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A theme park in Orlando, Florida, announced that it is going to redesign a new attraction consisting of shooting with laser beams from a Chicago wheel at 50 specific targets, after being branded as “insensitive” to the shootings occurring in the country, the park’s management said in a statement.
The announcement comes as a response to a social media campaign against the new attraction that the ICON Park company reported days ago.
A press release in relation to the Bullseye Blast attraction explains that, as the capsule in which attendees travel on the Chicago wheel ascends, participants in the game try to spot the 50 strategically pre-selected targets of varying degrees of difficulty on the rooftops of ICON Park.
Each of the laser shooters has a sight that allows players to see an infrared beam that assists them when aiming at the targets.
Bullseye Blast was labeled as mass shooter training by anti-gun activists on social media.
Some people, however, argued that there was no reason to be outraged and recalled that there are other similar attractions at neighboring Disney and Universal Studios parks.
The same was indicated by ICON Park in the statement in which it announced the review of its attraction.
Last March, in the same park, a 14-year-old teenager died when he fell from his seat in a free-fall tower.
The family of Tyre Sampson, a native of Missouri, sued Orlando Eagle Drop Slingshot, the company that owns the ride, and ICON Park in court for “wrongful death”.
Sampson, who was in Orlando with a group of friends, went on the Free Fall ride, a 131-meter-high tower with a free fall at more than 120 km/h (75 mph).
According to a preliminary investigation, he fell into the void during the ride potentially because of his body weight as the operator of the attraction had to manually adjust the harness opening and the seat sensor to allow his accommodation, contrary to safety regulations.
