Facebook regrets promoting VR shooting game days after Florida shooting

Facebook has apologised, saying it regrets promoting a Virtual Reality (VR) shooting game named "Bullet Train" on its stand at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference 2018 (CPAC) in the US, a week after 17 students were killed in a Florida school shooting.

"The demo was part of 'a standard set of experiences' that Oculus featured at public events," Hugo Barra, Vice President, Facebook VP of Virtual Reality was quoted as saying by The Verge on Monday.

The social media giant's move comes after it faced criticism for featuring a violent game so closely after the shooting at a high school in Parkland, Florida.

"In light of the recent events in Florida and out of respect for the victims and their families, we have removed the game from the demo. We regret that we failed to do so in the first place," Barra added.

US President Donald Trump recently said that violent video games and movies are responsible for contributing to violent behaviour that leads to such mass shootings.

"Bullet Train" is a short proof-of-concept shooting game developed by Epic Games in 2015.

The sci-fi experience involves shooting human enemies with a wide range of realistic-looking guns -- something that strikes a sour note in the immediate aftermath of a mass shooting, according to The Verge.