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“This may not be your dinner table video but it gets the point across, and it gets people talking which is the ultimate goal.” Thus proclaims Women Against Gun Violence board member Josh Stepakoff describing the “edgy” production, titled Keep Your Finger Off the Trigger,” the anti-gun org has recently released. In their attempt to catch the attention of millennials, the video features bushels of severed digits, flicked fecal matter and plenty of appropriately sad faces. But I’m not sure what it is they’re actually trying to say other than “guns suck.” Full press release after the jump . . .

Women Against Gun Violence, a non-profit organization dedicated to educating the public, policymakers and the media about the human, financial and public health consequences of gun violence, released a new public service announcement titled “Keep Your Finger Off the Trigger.”  The PSA is a provocative animated video aiming to engage the millennial generation about an important topic:  gun violence.

Directed and animated by Johnnie Semerad of Quiet Man, the superbly-crafted video is complimented by an unforgettable folk song, scored and performed by singer/songwriter, Stephen Krauss.

https://youtu.be/yoOYjO_yNDU

The bold nature of the video aims to leave a lasting impression with millennials, a generation whose attention the gun violence prevention movement doesn’t have right now.

“This may not be your dinner table video but it gets the point across, and it gets people talking which is the ultimate goal,” says Josh Stepakoff, gun violence survivor and WAGV’s youngest board member. “I want my peers, the millennial generation, to use their power to affect change, and I believe this PSA will help get them engaged in the conversation.”

WAGV especially hopes to engage America’s youth in the conversation regarding guns on college campuses.  In the wake of campus shootings like UCSB in 2014 (7 dead and 7 wounded) and Virginia Tech (32 dead and 17 wounded in 2007), the debate has escalated about whether or not to permit guns on college campuses.

“College campuses throughout the United States remain extremely safe environments without the presence of concealed handguns,” says Margot Bennett, Executive Director of WAGV.  “And data shows that college campuses where concealed carry of guns is permitted, the crime rates actually increased while the student population decreased.”

WAGV hopes those still on the fence about whether guns will make you safer, will remember to “keep your finger off the trigger” and keep guns off campuses.

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77 COMMENTS

  1. Data shows…

    What Data?

    Is this another “97% of statistics are made up,” kind of situation? I sure think so.

    • hmm then a lot of things need to be banned!

      feet! over 20k a year fall n die
      cars. over 30k a year
      opps poisonings over 30k each year
      and on n on.

      so sure, hover chairs for all liberals, cut off their feet, take their cars and any soap or chemical that can poison them for starters.

      or we all just keep our rights to choose and lock up anyone that brakes the law. 3 violent crimes and we should drop you in a Desert Prison. no guards, no Walls just 10mile ratios of landmines surrounded by cameras n drones. we drop in prisoners n resources, let the inmates figure out how to live. only way out is a body bag.

      death penalty cases are simple, execution must be swift after speals are expended, no more decades on death row. no more free ride on mentally ill copout, rehabilitation is a pipe dream.

      if this is what awaits violent criminals…. there would be far less crime. it has worked for centuries till liberals made Crime punishment more like Daycare.

      3 times prevents innocents from getting their, no innocent gets convicted 3 times.

      decriminalization of minor drug offenses eill reduce over criminal dramatically. to many get jail time for a few joints(something silly) and get instationalized and cant make it in the real world. this turns an opps into a life of Crime.

  2. Before I go there, anybody wanna bet me a new $700 gun that the “conversation-starting” vid is “comment disabled”?

    • Yeah, unfortunately the got a free page view from me checking, I know better than to be surprised by that.

      • Thirty-four sub-30-second vids and three 3-minute vids over a period of two years. I don’t think we are dealing with a major player here.

      • Yep; like 5 likes and almost 300 dislikes. There is a reason the anti gunners narrative is failing among everyone but soccer moms and some urban communities who pay far too much attention to what their hustler preacher community activists say.

  3. (using the chorus from video)
    If you’re a sheople, stay out my steeple
    You’ll only find misery

    For I have triggers, lots of triggers
    With proven functionality.

    – 2AMexican

  4. I was looking up some statistics and noticed that in the United States even though we have a higher percentage of murders of those murders approximately 90% are of men and 10% are of women. In Europe the percentage is 76% for men and 24% for women. Maybe this group should rethink the idea of having gun laws similar to most of Europe?

  5. I think that video cover image sums it up best; two fingers to the rest of the world, our way or the highway

  6. Lawful self protection bad, while visually representing fingering a hole, good….Hmmmm. God bless Bloomberg and his coin keeping artistic logic failure intellectuals employed.

  7. campuses are safer without the presence of concealed handguns…

    If they’re all concealed, how would they know?

  8. lol, any credibility or potential for me to listen was lost a the 2:02 mark. like really?

    on a side note, this is reinforcing trigger discipline at the very least.

  9. I am assuming Women Against Gun Violence board member Josh Stepakoff is male.

    I’m finding this incredibly funny for some reason.

  10. Women Against Gun Violence Video Features Mayhem, Tears.

    That’s kinda sad. I really liked that Mayhem guy when he was doing those Allstate commercials.

  11. They say they want to Start a Conversation ™, but their YouTube video doesn’t allow comments. Who do they think they’re having a conversation with? Is anybody NOT aware of the existence of “gun violence” by now? (Anybody? Bueller…? Bueller…?)

    If you want to do the public a service, create a compelling video that doesn’t paint all gun owners as rubes too dumb to *not* kill people. Create a video that doesn’t attempt to emotionally manipulate viewers into fearing a simple mechanical object. Create a video that motivates people to pay more attention to mental illness. Or better yet, look at ALL the data and tell the truth — that people who put their fingers on the trigger at the right time SAVE lives EVERY DAY.

    But wait…where’s the tragedy in that?

    These people make me sick. They’re nothing more than chronically addicted tragedy whores putting their emotional onanism on public display.

    • “They say they want to Start a Conversation ™, but their YouTube video doesn’t allow comments. Who do they think they’re having a conversation with? Is anybody NOT aware of the existence of “gun violence” by now? (Anybody? Bueller…? Bueller…?)”

      Having had to work around sundry progs and libtards for too many years (and having now happily escaped) I can say that “start a conversation” is a common and threadbare trope that doesn’t mean what it sounds like. If you have an opposing view, “Conversations” with these folks is usually one way. They talk and you listen. As with this video, basically they’re just talking to themselves.

      • Yeah what they always mean by ‘a conversation’ is ‘a lecture’ because they definitely don’t want any talkback.

      • Yep. They don’t want a real conversation. They just want to tell the rest of us how wrong we are. Liars, all of ’em.

    • How about “High Noon”? “No bystanders were shot in the making of this movie.” I would have said, “The Man who Shot Liberty Balance,” but then, he didn’t really shoot Libery Valance.

  12. When I watch something like this, as weird and smug as it is, I have to wonder just where in the heck is the person(s) behind it coming from, that they might honestly believe this is going to be persuasive, rather than boorishly offensive.

    So, no ad hominems, just background, just facts:

    Josh the board member was a kid shot by a nut white supremecist, a loony on the loose, at a school shooting:
    http://www.dailynews.com/general-news/20140809/jewish-community-center-shooting-survivors-turn-pain-into-action

    HIs mom has been an anti-gun activist since then, involved in Million Mom Marches, Brady, etc.
    No problem there- everyone is entitled to their political beliefs and I can appreciate why this tragic event would stimulate a desire to take control.

    The WAGV is an anti-gun organization active in LA since 1993, founded by then police commissioner Anna Reise Lane, with feminist Betty Frieden, “believing that woman are instruments of social change”.

    A little more research shows the WAGV has been lying about the facts, and working the progressive network for a long time.

    http://articles.latimes.com/1996-07-19/local/me-25580_1_gun-violence-gun-deaths-responsible-gun-ownership

    All I have to say about this- is just imagine how much good would have been done since, to find solutions and help for the mentally ill. Trying to change people by regulating a tool is so illogical, that in the end, the only conclusion is the political activity becomes self-fulfilling- its a means to achieve power, and satisfy ego.

    Progressives are doubling down on their top-down control via propaganda. The truth is peope are seeing through it, and the sea change is underway. Current events like Ferguson, Baltimore, and the abject failure of the Progressive Agenda, across all parts of society, show that socialism, big government, and increasing monitoring and control of law abiding citizens means of self-defense, simply is not going to work, in the long term.

    But the lessons of history tell us that if it can happen elsewhere, it can happen here. Universal gun registration is the means to universal gun confiscation, which in essence, is where we are here in California.
    And tragedies like Isla Harbor, only show that more gun control, is not working.

    What we POTG and everyone with an independent brain can do is vote out the Left-Progressives who have brought us to this point, where American values are sharply polarized, and even leftists can agree that their solutions dont work, and wont work, after 6 years of complete control top down in Fed.Gov and decades of control, including a supermajority in California.

    What is needed is more mental health awareness and help.

    Its time to retire the aging boomers living in their dreams of glory as hippies and now, like Dianne Feinstein, imagining if they just double down, and push thru the resistance (AWB for example) everyone will see how good and smart they are…

    • “Progressives are doubling down on their top-down control via propaganda. The truth is peope are seeing through it, and the sea change is underway.”

      *Bingo*

      The harder they push, the stronger the push-back.

      It’s like none of them have ever raised stubborn children.

      (I haven’t either, but I was a stubborn child….O.K., sometimes stubborn adult…)

      Free clue, Women Against Gun Violence: The ground is shifting under your feet.

      As much a it annoys and sometimes angers me, just keep doing exactly what you are doing.

      Napoleon Bonaparte — ‘Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake.’

      A-Team character John “Hannibal” Smith – “I love it when a plan comes together”

  13. One of the most idiotic videos I ever wasted my time to watch. Guess they tried to make parts of it funny but sure did not succeed. End result is a somewhat crude and pointless video. Hope they paid a lot for that as it will be more money wasted on a lost cause that can’t be spent in a more productive fashion to control guns.

  14. I haven’t watched the video but based upon the comments above it sounds like more of the usual ‘women are too weak to protect themselves’ BS.

    • Well, based on the 11 seconds I could stand, and the shot at @ 2:00 to @ 2:08 that I unfortunately looked at, I would say that the “message” is nowhere near that coherent.

    • The chorus line is “Keep your finger, off the trigger, or keep away from me.”
      No, I don’t know what that means. No do I understand why losing fingers has anything to do with “gun violence.” Though I do suppose that losing all ten fingers would make “gun violence” a bit more difficult.

  15. The more desperate the anti’s get, the crazier they look. Judging from this video (need eye bleach really bad now) I’d say we almost have them right where we want them!

  16. Could they at least get a better vocalist? As far as message; you don’t have to fear us. Hundreds of people are nearby me (and probably all of you readers out there, too) while I am CC. Some are oblivious. Some are fellow CC’s. Hell, some are probably criminals carrying illegally with evil intents. Never has a single person been affected by my CC. Most probably have no clue they’re standing next a good guy with a gun in line at Walmart or the gas station or wherever I am at. To the anti-gun people and even the fence sitters: I AM NOT YOUR ENEMY! Talk to me, I’m a nice guy. I’m not going to just shoot you down in cold blood. And then you’ll walk away having talked to a good guy with gun and never had any clue I had a holstered weapon in my waistband.

  17. Dumbest. PSA. Ever. I wonder how much weed was smoked before someone thought this was a good idea.

    • I watched a whopping 15seconds of it, and I don’t feel there’s enough weed to get high enough to watch it again.

  18. Why don’t the anti’s take up a better cause, like being afraid of spiders or let’s deport Justin Beiber or something?

  19. How much time and money do you suppose was invested in to this? I’m pretty sure most of this guys ‘peers’ have more important things to do with their lives.

  20. I think you guys are just mean. I agree completely that gun violence needs to be decreased. Because of that conviction, I have (long ago) decided that if I observe anyone initiating gun violence, I will shoot him if possible. Once or twice, anyhow. If every person in America made that commitment, gun violence would be over.

  21. I suspect that video is going to mostly fall on deaf ears. Whatever theme there is gets lost in cheesy cg and needless repetition which in my opinion is really quite amateurish.

  22. Nonsense, anything that rimes imitation folk music.
    This is a pretty low mark, creatively speaking.
    They must be running out of ideas.
    It’s like the old “lips that touch alcohol will never touch mine” slogan
    during prohibition. We all know how well that worked out, right ?

  23. What The Fornication was that suppose to be about? How many ways someone can lose their fingers. Or some kind of subliminal way of saying they want to cut off the fingers of POTG. Made me think of the scene in one of the Road Warrior movies, when that guy tried to catch the boomerang and his finders went flying. This is probably not the millionth post so I’ll stop now.

  24. Why is a man (Josh “Step Off” Stepakoff) speaking for Women Against Gun Violence? Can’t they find any women to represent Women Against Gun Violence? Makes me wonder if anything they do or say can ever make sense.

  25. They keep producing stuff like this. I don’t know who this appeals to, or who the audience is supposed to be.

    The only thing I can think of is, the audience is themselves; that it’s “signal boosting” and some sort of back-patting going on to keep momentum going.

    Nobody who’s a gun owner is going to watch this and even understand what’s trying to be said, forget give up their firearms.

    (Unless they really, really do think that gun owners are people who are just constantly itching to pull that trigger – who have to be reminded to, maybe with a sleepy, croaky folk tune – ‘oh yeah, oh yeah right, gotta make sure not to shoot anyone today. Phew.’ .. I could see antis thinking this to some degree…)

    Nobody who’s an anti-gunner is going to see this and… stay this way, thanks to this, I guess?

    Even for the fence-sitter, it’s just weird. It doesn’t play to emotion, it isn’t an argument, or convincing, or anything like that.

    It’s just a “weird art piece that reinforces, from people who agree that guns suck, that they do indeed do still think that guns suck, to people who think that guns suck.”

    The production probably wasn’t cheap, either.

    Oh well, if this is what they want to do…… have at it.

  26. 3:40 I will never get back. I hope they didn’t receive a government grant for this video.

  27. Weak.

    They’re not going to change anyone’s mind with this crap. Probably won’t even motivate the faithful who are already gun-averse.

  28. Nope, not clicking, not giving them the page hit…

    “…about the human, financial and public health consequences of gun violence,”

    told me everything I would care to know about the linked video. Unrelated data points, lots of correlation without causation, lots of large claims about statistically insignificant polls, and calls for a ‘conversation’ that can only be described as them telling you what you should think now shut up and repeat after us…. guns r bad mmkay.

    • This video left me in physical pain. I then attempted to watch it a second time thinking I misunderstood it. I must have misunderstood it. Because it makes literally, zero sense. -Sara

  29. It’s as if they’re really trying to be trendy and “hip” but can’t. Like they saw some of those nonsensical commercials aimed at young people and decided that was the best way to approach it.

  30. Art and music from the left has an infantile and sick fascination with the scatological.

    Yet another element of society that the Left has destroyed….just like everything else they touch.

    • My first thought as well. Next they should do an “always keep your muzzle pointed in a safe direction” song featuring dogs sticking their noses in peoples’ crotches. Would seem to fit the theme they’ve established here.

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