The parents of Parkland school shooting victim Joaquin Oliver have released a video game, The Final Exam, with the goal of raising awareness and ultimately enacting legislative changes regarding gun control. Manuel “Manny” Oliver and Patricia Oliver lost their 17-year-old son in the February 2018 shooting, which left 14 students and three staff members dead, and another 17 injured. It remains the deadliest high-school shooting in US history.
The Final Exam sees players step into the shoes of a student navigating an active-shooter situation. Players have 10 minutes to escape the building–a reference to the fact that the average school shooting lasts 10 minutes–but must also collect pieces of gun-control legislation hidden around the school.
“These halls represent the real-life horrors of hundreds of schools that have suffered mass shootings–places that were promised to be safe for children but were failed by our government,” reads a portion of the game’s official website. “In this game and in real life, gun-control bills are the key to survival. By surviving the game and collecting all the bills, you can demand change and help save thousands of lives in the real world.”
The gun-control bills featured in the game include a ban on assault weapons, mandated safe storage of firearms (also known as Ethan’s Law), a ban of high-capacity magazines, mandated background checks for all firearms purchases, and a bill proposing the minimum age to purchase a firearm be raised from 18 years old to 21 years old.
The game also takes issue with certain politicians’ tendency to blame mass shootings on violence in video games. It isn’t violent games that make the Olivers fear for students around the country, but the sheer ease with which Americans can obtain deadly weapons with a high rate of fire–regardless of whether they’re mentally or emotionally capable of handling those weapons in a safe manner.
“The clock starts now,” the game’s site continues. “Let’s pressure politicians to do the right thing: Stop blaming games and start taking meaningful action against gun violence.”
The Final Exam is available for free via its website, where players can also donate to non-profits that support for gun reform.
