Lawmaker Wants Video Game Makers To End Deals With Gun Manufacturers
NEWTOWN, Conn. (CBSNewYork) - A prominent Connecticut lawmaker has called on video game makers to end their agreements with gun manufacturers in response to the massacre at Newtown.
As WCBS 880 Connecticut Bureau Chief Fran Schneidau reported, it's been a long-standing practice for video game makers to forge agreements with gun manufacturers to use specific weapons in their games.
Connecticut House Speaker Brendan Sharkey (D-Hamden) said the popular video game, "Call Of Duty," features the Bushmaster AR-15 semi-automatic rifle - the same assault weapon used by Adam Lanza in the Sandy Hook assacre that left 20 first graders and six educators dead.
Lawmaker Wants Video Game Makers To End Deals With Gun Manufacturers
Sharkey is asking game makers to put profits aside and end this practice.
"Because it may lead to the kind of situation that the Adam Lanza situation created in Newtown," Sharkey told Schneidau. "I think it's reasonable to ask and expect that these game makers refrain from overtly trying to promote a particular gun, an assault weapon, in their games for profit."
Lanza was reportedly an avid video game player and played "Call Of Duty" in the basement of the house he shared with his mother.
One game maker - Electronic Arts - has agreed to end the practice, but not the one that features the Bushmaster, Schneidau reported.
Sharkey has called for a total ban of specific gun promotion in all video games.
The state had considered a violent video games task force in the wake of the Dec. 14 shooting rampage.
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