Just one week after the United States was rocked by tragic events in Newton, Connecticut; the National Rifle Association (NRA) has held a press conference to respond to renewed calls for gun control and legislative culpability.

Defending a right to bear arms, the NRA have sought alternate explanations for gun violence in America, deferring links of responsibility from the availability of weapons, to the gestation of motive through the depiction of violence in media.

Speaking on behalf of the gun lobby; Wayne LaPierre (NRA Executive Vice President) attributed the broad 'corruption' of youth to a "callous, corrupt and corrupting shadow industry" in video games. Among the titles singled out as a "vicious" influence in entertainment medias - Mortal Kombat [via The Washington Post].

And here’s another dirty little truth that the media try their best to conceal. 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 “Bullet Storm,” “Grand Theft Auto,” “Mortal [K]ombat,” and “Splatterhouse.”

And here’s one, it’s called “Kindergarten Killers.” It’s been online for 10 years. How come my research staff can find it, and all of yours couldn’t? Or didn’t want anyone to know you had found it? Add another hurricane, add another natural disaster. I mean we have blood-soaked films out there, like “American Psycho,” “Natural Born Killers.” They’re aired like propaganda loops on Splatterdays and every single day.
- Wayne LaPierre (Washington Post Transcript, December 2012)

The search for motive behind the loss of twenty-eight innocent lives has been the subject of extensive scrutiny. At the source of the accusation is Sandy Hook school shooter, Adam Lanza. Twenty years old; the gunman is part of a reported sixty-eight percent of gamers who are eighteen years of age, or older. According to a 2012 report on industry demographics published by the ESA; the average gamer is thirty-years old, and has been playing video games for twelve years.

Four guns were reportedly connected to the tragedy by police [via CNN]; with three weapons alleged on the shooters person at the time of the crime. The relationship between the gunmans hobbies, interests and material possessions remains speculative.

Whilst vilifying a normalized culture of violence in entertainment, the NRA propose a solution of introducing more guns to control guns. LaPierre suggests the installation of armed guards into elementary schools across America to defend children from guns, prioritizing child safety.

Mortal Kombat is no stranger to public concern about violence. The franchise was vital to the establishment of the self-regulatory Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) in 1994. The ESA report found ninety-eight percent of parents feel the ESRB is a useful tool for regulating their children's gaming, with ninety percent present for purchases.

For the first time in the series' history, 2011 saw Mortal Kombat refused classification by Australian federal censors on grounds of realistic violence and a lack of adult rating [full story]. Since 1996, the country has also had strict gun control laws under the National Agreement on Firearms, introduced after a massacre claimed thirty-five lives that same year. There have been no crimes of this type since. Australia will officially introduce an R18+ rating for video games in 2013.