Allows kids to use same gun used at Newtown.
Anti-gun advocates are blasting the National Rifle Association for releasing a target shooting smart phone app for kids 4 and up.
The app allows users to shoot various guns at targets, while at the same time offering gun safety tips.
But Ladd Everitt at the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence says it highlights the hypocrisy of the NRA.
"One week Wayne LaPierre is decrying violent video games, and the next week they're releasing an app where people are shooting at coffin-shaped targets," Everitt tells KTRH News.
Texas A&M's Christopher Ferguson says the timing may be tacky, but the app is fairly tame compared to other shooter games.
"It's not really a violent game in the same sense of Grand Theft Auto," says Ferguson. "The one controversial element is it looks like you can use an AR-15."
That's the same weapon used in last month's school massacre in Connecticut.
Ferguson's years of research has shown there's no real tie between violent video games and violent people. However, he thinks the NRA missed the mark with its app.
"They've learned from history that a good way of getting the conversation away from something like guns is to get people talking about video games," he says. "So I think the release of this game shows just how cynical they are."
