An online video game that reenacts the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting drew sharp criticism Tuesday from family members of one of the victims.
The game, titled “The Slaying of Sandy Hook Elementary School,” allows players to follow shooter Adam Lanza’s path through Newtown, Conn. on the day of the Dec. 14 shooting and fire his weapon on students and teachers.
Relatives of Victoria Soto, a teacher who was killed in the shooting, condemned the game on Twitter, according to the Hartford Courant.
“Please tell us how playing a game that recreates how Vicki died would be beneficial? Please tell us,” a family-endorsed account said in a tweet to the game’s creator, Ryan Jake Lambourn.
In an audio message in the game’s credits, Lambourn said “Here we are nearly a year after the Sandy Hook shootings in which 26 people were killed and absolutely nothing positive has come out of it.” Players are encouraged in the game’s credits to contact their state governor and representatives and keep up to speed with gun legislation.
The Sandy Hook simulation also drew a rebuke from Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT), a vocal proponent of tougher gun laws.
“To make a game about the murder of 20 children and their six teachers is absolutely sickening,” Murphy said in a statement, as quoted by the Courant. “I hope the very disturbed person who could think of something like this sees the cruelty of what he’s done and stops it.”
