“Marilyn Manson, the provocative rock star, was injured on Saturday night during a concert at the Hammerstein Ballroom in Manhattan, when a stage prop of two giant guns appeared to fall on him,” nytimes.com reports. “Appeared” my toches. The video below clearly shows two gigantic pistols dropping on the singer. Mr. Manson was taken to a hospital, his condition unknown (as of this writing). But one thing we do know . . .
is that Mr. Manson has a thing about guns. We’re talking about the songwriter who penned Cupid Has A Gun and Get Your Gunn. It’s not the most informed gun thing, though, as this quote from a loudwire.com interview reveals:
As for Manson’s current obsession with guns in his lyrics, the musician traces it back to his father. “He taught me how to be a sniper and brought that gun back from Vietnam,” Manson explains. “So I have accurate aim. If I wanted to be a short, 100-foot range sniper, I’d be very, very good at it.
“But I’m not really into shooting things … [‘The gun obsession] probably had a lot to do with me dealing with my mom dying while I was making the record. At the end of the day, you still die alone – spoiler alert. You die alone. It’s not a depressing story. It just is the story. It’s life.”
I don’t think he’s joking about his unrealized potential as a “100-foot range sniper.” Anyway, turns out Mr. Manson is something of a libertarian gun rights advocate. Here’s the money shot from an interview at esoterra.org:
I think Marilyn Manson stands for anyone of our generation because we are a product of the sixties and seventies. Now, everyone is concerned with every little problem in the world on such a greater scale than they were back then. Its almost like prohibition. They want to control guns. Control drugs. They should just open up the gates and let everybody do whatever it is they want. Then the people who are strong enough to survive will. People too stupid to live will be crushed under the wheels of progress.
In keeping with Mr. Manson’s “take no prisoners” ethos, his fans aren’t missing a chance to make light of the performer’s injury . . .
NOTE: In the first version of this story I labeled Mr. Manson an anti-gunner, based on preliminary research. Further surfing revealed my mistake. I apologize for misinterpreting quotes from Mr. Manson and jumping the gun. Thanks to TTAG Commentator Ben for setting me straight]