SPRINGFIELD - You peer at the image of the antelope wandering across your computer screen.

Your hand is on the computer mouse, gently guiding the onscreen rifle toward the animal. You wait for it to hold still. Then you line it up in your sights, your finger ready on the mouse button.

It could all be part of some unusually realistic computer game, except for what happens next: You click the mouse and hundreds, even thousands of miles away, an actual rifle fires a bullet at the antelope.

It's called "remote-controlled hunting," the brainchild of a Texas ranch owner whose startling new venture had barely begun before the Texas Legislature shut it down two years ago. Nonetheless, concern that the concept could still become the next new thing in virtual entertainment has set off a volley of pre-emptive prohibitions in more than 20 states around the country, including Missouri.

Illinois could be next.

Opposition has come from an unusual alliance of animal-rights activists, one of whom last week called it "pay-per-view slaughter," and hunters, who view the whole thing as the ultimate in unsportsmanlike conduct.

"That's not hunting. It's just not hunting," said Bill Heatherly, wildlife programs supervisor for the Missouri Department of Conservation, which banned remote-controlled hunting last year with an administrative rule specifying that "wildlife may be taken only in the immediate physical presence of the taker and may not be taken by use of computer-assisted remote hunting devices."

In Illinois, a bill was filed this month to outlaw the practice, and it could be debated starting next month.

"It really is in poor taste," says Illinois state Rep. Dan Reitz, D-Steeleville. "It gives all sportsmen a black eye."

He said he was unaware of any such businesses coming online in Illinois, but he's sponsoring legislation this year to outlaw it, just in case.

"It definitely takes the sport out of it," he said. "If they want to do that, just play a video game."

The issue first arose a few years ago, when Texas entrepreneur John Lockwood began publicizing a now-defunct Web site called "Live-Shot.com." The concept was to allow subscribers from all over the country to use their computers to operate a remote-controlled rifle on Lockwood's 220-acre ranch in Boerne, Texas, near San Antonio, hunting blackbuck antelope, wild hogs, Barberry sheep and other animals stocked on the property.

The mechanics of it were relatively straightforward: A hunting rifle was outfitted with a webcam in the gun scope and an actuator connected to the trigger, all of it mounted on a wooden platform attached to a small motor and set outdoors on Lockwood's ranch. An Internet user could, from any computer, remotely swivel the gun's position and fire the weapon at passing animals, who were lured to the firing area with food.

As part of the venture, Lockwood offered to send the heads of the animals to the subscribers who shot them. Live hunts were priced at $300 for two hours, plus the price of taxidermy.

Lockwood couldn't be reached for comment last week. But in an interview with National Public Radio in November 2004, before Texas' move to outlaw his business, he defended it as a useful tool for disabled hunters.

"I know there's a segment of the population that absolutely abhors what I do, and there's a segment of the population that's loving what I'm doing because I'm able to help them," Lockwood said. "As long as it's legal and I can do some good, it's going to continue."

Texas outlawed the practice in 2005, and at least 23 states have banned it since, according to the Humane Society of the United States.