In light of concerns about video game violence, the release of a controversial new game isn’t helping the issue.

Very different from the games that are usually released each week, “JFK Reloaded” was released Monday. The game allows players to shoot President John F. Kennedy and re-enact his death.

The game’s release coincides with the 41st anniversary of Kennedy’s assassination. Players shoot JFK and points are given based on how closely their shots match the official version of events as documented by the Warren Commission, which investigated Kennedy’s assassination.

David Smith, a spokesman for Massachusetts Sen. Edward Kennedy, the late president’s brother, called the new game “despicable” in a CNN.com article.

The game is not only despicable, but also tasteless and disrespectful.

Though violence and shootings have become standard issue in video games, re-creating an actual historical event is going too far. Kennedy is a well-known figure that all American children learn about and many Americans can even remember exactly where they were when they heard the news of his assassination. To have his murder exploited is completely unacceptable.

Most video games are fantasy-based, with players shooting aliens or other imaginary beings. Killing people – actual people – is something entirely different.

Makers of “JFK Reloaded” say it was designed to show how a lone gunman was able to kill the president and thus eliminate the possibility of conspiracy theories.

Kirk Ewing, the managing director of Traffic Games, which developed the game, claims the company had nothing but respect for Kennedy and for history.

“We believe that the only thing we’re exploiting is new technology,” Ewing said in a CNN.com article.

If new technology means being able to plot someone’s death, regardless of whether it’s on a TV screen, then we hope no additional technologies develop.

Mimicking past murders is something that shouldn’t happen. What if someone were to re-create Hitler’s massacre of Jewish people and other groups during World War II, or the Columbine shootings? No one would want their children, or anyone else for that matter, re-enacting these events. The assassination of a U.S. president falls into the same category.

This game and future games like it should be banned – it’s just a little too close to reality for comfort.