Guns and the Movies

We can close out the week with a thought that, I suppose, has been in the back of my mind a bit during this week that was begun with an immense assault on civilization in Las Vegas, and has proceeded, even in this column, with much discussion regarding firearms.

So I guess I can characterize that thought as this ... there are two very large aspects to this discussion, and we never hear anyone try to make the distinction.  First, there is the weapon itself and all that goes with it, including the Second Amendment, the regulation, the registration, the ammunition and everything that goes along with the firearm and its possession.

That's one thing.

But then the other is the less-discussed half.  That is the action itself; the person, the motivation, the influences around the use of the weapon.  And we really, really need to talk about that.

I was, I suppose, a fortunate child.  Not in assets, for sure; we were a rather low-income family.  But Dad was a former Army competitive marksman who could, as I've written, put five pistol shots in a quarter-size ring at age 95 though he refused to hunt.  When I was a kid, he taught hunter safety classes even though he did not hunt at all, and taught us firearms safety as any good parent should.

So growing up, my attitude toward firearms was shaped by a very rational approach, that is, by what they were intended to be used for.  I was a competitive target shooter by age 12, and I looked at firearms as the tools you used for target shooting.  Other people hunted, and that was fine, I knew, and for home protection, which was also fine.  Targets, hunting, protection -- that's what firearms were for, and that's how I see them to this day.

And then there is another generation -- maybe two or three of them, actually.  These are the people raised on what they see in movies.  There's very little hunting in the movies any more, and about zero target shooting and not much home protection except maybe in Lifetime movies.

What there is a lot of, though, is violence in every conceivable way.  War movies, sure, but criminal depictions, action films, science fiction, drug-action movies -- they're all out there and attract their own set of followers.  I even remember watching "Blind Side", a fine story of a current NFL lineman who grew up in the drug-infested streets in Memphis, and was taken in by a Caucasian family, learned to play football at a high level, and succeeded.  But there is a scene where he goes back to the streets and his old "friends", and one threatened to "bust a cap" -- to shoot him.  Even in a feel-good movie, you see the depiction.

Firearms violence is a staple of Hollywood and frankly, has been for a long time.  And here's the thing.  If you hand someone a pistol, they will see it for what they believe it to be.  Me?  I will take it, point it downward, ensure it is not loaded but treat it as if it were.  I will regard it as an item to be respected.  But others will see it as Hollywood has portrayed it -- an item of action, practically a toy in that sense, for what it invokes.  That's dangerous as all Hades.

You know, and I know, that Hollywood rakes in tons of cash on action movies (which means "shoot-em-up" flicks, of course).  It practically survives on them.

But where do the left and the anti-gun  folks go for their money and their loud support?  Hmmm ... the same Hollywood types who make their money off those portrayals.  Does anyone think that the proliferation of action movies is not a big factor in the attitudes toward firearms that many killers have today, including mass murderers?  Do we think that Chicago might just be a little safer place if there weren't examples of misuse of guns every 30 seconds in the movies they watch?

But Hollywood is taking no stand on self-policing.  People stand up at the Oscars and Emmys and protest trivia like the percentage of black or Hispanic actors being nominated for awards that they themselves in the industry both cast for and then nominate.  But will not the next actor or actress to stand up there and decry the violence in their own movies and shows, be the first to do so?

Hollywood is a bastion of hypocrisy and always has been.  But darn it, someone has to point out that hypocrisy as it relates to violence with firearms.  You can't make leftist decrials of firearm violence out of one side of your mouth and then make money on movies celebrating the same violence.

The actor who first points that out on stage will be my hero.

Copyright 2017 by Robert Sutton
Like what you read here?  There's a new post from Bob at www.uberthoughtsUSA.com at 10am Eastern time, every weekday, giving new meaning to "prolific essayist."  Appearance, advertising, sponsorship and interview inquiries cheerfully welcomed at bsutton@alum.mit.edu or on Twitter at @rmosutton.