• grand-theft-auto-5.jpg

grand-theft-auto-5.jpg (Photo : http://images.vcpost.com/)

Target and Kmart stores in Australia started to ban Rockstar's "Grand Theft Auto V" video game after a petition was signed by around 49,000 people.

According to the petition, the video game encourages violence against women and provides incentives if the player murders women inside GTA V.

Like Us on Facebook

"Games like this are grooming yet another generation of boys to tolerate violence against women," the petition read.

On the other hand, fans of the video game are now pushing to ban the Bible with another petition in the same site the anti-GTA V petition was made --Change.org.

"Withdraw The Holy Bible -- this sickening book encourages readers to commit sexual violence and kill women," the new petition against the Bible read.

The GTA V fans wrote the petition similarly to the anti-GTA V one. The counter petition says that the book "encourages readers to murder women for entertainment" and that it also gives incentives for killing them to gain "god points."

The petition, addressed to Target, also emphasizes that the Bible has scenes depicting extreme violence and abuse towards women and it goes on to elaborate on what the book is teaching men in the modern society.

As of Dec. 9, Tuesday, the counter petition made by a user named "Sharky Sharktech" already has 54,853 supporters, surpassing the original number of the anti-GTA V petition.

Published by Rockstar Games and developed by Rockstar North, GTA V was released on Sept. 17, 2013 for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. This year, it was released again on Nov. 18 for Xbox One and PlayStation 4. Its release date for Microsoft Windows is on Jan. 27, 2015.

Players can enjoy the video game either from a first-person or third-person view. Throughout the single-player mode, they have to control the three lead protagonists.