Reports suggested that the National Rifle Association, backed into a corner since a gun massacre last week killed 20 six- and seven-year-olds, would come out swinging at video games and other violent entertainment in a news conference today, and boy, they did not disappoint.


Wayne LaPierre, the NRA's executive vice president, gave a teeth-sucking condemnation of "vicious, violent video games, with names like Bulletstorm, Grand Theft Auto, Mortal Kombat and Splatterhouse."


LaPierre then, as if presenting some undiscovered trump card showing video games' depravity, gestured toward a screen playing a game called "Kindergarten Killer," a flash game that has been online for at least 10 years and last made news in 2008, when a Finnish game site pulled it following a school shooting in that country.

"Isn't fantasizing about killing people as a way to get your kicks really the filthiest form of pornography," LaPierre said.

LaPierre, in a shaking voice throughout the entire news conference, at times sounded like he didn't believe what he had been handed to read. The NRA's public face also blamed the creation of gun-free school zones for giving deranged killers the assurance that they could carry out mass murder against unarmed targets.

He seemed to argue for more armed personnel in school, if not teachers then security guards. "Why is a gun good to protect president or country, but bad when used to protect children in schools?" he asked rhetorically.