The Sundance Film festival selection committee chose this short film to show to Harvey Weinstein’s friends and family. OK, maybe not Harvey. There are plenty of Tinsel Town show folk who look down their noses at Mr. Miramax, whose violent films are way too popular to be considered great art. Sundance is about cinematic art, not blood and guts. Except, of course, when it is. Same goes for guns. That said, in the right context, say, a film that treats a couple of married Texas gun owners as Diane Arbus-like freaks, guns are cool. But are Tim and Susan freaks? I’m with everydaynodaysoff.com on this one. Aside from poor trigger discipline, they seem like normal gun owners. So is this film making fun of gun owners or not? Are we really that freakish to left-leaning show folk and their liberal BFFs?

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64 COMMENTS

  2. Lets be honest, anyone.who doesn’t agree with a big, huge totalitarian government is a freak to the Hollywood Limousine Liberals.

  4. Ah, isn’t that cute? They think they’re making “great art.”

    Yes, to the Hollywood glitterati and the pompous literati we’re all freaks. That’s fine. When people like that don’t understand you, you’re doing something right.

  6. The one thing that seemed odd was flagging their pet with a handgun. As an animal lover (I prefer dogs, but cats are cool too), I would never flag my pet (on purpose anyway).

    • My 130 pound lab decided to jump into the truck through the driver window after a hunting trip once…..flagging him definitely came to mind….

  7. The laser sight thing… Dunno on that one, but everything else is pretty normal.

    I don’t think it’s trying to SAY anything. I think it’s an actual documentary for once, even if short form. It’s refreshing.

  8. My cat freaks out when I sight in my laser and such. I had to go out and buy one of the pointer jobbies just so I wouldn’t give in to the temptation to use my gun as a cat toy. You shoot one cat and you’re labeled a cat-shooter for life.

    • My wife’s cats love to play with the laser (pointer). They can be entertained/entertaining for as long as you are interested with a laser pointer. Never thought of using a laser sight, bad idea.

  10. I’m not sure what I just saw. Was that the film or a trailer for the film? What’s the 3rd M&P for?

    I didn’t really detect any bias in that short bit. Just sort of “here is a strange and different place and this is what goes on there”. As if being 99 degrees and having big trucks is all that strange.

    • “What’s the 3rd M&P for?”
      The cat.

      “As if being 99 degrees and having big trucks is all that strange.”
      If your life is lived in an air conditioned mansion, it;s strange. The thermostat outside must be broken. Call somebody…

  12. I see some irresponsible gun handling, but nothing particularly anti. What I do see is an affirmation of one of the more mild gun-owner stereotypes. Not sure if this will move viewers opinions in either direction.

  13. There is nothing wrong with using your gun mounted laser as you would a traditional laser pointer. Just ask Cuomo’s Homeland Security Director.

  14. To me it seems like they are holding this couple up as an example of something strange and alien to polite culture. Or they just made a commercial for the M&P.

  15. Having traveled quite a bit in the world and lived and workrd in most parts of the US I dont find these folks odd. With that trigger on finger habit whilecloading I would not be sitting on the other side of the table. But I dont get that ” just want to go take a shower and wash all over with soap” feelijg I get after spending time with most Hollywood types. Except Eastwood. Geniune good guy.

  16. If you wonder what we look like to Hollywood and Acela-corridor liberals, think about what humans at the zoo look like to the monkeys.

  18. I thought it was OK.
    Going through a bunch of pistols before finding out what they liked best. Makes sense.
    I used to do the same thing. Then I realized I like them all.

  20. ” Are we really that freakish to left-leaning show folk and their liberal BFFs?”

    Yes. We, as a group, pretty much are. It’s rather disconcerting actually, because that’s the half of the country we need to edify so they can accept our way of thinking. Yet most of the people in our culture have just written them off as unreachable, and actively alienate them and put them on the defensive without any regard to the implications of such behavior. Pissed off, scared and defensive people act out reflexively in bad ways…ways that will hurt gun owners in the end.

    It’s also rather disconcerting because, contrary to popular belief, there’s a great many liberal gun owners and 2nd amendment supporters out there…and we just spit on them constantly.

    I’d like to think we are a well informed and inclusive group. The 2nd amendment isn’t open to interpretation, but by the same token, it knows no political party. We really need to work on the fact that while we disagree on those things that are open to interpretation like budgets, spending, and who and when we war, we have solidarity with those who believe in the constitutional principals of law…and not alienate them because of disagreements over other things.

    In the end, if we write off half the country, we WILL lose our right to bear arms. We’re just outnumbered.

    • It’s also rather disconcerting because, contrary to popular belief, there’s a great many liberal gun owners and 2nd amendment supporters out there

      “I support the second amendment, but…”

      “nobody needs an assault weapon”, “there’s nothing wrong with registration”, “you must be a right-wing moron to think the Democrats want to take your guns away”

    • There are a ton of liberal gun owners on this site, and I have yet to hear one of them shy away from expressing themselves and their opinions. Seems the constant ridicule doesn’t really dissuade people who are sure of their beliefs, and I can certainly empathize. The argument and debate are what America is all about and we should wear it as a badge of honor.

    • If you’re a gun owner and a liberal; then you’re hated by the liberal gun grabbers as well., probably hated more because they are looked at as traitors. The liberal gun owner knows this; which is why I believe you don’t see to much complaint from liberal POTG when the the liberal gun grabber is rightfully and justifiably ridiculed for being delusional and in denial. Most of the liberal POTG probobly agrees with us.

  21. The film itself is not anti-gun, but it will be viewed by anti-gunners who will think “Gee, guns are bad, so therefore the people who own them are bad, and because they are inherently bad people everything they do is strange and out of touch with the reality we normal people live in, and although they seem pretty normal, really they’re just weirdos and this film proves that gun people are weird and we don’t like them and we want them to stop doing gun stuff”. Once they see a gun, they will not be able to look beyond the firearm and see a relatively normal couple who loves each other and who do normal things but who also own guns. The simple fact that there are guns present will divorce this normal couple from the Hollywood perception of life.

    • Some people can read the Bible and think Jesus was a passivist. Or one of the commandments says thow shall not kill. They will believe what they want. Men can move mountains sooner than change another’s mind.

  22. Are we really that freakish to left-leaning show folk and their liberal BFFs?
    ————————————————

    Yes, we are. Here’s the mentality that you are dealing with.

    I was in a meeting with a number of more liberal types (I worked at Warner Bros at the time) and power was accidentally cut to the Warner Bros lot, including the backup generators. A backhoe accidentally dug through the cables. Brought down a good bit of Burbank.

    We were in a meeting room in the middle of the building, and it went black. Could barely see anything. People were a bit panicked.

    I simply took out my flashlight and turned it on. You’d think that light in a dark room would be welcome, but people were SCARED of the flashlight. I had people asking me questions, such as “Why are you carrying a flashlight?” and “what do you need that for?” and “do you always carry a flashlight?”

    Remember, it’s DARK, and people are wondering about the purpose of a flashlight. Some visibly recoiled from the sight of a small tactical flashlight, when it’s the only source of light.

    To them, my carrying a flashlight wasn’t a preparation in case it went dark, it was part of the cause of it going dark, as if the very carrying of the flashlight made a backhoe operated a mile away dig in the wrong spot, or that I was somehow part of the conspiracy to have the power cut. The proof being that the lights went out and I had a flashlight, so therefore I had to know the lights were going to go out.

    They are not reasonable people as you think of reasonable. To them, I’m not reasonable because I carry a flashlight, you can imagine how they think about someone carrying a firearm. They truly think the only reason someone carries a firearm is so that they can get into an argument and kill someone, because items control people in their minds.

  23. BTW, I don’t think there is a lack of trigger discipline at the 1:14 mark. His finger does not appear to be inside the trigger guard or on the trigger, but is instead next to the trigger but not touching.

    The angle makes it look like his finger is on the trigger.

    Start at the 1:07 mark, and you can clearly see the trigger which is in front of his finger, he does extend his finger starting at 1:11 but he doesn’t appear to bend the finger inside the trigger guard. He does turn the M&P9 so he could at that point have his finger on the trigger, but it’s very possible it’s still along side.

    Not the best trigger discipline, but I’m not sure it’s as bad as some think.

  24. The film’s okay. Robert, I must say, though, that I could barely wade through your paragraph of oh-so-cool cutsie vernacular and juvenile cultural references. Given that there probably aren’t many teenaged girls reading TTAG, could we drop all the texting abbreviations? And speaking of overdone stylistic twist, could we also back off a little on the whole, “It isn’t that. Until it is.” device? Even Leghorn and the other writers are becoming infested with this – and it’s getting old fast. I’d say it had jumped the shark, but that’s too old and worn-out as well.

    Thank you for your understanding, from a technical writer who has to cringe enough while reading popular journalism..

    • Good point, although I have to ask: do you want TTAG written in technical journal style? If that happens, I’m outta here.

  25. I like how the selection of DVD’s shown are all mostly action movies, and then BBC’s Sherlock show stuck in the mix.

  26. I was a little alarmed at the cat thing. I was thinking that this was casting gun owners as stupid people who don’t know the four rules. Gun owners that I know wouldn’t do that except possibly one out of over a hundred. After that, I thought the video was very nice and comforting. Perhaps they were trying to use subtle cues and stereotypes. I would have to agree with some of the previous commentary on that note. I was very amused (and believe it) with the flashlight story in the comments. I’ve had funny looks for having a BladeTech keychain flashlight (very tiny but helpful) I do agree that many are hypnotized to believe that there is nothing wrong with assigning values to guns and purposes of use. With all the talk about supposed assault rifles on the news, and the exploitation of hunters (how could you let that happen to you hunters) to say that nobody needs more than 5 rounds, I never once saw anybody on the news ask about the use of a modern sporting rifle (or assault rifle for that matter) as a house protection gun or as a sporting rifle or as a hunting rifle. There are several rifle sports where either the AR-15 is the ideal gun for that sport or which have divisions for AR-15 and divisions for other types of rifles. Not a word. I always wondered how these same people could be fine with very violent sports where people are in fact dying at a rate much higher than participants in shooting sports. Hmm, I seem to have jumped up onto a soapbox. Stepping down… Have a good day.

  27. If it’s anti-gun, I don’t see it. As for the bit with the laser, no finger near the trigger. Under control, thus it’s fine.

  29. I’ve been wondering this for about two years now: Will Hollywood really be allowed to make a movie about the 3rd Hunger Games book? Will our children really be encouraged to watch a teenage love story centered around political assasination?

    If so, I bet this movie only comes out AFTER Obumbum is no longer president in 2017. That way the children can direct their angst….more appropriately.

  30. Liberalish guy here. I don’t think it was anti gun at all. In fact I think having more movies with guns as a normal folks kind of thing is good. The people were sympathetic and loving toward each other, and the guns were not shown to be used in crime or as tools to rack up on screen kills or splash blood on the screen.

    As far as liberals of the gun feel about sharing there views as gun owners, hearing the constant pants wetting terrified hyperbole and insults thrown toward liberals does have a chilling effect. I no longer visit some gun forums because of the attacks that take place. The worst is when I hear dehumanizing language about how liberals are irrational and can’t be reasoned with and how they are the sort of folk who are to blame for so many things wrong with our country. It’s kind of like the talk that lead to the Jews and other political others being put to death.

  31. Holy Crap! I work at a grocery store in Keller, and I bet dollars to donuts they get that Monarch ammo from the same Academy that I do. I’m going to keep an eye out for them in my local grocery store and at the Academy to see if I spot them.

    Anyone have any questions they want me to ask them should I see them (be nice)?

  32. Great movie! I laughed. I cried…but I didn’t laser my cat. Actually, the film gave me a good idea. Me and the wife are going to get swappable handguns more or less. Simplifies life. Also kinda like a mini militia. Very cool. Finally… the fact that it is associated with Sundance makes it an anti gun culture movie.

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