NRA: Practice Range / MEDL MOBILE

Users of the "NRA: Practice Range" iOS app are taken to target practice, as seen in this screen shot.

Just weeks after the National Rifle Association forcefully blamed violent video games for gun violence, a new shooter game is out that appears to be from the NRA.

"NRA: Practice Range" was released Sunday in iTunes, the Apple-run site.

It features a 3D-shooting range and offers users simulated target practice. It isn’t clear what connection the NRA has to the app, which is described as an "Official NRA Licensed Product" on iTunes. NBC News has reached out to the organization for comment but has yet to receive a response.

The game's launch comes one month after the shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., which touched off a national debate over how to limit gun violence.

“Guns don’t kill people. Video games, the media and Obama’s budget kill people,” NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre said at a Dec. 21 press conference where he addressed the tragedy at Sandy Hook. "There exists in this country, sadly, a callous, corrupt and corrupting shadow industry that sells and stows violence against its own people, through vicious, violent video games with names like ‘Bulletstorm,’ ‘Grand Theft Auto,’ ‘Mortal Kombat’ and ‘Splatterhouse.’”

The free app was initially recommended for ages 4 and up, according to the iTunes rating system, but later Monday was recommended for 12 and up.

The site said it offered "a 3D shooting game that instills safe and responsible ownership through fun challenges and realistic simulations.” The app description added, "It strikes the right balance of gaming and safety education, allowing you to enjoy the most authentic experience possible.”

Users don’t shoot live subjects in the app, but instead are given guns and sent to target practice in three immersive shooting ranges. 

The description in iTunes says it puts the NRA’s “broad scope of resources in the palm of your hand – with 2nd Amendment newsfeeds, gun law information centers and educational materials that you can access anywhere, anytime.”

The app has received three-and-a-half out of five stars in the iTunes store, but has attracted several scathing customer reviews, some calling for it to be pulled from the iTunes store.

“Is this some kind of sick joke?” asked one user known as Papershipsonfire. “The NRA complains about violent games and then releases one a week later. Sure you’re not shooting humans but does it really matter?”

“What a dumb move,” posted Mansonr6. “Good luck getting anyone to take your video game theory serious after this.”

But others praised the educational content offered in the game.

“This is fun and informative plus there is no need for eye and ear protection,” wrote Joe in BrynMawr. “A must have for any gun enthusiast and defender of the U.S. constitution.”

Last week, after a meeting with Vice President Joe Biden’s gun reform task force, the NRA slammed the White House.

"It is unfortunate that this Administration continues to insist on pushing failed solutions to our nation's most pressing problems," the NRA said in a statement. "We will not allow law-abiding gun owners to be blamed for the acts of criminals and madmen."

Editor’s note: The headine and story have been amended to reflect the fact that the NRA has not acknowledged the new app was launched by the organization.

NRA: Practice Range / MEDL MOBILE

For 99 cents, users can upgrade their firearm from a free M9 to a Beretta, a Browning or a Colt in the app, which offers indoor, outdoor and skeet shooting modes.

Marc Piscotty / Getty Images

Joseph Gabriele of Littleton, Colo., protests with fellow activists in support of gun rights Jan. 9 at the state Capitol in Denver. Lawmakers are calling for tougher gun legislation after recent mass shootings at an Aurora, Colo., movie theater and elementary school in Newtown, Conn.

As lawmakers from Connecticut to California rush to propose new restrictions on firearms and ammunition, state-level gun-rights activists are playing defense for the first time in years, with some saying they face fights they may not win.

“Our backs are against the wall,” said Scott Wilson, president of the Connecticut Citizens Defense League, a pro-gun rights group. “We are in for the fight of our lives. I have never seen anything like it.”

In a blog post after the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Conn., the CCDL admitted to its members that efforts to ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines could succeed, despite their strident opposition.

The CCDL message said that "we simply do not know" whether they would be "successful in our efforts to protect us from bans on certain firearms or magazines."

As the White House formulates a list of federal proposals to combat gun violence, with recommendations from Vice President Joe Biden’s task force expected by Tuesday, lawmakers at the state level are forging ahead to restrict the sale or possession of certain types of firearms and ammunition.

• In New Jersey, 18 new bills have been submitted to the state legislature, including one that would require gun buyers to submit to a psychological evaluation, according to the Star-Ledger.
•  In New York, Gov. Andrew Cuomo called on legislators to pass the nation’s toughest ban on assault weapons and restrictions on high-capacity magazines.
• In California, which already has some of the strictest gun laws in the nation, Sen. Leland Yee, a Democrat, said he intends to introduce a bill requiring gun owners to register annually, and another requiring all guns to be kept in lock boxes when not in use.
• In Connecticut, Democratic Sen. Beth Bye wants to limit access to assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, and require that firearms be registered by model and serial number, Reuters reported. Bye also wants to impose a 50 percent sales tax on ammunition and magazines.
• In Colorado, Gov. John Hickenlooper, a Democrat, received a standing ovation from some state legislators Thursday when he suggested requiring universal background checks on all gun sales.

With so many lawmakers vowing action, gun rights groups say they face a stronger tide of public opinion and political pressure than ever before.

“I think they’re going to pass a ban on semi-automatic rifles unless we stop them,” said Dudley Brown, executive director of Rocky Mountain Gun Owners, a Colorado-based organization. “There is a zenith of activism that we are clearly reaching right now.”

RMGO is currently running a drawing on its website to win an AR-15 – the same model of rifle police have said was used by alleged Aurora shooter James Holmes and Newtown gunman Adam Lanza.

“RMGO is facing dozens of battles in the Colorado legislature this year, so we need to increase the size of our pro-gun army,” the group says on its site. “To do that, we’re giving away a free Colt AR-15 Model 6920 donated by our good friends at Jensen Arms in Loveland, CO.”

In New York, the Shooters Committee on Political Education, a gun advocacy group, struck a similar tone in a message to its membership.

“Your participation is no guarantee that we will win this important fight to protect your Constitutional rights, but we can say with certainty that anything short of overwhelming our legislators with calls, emails and letters we have virtually no chance,” SCOPE told members on its website.

Recommended: NRA 'disappointed' with gun task force; recs coming by Tuesday

“We will do everything we can to preserve our constitutional right to keep and bear arms, and how that turns out is anybody’s guess,” SCOPE head Budd Schroeder said.

Saying that the National Rifle Association is too willing to compromise with gun-control advocates, 22 state and 5 national pro-gun groups have coalesced in recent weeks to form the National Coalition to Stop the Gun Ban. Among the national groups involved is Gun Owners of America, which claims a membership of 300,000.

The coalition formed out of a desire to stand against new regulations on guns, according to Charles Heller, spokesman for the Arizona Citizens Defense League.

Arizona became an epicenter of the gun control debate in 2011 after Representative Gabrielle Giffords sustained a point-blank shot to the head as a gunman turned a Tucson supermarket parking lot into a shooting gallery, killing 6. Giffords and her husband announced a new national campaign on Tuesday to “prevent gun violence” and “protect responsible gun ownership.”

Heller characterized renewed calls for gun control as an overly emotional response to the shootings in Arizona, Connecticut, Wisconsin, and elsewhere.

“It’s going to be a very pivotal moment if we can’t get people to stop emoting and start reasoning,” Heller said. “They’ve been waiting for a long time for the perfect crisis. They tried to light the fire with the Batman shooting, and they’re looking for the perfect victims to dance in the blood of so they can get something done.”

Heller’s AZCDL was among the 27 signatories of an open letter the coalition addressed to members of Congress asking them to not pass new legislation banning certain firearms and magazines, or requiring background checks on private gun sales.

“Members of Congress who support gun control by any means, procedural or substantive, will be targeted for defeat by coalition members,” the letter reads.

'No compromise'
Tensions among pro-gun activists are running just as high in states where legislators have remained quiet on new measures, said Paul Valone, president of Grass Roots North Carolina.

“The coalition members have all agreed on a ‘no compromise’ approach on this issue,” Valone said. “It needs to die. Period.”

In an open letter to President Barack Obama, Valone speculated that some gun owners may use violent force to resist government attempts to confiscate assault weapons.

“The real question, Mr. President, is whether you so hunger for power that you are willing to foment what might be the next American Revolution,” Valone wrote.

In the meantime, anxiety among hardline pro-gun rights advocates may be swelling the ranks of activist groups. The NRA told Politico that its membership grew by 100,000 in the 18 days after the shooting in Newtown.

“We can’t take applications for membership as fast as people are sending them to us,” said Heller. His group currently has about 7,500 members. He expects that number to grow to 10,000 over the next year. “People in Arizona are, they are just absolutely not going to give up a gun.”

Updated 4:10 p.m. -- The National Rifle Association on Thursday said it was 'disappointed' with the results of a meeting with the gun violence prevention task force led by Vice President Joe Biden.  

"We were disappointed with how little this meeting had to do with keeping our children safe and how much it had to do with an agenda to attack the Second Amendment," the NRA wrote in a statement after a closed-door meeting with administration officials and other gun groups. "While claiming that no policy proposals would be 'prejudged,' this Task Force spent most of its time on proposed restrictions on lawful firearms owners - honest, taxpaying, hardworking Americans."

Biden is expected to offer the task force's recommendations to the president by Tuesday.

The vice president, charged to lead a series of gun reform meetings in the wake of the Newtown school shooting, said earlier on Thursday that other stakeholder groups have expressed "surprising" support for universal background checks, as well as some restrictions on high-capacity magazines.

"There is a surprising -- so far -- recurrence of suggestions that we have universal background checks, not just [to] close the gun show loophole, but total, universal background checks, including private sales," Biden said.

But those comments came before Biden's meeting with the country's most powerful gun lobby and vocal foe of restrictions on gun ownership.

"We will not allow law-abiding gun owners to be blamed for the acts of criminals and madmen," the NRA wrote afterwards. "Instead, we will now take our commitment and meaningful contributions to members of Congress of both parties who are interested in having an honest conversation about what works - and what does not." 

National Rifle Association head Wayne LaPierre caused controversy after the Newton killings for saying that the only way to prevent such events is the presence of armed security officers at every school.

"The only way to stop a monster from killing our kids is to be personally involved and invested in a plan of absolute protection," he said. "The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun." 

 The outdoor enthusiasts who met earlier Thursday with the vice president included members of the Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies, Ducks Unlimited, and the Outdoor Industry Association; the entertainment industry participants, slated for a 6 p.m. ET meeting, include representatives from the Motion Picture Association of America, Comcast, and the Directors Guild.

Megastore Wal-Mart will also participated in a Thursday meeting with Attorney General Eric Holder this afternoon, along with other retailers like Bass Pro Shops and Dick's Sporting Goods. Wal-Mart agreed to send a representative to the session after public criticism of the store's initial 'no' RSVP to the White House invitation.

Biden raised some conservatives' eyebrows yesterday when he said that the administration is considering possible executive action in addition to legislative solutions.

"The president is going to act," he said during a session with gun control groups Wednesday. "There are executive orders, executive action that can be taken."

White House spokesman Jay Carney said later Wednesday that no decisions have been made about avenues for implementation of possible reforms.

The United States suffers far more violent deaths than any other wealthy nation, due in part to the widespread possession of firearms and the practice of storing them at home in a place that is often unlocked, according to a report released Wednesday by two of the nation's leading health research institutions.

Gun violence is just one of many factors contributing to lower U.S. life expectancy, but the finding took on urgency because the report comes less than a month after the shooting deaths of 26 people at an elementary school in Newtown, Conn.

The United States has about six violent deaths per 100,000 residents. None of the 16 other countries included in the review came anywhere close to that ratio. Finland was closest to the U.S. ranking with slightly more than two violent deaths per 100,000 residents.

For many years, Americans have been dying at younger ages than people in almost all other wealthy countries. In addition to the impact of gun violence, Americans consume the most calories among peer countries and get involved in more accidents that involve alcohol. The U.S. also suffers higher rates of drug-related deaths, infant mortality and AIDS.

The result is that the life expectancy for men in the United States ranked the lowest among the 17 countries reviewed, at 75.6 years, while the life expectancy for U.S. women ranked second lowest at 80.7 years. The countries reviewed included Canada, Japan, Australia and much of Western Europe.

The nation's health disadvantages have economic consequences. They lead to higher costs for consumers and taxpayers as well as a workforce that remains less healthy than that of other high-income countries.

"With lives and dollars at stake, the United States cannot afford to ignore this problem," said the report from the National Research Council and the Institute of Medicine.

In attempting to explain why Americans are so unhealthy, the researchers looked at three categories: the nation's health care system, harmful behaviors and social and economic conditions. Researchers noted that the U.S. has a large uninsured population compared to other countries with comparable economies, and more limited access to primary care. And although the income of Americans is higher on average than that of other wealthy countries, the United States also has a higher level of poverty, especially among children.

RELATED: Gov. Cuomo proposes 'toughest' ban on assault weapons, clips

The researchers reviewed an array of studies over the years. They estimated that homicide and suicide together account for about a quarter of the years of life lost for U.S. men compared to those in those peer countries. Homicide, they noted, is the second leading cause of death among adolescents and young adults aged 15-24. The large majority of those homicides involve firearms. 

The researchers said there is little evidence that violent acts occur more frequently in the United States than elsewhere. It's the lethality of those attacks that stands out.

"One behavior that probably explains the excess lethality of violence and unintentional injuries in the United States is the widespread possession of firearms and the common practice of storing them (often unlocked) at home. The statistics are dramatic," the report said.

For example, the United States has the highest rate of firearm ownership among peer countries — 89 civilian-owned firearms for every 100 Americans, and the U.S. is home to about 35 to 50 percent of the world's civilian-owned firearms, the report noted.

Congress is taking a renewed look at gun legislation, but the researchers said in a conference call they were just as concerned about factors that have nothing to do with guns, such as the high prevalence of illness among teenagers and young adults. They particularly cited a high incidence of AIDs and the nation's high infant mortality rate.

The National Rifle Association did not immediately return calls seeking comment about the report. 

RELATED: Biden says White House 'determined to take action' on guns

A national initiative aimed at curbing gun violence was launched by former US. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and her husband, Mark Kelly, on Tuesday -- the second anniversary of the shooting that killed six people and left her critically injured.

A new campaign website, Americans For Responsible Solutions, promised to “launch a national dialogue and raise funds to counter influence of the gun lobby.”

The couple last week visited Newtown, Conn., where a gunman opened fire in an elementary school, killing 20 children and six adults in December. They also met with New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, a gun control advocate.

“In response to a horrific series of shootings that has sown terror in our communities, victimized tens of thousands of Americans, and left one of its own bleeding and near death in a Tucson parking lot, Congress has done something quite extraordinary - nothing at all,” the pair wrote in an editorial published Tuesday on their site and in USA Today.

Conn. politician apologizes after saying Giffords should 'stay out of my towns'

"Achieving reforms to reduce gun violence and prevent mass shootings will mean matching gun lobbyists in their reach and resources," they wrote in the column.

"This country is known for using its determination and ingenuity to solve problems, big and small. Wise policy has conquered disease, protected us from dangerous products and substances, and made transportation safer. But when it comes to protecting our communities from gun violence, we're not even trying  -- and for the worst of reasons."

Gun control advocates zero in on new  tactic

In an interview with ABC News, the couple said the visit to Newtown brought back a lot of memories of their own ordeal two years ago.

“And you hope that this kind of thing doesn’t happen again. But you know what? It does happen again,” Kelly said.

Officials marked the two-year anniversary of Giffords’s brush with death in Tucson on Tuesday. The city rang bells at 10:11 am local time, when Jared Loughner went on the shooting spree that killed 6 people and left 13 more injured, including the congresswoman.

Former Giffords intern Daniel Hernandez, who applied First Aid to his downed boss in 2011, told NBC affiliate KVOA of Tucson that he is sick of gun violence. “There’s no excuse for standing back and saying we’re not going to do anything this time,” Hernandez said. “It’s been far too long, there have been far too many deaths.”

Republican Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer said that she remains open to new state restrictions on guns, according to the Associated Press. Brewer has vetoed two gun bills in recent years that would have expanded the right to carry firearms in public.

“It will be something that I’m sure will be addressed in the Legislature and my ears are all open, and I’m certainly anxious if there is a solution that we get it done,” Brewer said.

Kelly and Giffords said they are both gun owners and strongly support the Second Amendment, but they acknowledge the need to prevent guns from ending up in the “wrong hands.”

The couple hope to work with politicians to take gun lobbyists head-on and engage the country in a discussion about preventing gun violence.

They also hope to establish a requirement for a comprehensive background check for the private sale of guns, and address the issue of the treatment of mentally ill people in the United States. Another issue they hope to tackle is that of high-capacity magazines.

"An extended magazine is used to kill people," Kelly, a veteran of Desert Stom, told ABC, "lots of people."

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Updated 10:50 a.m. ET: On NBC’s Meet the Press, National Rifle Association chief Wayne LaPierre on Sunday refused to support new gun control legislation and maintained his support for putting armed guards and police in schools in response to the Dec. 14 school shootings in Newtown, Conn.

See the Meet The Press page

“If it’s crazy to call for putting police in and securing our schools to protect our children, then call me crazy,” LaPierre told NBC’s David Gregory. “I think the American people think it’s crazy not to do it. It’s the one thing that would keep people safe and the NRA is going try to do that.”

He added that the United States is now spending $2 billion to train police officers in Iraq and asked why federal funds could not be spent to train school guards to protect schools in the United States.

Asked about restricting the size of ammunition magazine or clips, LaPierre said, “I don’t believe that’s going to make one difference. There are so many different ways to evade that, even if you had that. You had that for 10 years when (Sen.) Dianne Feinstein passed that ban in ’94. It was on the books. Columbine occurred right in the middle of it – it didn’t make any difference.”

Feinstein, D-Calif., was the author of the 1994 ban on certain types of semiautomatic firearms which expired in 2004. She has announced that she will introduce new legislation early next year. Semiautomatic firearms, including semiautomatic weapons sometimes called “assault weapons,” fire one round per pull of the trigger.

“I know there’s a media machine in this country that wants to blame guns every time something happens,” LaPierre said, but he insisted that an armed guard might have been able to stop Adam Lanza, the killer in Connecticut.

“If I’m a mom or a dad and I’m dropping my child off at school I’d feel a whole lot safer” if there were trained armed security guards or police protecting the school from people such as Lanza, LaPierre said, although he conceded that “nothing is perfect” as a deterrent against crime.

LaPierre also said, “We have a mental health system in this country that has completely and totally collapsed. We have no national database of these lunatics” and complained that de-institutionalization of the mentally ill had put too many dangerous people on the streets of America. “We have a completely cracked mentally ill system that’s got these monsters walking the streets,” LaPierre said.

And he said many states do not put their records of those adjudicated to be mentally ill into the national instant check system that is designed to screen out convicted criminals and the mentally ill from buying guns.

The NRA CEO also argued that the federal government had invested far too little effort into enforcing the longstanding federal law that makes it illegal for convicted felons to possess guns. The federal effort to enforce existing restrictions on gun possession, he said, is “pitiful.”

He said, “If you want to control violent criminals, take them off the street.”

But he firmly opposed curbs on private gun sales and contended that the advocates of stringent restrictions on such sales want to put “every gun sale under the thumb of the federal government.”

LaPierre called Feinstein’s bill “a phony piece of legislation” which he predicted would not become law.

President Barack Obama has tasked Vice President Joe Biden with the job of consulting with members of the Cabinet and outside organizations to come up with legislative proposals by next month.

When asked about this initiative, LaPierre said, “if it’s a panel that’s just going to be made up of a bunch of people that for the past 20 years has been trying to destroy the Second Amendment, I’m not interested in sitting on that panel…. The NRA is not going to let people lose the Second Amendment in this country.”

Following LaPierre on Meet the Press, Sen. Charles Schumer, D- N.Y., said that the NRA leader is “so extreme and so tone deaf that he actually helps the cause of us passing sensible gun legislation in the Congress…. He is so doctrinaire and so adamant that I believe gun owners turn against him as well.”

Schumer said that LaPierre believes “the only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is good gun with a gun. What about trying to stop the bad guy from getting the gun in the first place? That’s common sense. Most Americans agree with it.”

But Sen. Lindsey Graham, R- S.C., said killers such as Lanza were “non-traditional criminals… people who are not wired right for some reason. And I don’t know if there’s anything Lindsey Graham can do in the Senate to stop mass murder from somebody that’s hell bent on doing crazy things” -- apart from better security in schools. The South Carolina Republican also called for getting “mass murders off the streets before they act, by better mental health detection.”

Graham said that while he was out Christmas shopping in South Carolina this weekend, people “have come up to me (and said) ‘Please don’t let the government take my guns away.’ And I’m going to stand against the assault (weapons) ban because it didn’t work before and it won’t work in the future.”

LaPierre’s appearance on Meet the Press followed the strong reaction over his defiant stand during a Friday press briefing about the NRA’s response to the Connecticut school shootings.

Amid a national debate over what security measures school administrators should take to ensure the safety of students, gun-control advocates reacted with disbelief Friday to LaPierre’s call for armed guards in every school and his blaming of Hollywood films, video games, and popular music for school shootings such as the one in Connecticut.

How firmly the NRA’s allies in Congress will oppose any new legislative initiatives from Obama, Feinstein or others remains an open question.

In a test of the NRA’s legislative influence, the House of Representatives late last year passed the National Right-to-Carry Reciprocity Act, which has not yet been acted on by the Senate.

In the House vote, 229 Republicans and 43 Democrats voted for the NRA-backed bill.

The House bill allows a person with a photo identification card and a valid permit to carry a concealed firearm in one state to carry a concealed handgun in another state in accordance with the restrictions of that second state.

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NEWS ANALYSIS

TEL AVIV -- The Connecticut school massacre has raised the issue of gun control not only in the United States but also in Israel, where self-defense is not so much a point of law as a way of life.

In Israel, schools are protected by armed guards, and everyone is on some sort of an alert for suspicious objects or people.

Cars and personal belongings are checked at cafés, movies theaters, public buildings and malls.

Although security guards here are not your typical ex-Navy SEALS, they do act as a first barrier – a line of defense that could have saved the lives of the innocent children at Sandy Hook Elementary School.

Young men carrying M16 rifles – soldiers either on their way back or coming home from their military base – are a common sight on main streets in Jerusalem or Tel Aviv.

However, it is very difficult for any Israeli civilian to purchase and own a gun, and all must have a license to do so. The ownership of  assault rifles by a private person is forbidden, and pistols are limited to one per person.

In a country with a population of almost 8 million there are only about 300,000 weapons, of which just over half - 170,000 - belong to private individuals. The rest belong to security institutions. 

The license process, which must be completed every year, includes mental and physical health checkups as well as a firing-range exercise. Most importantly, it is a crime with harsh penalty to carry a weapon in Israel without a license.

Security guards must meet regulations before they are granted the license to carry a gun; they must be at least 27 years old, unless they served in the army, in which case they can apply at the age of 21. They also need to be a resident of Israel for at least three years and sign a waiver that gives the health ministry and the police the right to check their health and criminal records.

Yariv, owner of the Lahav weapon shop in Tel Aviv, told Israeli Army radio: "A very little amount of people buy private guns, since the Israeli citizen knows in advance that his chances to buy and own a gun amounts to zero.

“Most of the buyers are men who are demanded by their work to carry a weapon.”

There are only a few tens of thousands of legal guns in Israel, most owned by settlers living in the West Bank who are granted dispensation because of the need for self-defense while traveling to and from the West Bank.

Such measures mean that, despite a backdrop of violence committed with illegal weapons, there are hardly any random killings at all. It is impossible for a 20-year-old to buy and own a gun openly.

Paul Goldman is an NBC journalist based in Tel Aviv.

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