Senator Weinberg, Gun Store Owner Issue Statements Condemning Video Game Allowing Players to Be ‘Active Shooter’ at a School

TRENTON – Joining with Senate Majority Leader Loretta Weinberg (D-Bergen), Anthony P. Colandro, owner of Gun For Hire, a Woodland Park gun range, condemned a new online video game entitled, “Active Shooter,” calling for the game not to be released.

The game, scheduled to be released on June 6, simulates an active-shooter situation in a school, with players given the option of either being the shooter or the person who takes down the shooter.

“This game is horrific,” said Senate Weinberg. “I have spent my life fighting for First Amendment rights, but free speech comes with responsibility. Promoting a ‘game’ that uses school shootings as a sick form of entertainment is irresponsible, dangerous and an abuse of our liberty. I also have been fighting my whole life for sensible gun control laws.  When I read about this game, I reached out to Anthony Colandro hoping he too would be incensed about this game. He was immediately.”

“A game like [‘Active Shooter’] that simulates violent school shootings has no place in our society,” Colandro said. “I’m 100 percent against it.”

“Earlier this month, I met Fred Guttenberg, the father of a Parkland shooting victim,” said Senator Weinberg. “His daughter Jamie was killed in that mass school shooting. I cannot image his pain or the pain of the parents and families of other children slaughtered in our schools. This depraved video game has no place on the internet or anywhere else. We have to say as a society, ‘Enough. This goes too far.’ We cannot ignore the effects this kind of video will have.”

The website Steam, according to Variety reports, will allow any game to be published on its site for $100 with the stipulation that it doesn’t promote hate speech or pornography. The game is published by Valve Corporation. As of Tuesday afternoon, more than 93,000 people have signed a petition on change.org demanding the game be taken down.