.”
The NRA did not immediately return calls for comment.
A progressive group called Courage Campaign is calling on Apple to remove the app from its iTunes store. It’s even started a petition for the app’s removal.
“Instead of coming to the table with constructive ideas to reduce gun violence, the NRA is instead developing a video game that glorifies guns and gun violence,” Adam Bink, director of online programs for the Courage Campaign, said in a press release.
