Point And Shoot Your iPhone With The NRA’s New Gun App
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NRA: Practice Range is an official iPhone/iPad app for the National Rifle Association that simulates a shooting exercise while offering up information on gun safety, hunting, and 2nd Amendment US rights. It uses the iPhone’s built-in gyroscope to simulate shooting a gun. You stand and hold the phone outwards, as you would when taking a picture, and tap the screen to shoot.
You’re not pointing at anything in the real world, but instead at the virtual shooting range displayed on the screen where paper targets and skeets pop up into view.
It’s basically a video game packaged with promotional material. It’s easy to score a 100% accuracy rating at the beginning level as the action here is simply pointing and shooting. Reloading is done for you. Some basic safety tips are offered as the levels load, but there are no safety steps in the simulation itself. There’s an indoor range for pistols, skeet shooting for rifles, and an outdoor range for tackling multiple targets with military-style rifles including the controversial M-16.
Although the app is self-described as the “NRA’s new mobile nerve center” with the aim to offer free access to updates on gun laws, legislation, and the organization’s own news, they are looking to make money by charging users to unlock new guns for their virtual shooting range. The M9 pistol, M16 assault rifle, and Mossberg 500 shotgun are included for free, but $0.99 is needed for each of the additional nine weapons such as the Beretta, Colt, AK47, and MK11 sniper rifle.
NRA CEO Wayne LaPierre recently criticized the video game industry as being “a callous, corrupt and corrupting shadow industry that sells and stows violence against its own people”. That he would follow up that statement with this release of a video game-styled shooting app I think confuses his position.
NRA: Practice Range does the basic task of most free, promotional apps in drawing people towards the NRA's web materials through the fun of a shooting gallery game, but I think it would be better served if more attention was placed on simulating the responsibility of handling and caring for a weapon as it does on shooting one.
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