newtown

Groupon has suspended all of its gun-related promotions, a move that has led some gun-rights advocates to call for a boycott of the daily deals site.

"All scheduled and current gun-related deals featured on Groupon North America, including shooting ranges, conceal-and-carry and clay shooting, have been placed on hiatus while we review internal standards that shape the deal inventory we feature," Groupon spokeswoman Julie Mossler told AOL Daily Finance in a story published Sunday. "The category is under review following recent consumer and merchant feedback."

Although the move is presumably in reaction to last month's … Read more

The National Rifle Association has launched a mobile shooting game amid furor over gun violence.

NRA: Practice Range is designed for iPhone and iPad users who want a little virtual target practice. The free game offers a variety of handguns and rifles that you can use to shoot at targets indoors or outdoors. Simply pick your weapon of choice and then tap the screen to fire at the targets.

The indoor level is easiest as the targets don't move, while the two outdoor levels require you to shoot at skeets and other moving targets.

The launch of the app may seem ill-timed at best and hypocritical at worst given the nation's current mindset over guns and the NRA's recent response.… Read more

Twitter temporarily shuttered Anonymous' most popular account today, which caused a barrage of hate-tweets -- given that the hacker collective despises online censorship.

The account, @youranonnews, which now has more than 800,000 followers, went black around mid-day. The group claims the censorship had to do with a photo it posted regarding a campaign Anonymous has lodged against Westboro Baptist Church after church leaders announce plans to protest at the site of the Newtown, Conn., school massacre.

Once Anonymous' account was restored, the group posted an image of the letter it got from Twitter regarding the temporary suspension.

In the aftermath of the tragedy in Newtown, outrage is turning into political and social action. In a "Demand a Plan" ad in The New York Times, a number of technology industry executives and other leaders called on President Obama and Congress to come up with a plan to end gun violence.

In a blog post, one of the signatories of the ad, venture capitalist Fred Wilson, wrote that tech industry leaders are working to mount a "sustained social media and regular media campaign to pressure our leaders to do something about the gun safety problem in … Read more

In the wake of the Newtown tragedy, when an armed man stormed a Connecticut elementary school and killed 26 people, including 20 children, gun control has been under high scrutiny from both lawmakers and citizens.

The National Rifle Association -- the longtime champion of gun ownership rights -- has stayed conspicuously out of the debate, however. So much so, that it has even ceased all of its social media activity -- its Facebook page was recently shuttered and the group has not posted a single new tweet on its Twitter account.

The last tweet from the NRA was posted at … Read more

A group attached to the online hacktivist group Anonymous claims to have hacked the Web site of the Westboro Baptist Church in response to plans by the controversial church to picket the funerals of those massacred Friday at a school in Newtown, Conn.

As part of a campaign dubbed #OpWestBoro, KY Anonymous said yesterday it posted the personal information belonging to members of the extremist organization, which is best known for conducting protests designed to disrupt the funerals of members of the military killed in action. The data dump included the names, phone numbers, e-mail addresses, and physical addresses of … Read more