GUN SHOP from Patrick Smith on Vimeo.
Change the way I look at guns? It mostly reminds me how many of them I still don’t own . . .
Guns are terrible objects. They are quite literally designed to kill. But while watching Gun Shop, a short film in which 2,328 firearms, from Western revolvers to assault rifles to water pistols, fly by your eyes in just two minutes, I didn’t just experience abhorrence. The film captures the design of these weapons—their finely machined metals and eye-catching colors—so alluringly, I felt a real cognitive dissonance.
“I [felt] the same way . . . and maybe I made this film out of this conflict,” says filmmaker Patrick Smith. “There is something alluring about guns, and this typically doesn’t sit well due with our disgust for mass shootings (and everything else these objects contribute to). Perhaps this allure is due to their obvious power and refined design guided by their single purpose. Almost in the way a fighter jet is also alluring in terms of power and performance, but ultimately, it’s a killing machine, which is distasteful to any reasonable person.”
– Mark Wilson in This haunting short will change the way you look at guns