“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]

30 COMMENTS

    • Irony aside thanks for not reposting the fake news that Manson music was tied to the columbine shooting. It wasn’t and that lie hurt him.

  1. This clown is still alive? If he had even an ounce of rockstar in him he’d have OD’d years ago…

  2. A short 100 foot range Sniper? LOL!
    That’s what is known in most gun circles as an amateur pistol shooting “beginner”. 😏

    • There is a lot of talk going on about this on stagehand forums.

      Given what I’ve heard and seen of the kind of person Manson is, you’re probably right, but it was no one’s fault but his.

      That was a wheeled prop not designed to be locked to the deck, and sure as shit not designed to be climbed.

  3. I would argue that Manson is NOT a gun control advocate. Please cite further evidence other than a Michael Moore documentary and a Rolling Stone article, I mean, c’mon, Farago.

    • Crap! I did some more research and it turns out I got it exactly backwards. I’ve acknowledged my mistake in the post and amended the text.

      FWIW I researched quotes like these and came to the wrong conclusion:

      When it comes down to who’s to blame for the high school murders in Littleton, Colorado, throw a rock and you’ll hit someone who’s guilty. We’re the people who sit back and tolerate children owning guns, and we’re the ones who tune in and watch the up-to-the-minute details of what they do with them.

      Again, apologies.

      • As someone who has definitely made mistakes, I can appreciate it when someone else owns theirs. Well done, sir. Hope you enjoyed my friend from TTAG’s visit in TX. Pro-gun doctors and Californians are more rare than they should be.

  4. A sad attempt to copy Alice Cooper. Who wrote actual music with clever lyrics, had an original stage show, and unlike Manson, has a modicum of class.

  5. Tim Skold, one of his bandmates (current, former? Not sure) and former KMFDM band member is big into guns. He posts stuff on instagram all of the time shooting stuff like HKs. It looks like they might have similar views on firearms.

  6. His songs are hit or miss in my opinion (see what I did there?), but he knows better than anyone how everyone but the guilty get blamed for “gun violence”. They blamed him for the Columbine shooting, after all.

    And overall, he’s not anti-gun. Not especially knowledgeable, but not an anti, at least.

  7. I saw him on Talking Dead one night and it was clear that his head is full of Fruit Loops or something other than brains. The guy is really odd. He’s way out there.

    Let’s be glad he wasn’t killed by a huge prop of guns otherwise we’d hear it even from Shannon Watts about how glorifying gun ultimately killed him.

  8. The guy is clearly way WAY out there. I saw him on Talking Dead and it disappointing to see someone so odd and disruptive.

    Gotta love a proxy server

  9. He does indeed seem to be at least tacitly pro-gun. IF this comment doesn’t disappear into the ether I hope he(it?) is OK…

  10. It’s not Manson’s oversized guns that you have to watch out for, it’s that metal lunchbox with the brick in it….

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