In his post-Newtown press conference, NRA Veep Wayne LaPierre tried to deflect attention away from Adam Lanza’s Bushmaster AR-15. LaPierre criticized society for fostering homicidal urges through violent movies and videogames. “Isn’t fantasizing about killing people as a way to get your kicks really the filthiest form of pornography?” TTAG pointed out the lunacy of this strategy. If nothing else, firearms-intensive movies and video games are to gun culture 2.0 what Pamela Anderson was to California tourism. Forbes magazine exposes the folly of Wayne’s world with The NRA’s Amazing Hypocrisy About Hollywood Gun Violence. Turns out the editors of the NRA’s American Rifleman didn’t get the memo about cultural culpability . . .
American Rifleman just came out with its list of the 10 “coolest gun movies” ever. They include The Terminator, admired for how “Arnold Schwarzenegger played an advanced killing machine that is almost completely unstoppable,” and The Godfather, which “affected millions in many different ways with its cinematography, plot and underlying themes, such as how with determination anyone can become powerful, even if that power is of the criminal nature.” . . .
So now the NRA is praising, among other things, a movie hero who’s an “almost unstoppable” “killing machine,” a career in criminality, and making a shootout a dance with great music. Talking Points Memo’s Hunter Walker writes that “TPM called the NRA to ask how celebrating gun movies fit with the group’s past comments criticizing Hollywood. No one from the organization responded.”
Needless to say, Forbes, TPM, MSNBC and the other left-leaning media mavens picking up on this story were blind to the editorial nuance provided by American Rifleman’s caption writers. Here’s the rest of that Terminator summary:
This movie made shooters realize the importance of firepower, and that preparedness might be needed in the future. That is what this movie is about—the future—and how anything is possible, even the creation of cyber units that are a mix of man and machine, which isn’t that unbelievable since recent news reports reveal that scientists have built a bionic man that utilizes a working heart, a set of lungs and a face. Let’s just hope they don’t come for us.
One thing’s for sure: the mainstream media’s coming for us. Well, the NRA and us. To that end, these “gotcha” reports on the American Rifleman’s movie list also ignored the pro-liberty context provided for other flicks such as this capsule summary for Red Dawn:
Up until the fall of the Berlin wall, many folks prepared for a possible invasion by what Ronald Reagan called the “Evil Empire.” This movie emphasized that Americans fought, and would fight again, for their freedoms.
The Alamo: “While the movie is probably not historically accurate, it features some good battle scenes and the pioneering spirit that made this country a beacon of freedom in the world.”
Die Hard: “While few of us actually followed through and became police officers, which is probably best since this is very untypical in the life of most law enforcement officers, this movie reminds us that good can triumph over evil with skill, training, determination and a few well-placed shots. Yippee-ki-yay.
Etc. Clearly, the NRA sees the positive value of firearms-related violence in movies. Some movies, anyway. All the more reason Wayne should have STFU about the “cultural causes” supposedly enabling and/or encouraging spree killers. The NRA Veep played into the hands of the enemies of the Second Amendment and alienated the members of tomorrow.
Oh well. You win some, you lose some, but the love of liberty that drives the NRA membership is unstoppable. So to speak.