NRA calls games a "corrupting shadow industry"

The National Rifle Association has laid part of the blame for last week's Sandy Hook Elementary school shooting on video games.

"There exists in this country a callous, corrupt and corrupting shadow industry that sells, and sows, violence against its own people," NRA executive vice president Wayne LaPierre said in a televised press conference this morning, partially captured by Kotaku and fully annotated here.

"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?"

In the likely event that you're not familiar with Kindergarten Killers, it's a flash game which originally appeared on Newgrounds in 2002. LaPierre also condemned the rest of American media: films and music for depictions of slaughter, and the news media for chasing an anti-gun agenda with sensational headlines.

He didn't call them corrupting shadow industries, though. Wowzers.

Connor Sheridan

I got a BA in journalism from Central Michigan University - though the best education I received there was from CM Life, its student-run newspaper. Long before that, I started pursuing my degree in video games by bugging my older brother to let me play Zelda on the Super Nintendo. I've previously been a news intern for GameSpot, a news writer for CVG, and now I'm a staff writer here at GamesRadar.