'Active Shooter' game back up online, protests continue

BOCA RATON, Fla. -- (WPTV) -- A video game simulating a school shooting is back up on the internet.

The video game simulates a shooting on a school campus. It's a new online game, but psychologist Dr. Raphi Wald says a violent video game can have a real impact.

"If you put a child into a first-person shooter game that might make the situation even worse because they're kind of looking at what it would be in real life to have a gun in their hands and do something horrible," he said.

The game is called "Active Shooter." Recently it was removed from crowd-funding sites and U.S. servers after complaints and online petitions from anti-gun violence advocates. But the creator of the game recently found a new server to hosts his website.

"For this to be something that's available to someone who is potentially struggling with mental illness is concerning," Stephanie Bihr said.

Bihr is a mother who has seen firsthand the impacts of a school shooting. She's a member of the national group Moms Demand Action, a gun violence prevention organization. Other members of the group lost loved ones in the Parkland shooting.

"Every time there's a highly publicized shooting they're re-traumatized," Bihr said. "Sometimes loud noises will re-traumatize them and so something to that's this specific is really upsetting for them to hear about and let alone see."

Bihr along with other moms in the area signed the petition to wipe the game from the internet. But the company that developed the game being branded as a "swat simulator" posted on Twitter that they will not be censored.

The video game shows a disclaimer warning people not to attempt to recreate or mimic any actions in the game.