https://youtu.be/T9GkoVh3Oxk

To spare you death by treacly music, here’s the 411. Mayor Whatshisname in The Arrow episode above touts the “Firearms Freedom Act,” which “respects our freedom and our lives.” In other words, gun control! What’s worse: he links this legislative push to bravery. As if instituting civilian disarmament requires the same courage as capturing or killing killers.

Which raises the question: is America still The Home of the Brave? Ours is the only national anthem that ends in a question. That question. So again, what’s the answer? Have we forgotten that it takes bravery — actual physical bravery — to defend our freedoms?

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53 COMMENTS

  1. After hearing “AR-15 assault rifle” for the half-dozenth time, I deleted it from the DVR and removed it from the recording schedule. If you’re going to preach, at least be factual. But I’m done with this show.

    • Marvel did it too with the last Captain America. “They’re armed with AR15s!”

      1. Not one of the thugs had a semi automatic rifle, all select fire
      2. Not a single one even had a select fire AR variant like an M4 or M16

      Won’t watch them anymore, and won’t pick up Arrow.

      • Yeah, I caught that one too. Were we kind, we would shrug it off as “meh, who cares. Like the Glock 7 reference, “ceramic gun”, on the second Die Hard”.
        But I agree there’s something a bit more sinister at work here – next time something or something comes up about AR-15s (new legislation, new bans, you name it), people that saw the movie may go “OMFG ! I SAW THAT GUN ! ON THAT MARVEL MOVIE! THEY SHOT HALF THE CITY ! AND CIVILIANS HAVE ACCESS TO THAT ??? WE NEED TO BAN THEM ! ! !”
        Liberal Hollywod at its best – influencing the audience, influencing the outcome 🙂

        • While some will have that “OMG BAN IT” reaction others are having an “OMG MUST HAVE” reaction and will then vote to defend their new property and pass time.

      • What? Yes, they were AR-15s, assuming they were direct impingement. The AR-15 is a platform with a ton of different iterations, some select fire, some not. You could argue that it was disingenuous because most people don’t actually know that, but it was NOT factually incorrect.

        • In his defense ( facetiously), Captain America was involved in WWII and probably frozen in the Arctic before the introduction of the StG-44 assault Rifle. He was thawed out in a new century with weapons he did not recognize. His confusion over AR-15s might be excused. The confusion of Hollywood script-writers, however, is inexcusable.

      • Also, how do you know that they were’t M4s or M16s? Those rifles are just as modular as civilian models, so is it really inconceivable that someone could take an M4 and swap out parts of it?

        • Because I actually watched it?

          Unless you’re saying they took some AR-15/M16/M4s, cut them up, removed the buffer tubes, chopped them down, crammed some banana-mags in and then digitally replaced them with Galils, in which case, sure, I suppose I can’t be sure.

          But I’m pretty sure.

    • Why? They were right. It was a fully automatic AR, so it was, by every definition, an assault rifle. This episode was as balanced a take on gun control as you could ever expect to see. The heroes were split on the issue and discussed the hypocrisy of glorifying their use of violence. The villain of the week was an anti. Don’t pitch a fit just because the main protagonist ultimately made a decision on gun control that you disagree with.

      • You make it sound like some real person expressed an individual opinion and you respect him for it. It’s a fictional character in a fictional world that has no established political views and a network and a team of writers are using this character as a prop to advance their agenda. And a ridiculous, fraudulent agenda too! They’re still trotting out the BS that less guns make everyone safer despite the fact that criminals will still have them and Obama’s personal demonstration of driving gun sales to historic highs hasn’t resulted in a less safe country.

      • All this in a (fictional) city protected by an armed vigilante? The Second Amendment applies to arms – ALL arms – including Green Arrow’s bow and arrows. Perhaps we should just be aware that this is the DCCU, the alternative DC Comics Universe in which super-humans and super-heroes are able to exist. It is pure propaganda, as is most science fiction, and uses an alternate universe to explain the discrepancies in their concept of reality.

  2. We are not one nation. We are at best 2 nations and most likely several more. The differences are irreconcilable. And at least one of those nations is entirely incapable of true bravery.

  3. The hypocrisy of this episode was very high. They disparately tried to position them selves as discussing both sides of the argument but did not.

    in one scene the mayor points out that gun control would not have stopped a family being killed, then he ends on passing control that will make someone safer ( with no specifics).

    It was classic we know what the facts are but this makes us feel good.

    • How is that anti gun? Oliver passed feel-good ideological legislation that may or may not accomplish anything. *Sarcasm* Not like that ever happens in real life. *Sarcasm over* Frankly, this is the most balanced take on the gun control debate I’ve ever seen on TV. Obviously, every viewer is going to come in with a biased opinion, but it’s never one sided. We’ve all watched these debates happen in real life. The fact that the protagonist makes a decision you don’t like doesn’t undermine the legitimacy of the arguments against it. Note that a pro-gun character stops the shooting and has a flashback to a clear cut situation in which his being prevented from carrying a firearm leads to a preventable death.

  5. Well Arrow is the only CW superhero show I don’t like. So I don’t care. Honestly all the supershows are squishy on guns. As if costumed vigilantes are “better”. And they’re explored that vigilante angle(or big government agent on Supergirl) too…

  6. The first season of this show was great because Arrow was taking down the villains with extreme prejudice. Season 2 and on has been lame…

  8. Never watched arrow. And I couldn’t even make it though one episode of supergirl.
    As far as the home of the brave? Parts of it are. The snowflakes need a huge wake up call.
    Freedom isn’t free. They need to learn that. The answer is not big government. It is personal responsibility. If you can’t handle things not going your way, you need a good ass whoopin. Like boot camp. A drill instructor will fix you real quick.

  9. TO ANSWER THE ACTUAL QUESTION…

    Yes. Although we are not a monolithic homogeneous nation of all-brave Spartans. Each of us can be brave in ways and cowardly in others.

    Do we celebrate virtues like physical bravery? Not as much as we should. Not by a long shot. “Moral courage,” so celebrated today, is no substitute for the real kind. I’m sure Chamberlain was lauded for his “moral courage.”

  10. 3/4 of it is. And you know which 3/4 that is. But there’s definetly something to be said about the loss of a certain hardness we used to have up until some point during the Cold War. That rugged, gritty, frontier mentality that’s just about gone, save a few people. Even in our military and police forces, we’ve been very pampered and tied down by PC culture, feminism, socialism, political pandering, and a general softness. We only need to look at our media to show this, with shows like walking dead or game of thrones that “shock people.” The thing is, if you take away the zombies or mythical creatures, that’s exactly how most people lived their lives for most of human existence, and how many, in places like Africa are literally still living. Violent, brutal, tragic, short lives that focus on finding food, water, and shelter. Meanwhile combating with those who want to take what little you have. Many people think of all the horrible things that will happen, and have all these plans for what they’ll do when the “SHTF”, but really, it’ll simply be a reverting back to way people used to live. And in some parts of the world, it’ll be like nothing has changed.

  12. No, I don’t think the U.S. is the “home of the Brave” anymore. I saw the cracks appear during the Vietnam War, and now our political and social differences are threatening to split us. We still have sufficient citizens who would be willing to go into the military to fight, but we probably have more citizens (not to mention illegals) that wouldn’t. I think if our country was attacked (a la Pearl Harbor), we’d be capable of reuniting to face that threat, as we did in WWII, but it wouldn’t last. Without such a cataclysmic event, I think the U.S. will fragment into different countries within the next 50 years or so. I won’t live to see it, but I think the fragments will be the liberal/progressive east and west coasts, divided by the great conservative heartland (with socialist city-states here and there). Before that happens, there will be the inevitable civil war between differing parties, and which way would our military go? Foreign countries that do not have America’s best interests at heart would probably also try to wedge in. Whether there’d be many that would actually be willing to risk their lives and estates for what they consider to be right would remain to be seen. Lots of people talk a good fight, especially in forums like this, but whether they’d put it into action when things got violent would be the thing. I don’t think we’re the home of the free anymore, either. Big government has squelched that. Our government is no longer “of the people, for the people, and by the people.” It is government of the politicians, for the wealthy elite, and by the lawyers.

  13. Liberal progressive politicians would love to change the USA from “The Land of the Free and The Home of the Brave” into “The Land of the Sheep and the Home of the Slaves”. That is what their disarmament campaign is REALLY all about – controlling the populace, making them incapable not only physically but psychologically incapable of defending themselves (hence the media circus that always seems to attend a justifiable self-defense shooting, portraying the shooter as some sort of racist monster if he happens to be white and the would-be criminal…is not), and all the “duty to retreat” laws, and laws limiting what kind of gun or ammo a person can use to defend their lives (New York’s “SAFE Law” or New Jersey’s ban on hollowpoint ammo, for example), and even “may issue” laws for CCW’s which may as well be “won’t issue”. All calculated to render law-abiding citizens essentially helpless and dependent on law enforcement, and provide a ready pool of defenseless victims to wave the bloody shirt over and further aid the progressives in their goals.

  14. I guess is does require a certain amount of “bravery” for a politician to openly call for the forced disarmament of voters nationwide.

    Next thing, these same writers will stand in the middle of a room of like-minded lefests and be praised for their “bravery” of parroting the same thing they all believe.

  15. All the superhero crap has always been appealing to those who think they can sit back and let someone really special protect them. That’s how we got this concept that LE is something special, with powers and abilities far beyond those of mortal men, certainly normal people cannot be entrusted with such great powers as carrying a gun! Much less giving a speeding ticket!

    There is nobody “special”, we have to take care of ourselves.

  16. I will take a stab at the question.

    I think we are the home of the brave. We are also home to a large number of totally “metrosexual” snowflakes, mostly in large cities and both coasts.

    If you go to various reserve centers in red states and talk to the troops you will find well grounded, patriotic, hard working young people who are willing and ready to stand up for America. They have a fair understanding of how things are. Most of their NCOs, Sgt and above are combat veterans and they make sure the troops understand what is required and make them ready.

    The obvious converse are those snowflakes you find in large numbers in the universities, even in red states. The den of snakes infesting liberal arts colleges are corrupting their students, filling their heads with hate for America and Marxist theology.

    So, yes. There are brave Americans, maybe fewer in number than in the past.

    Semper Fidelis

    Gordon

  17. A goodly portion of “Red” America [side bar, how is it that the portion of the nation that supports freedom and individual responsibility gets the Red/Commie color?] is most certainly the home of the brave. Folks willing to display the courage of their convictions by: moving their expensive base of operations to another state (Magpul), refusing to enforce unconstitutional law (Oregon, Washington, Colorado county sheriffs), introducing legislation to make their counties “Freedom sanctuaries (Oregon.) The number of concealed carry permit applications in shall-issue states continues to soar at record breaking levels. Gun-rights supporters turn out in ever-increasing numbers to rally at state capitals. The list goes on.

    Don’t mistake the actions of blue-cored metropolitan politicians for the pulse of our great nation. There’s still plenty of braves out here.

  18. What are the specifics of this “Firearms Freedom Act?” I don’t get to watch most series until a year later on Netflix or DVD. BTW, Mayor Whatsisname is, in fact, the Arrow, Oliver Queen.

    In the first season, Arrow was willing to use deadly force against those who were using deadly force against him and others. Then from season 2 on it devolved into the typical moralizing about how violence is bad and if we use it we become just as bad as our enemies, blah, blah, bllah (except, of course, for state violence, and the heaping dose of ridiculous non-lethal violence he doles out episode after episode). Oh, and waify little girls can take on any number of large violent men barehanded. etc. I’m pretty much done with the series.

  19. I’m a Marine veteran and member of the Marine Corps League. When the Iraq invasion started in 2003 some of us started going to Bethesda Naval Hospital (now Walter Reed National Military Medical Center) every Wednesday to visit with the wounded warriors. Those of you who question the resolve and bravery of our youth need to meet some of those dreadfully wounded young men and women. You don’t get into WRNMMC with one of those John Kerry band-aid wounds. They were all badly wounded, many losing one or more limbs, yet I never met a one of the hundreds of them who said he/she didn’t want to go back to be with their buddies. Some of them actually did so with artificial limbs.

    I could type my fingers off regaling you with stories of their grit, determination, indomitability, and just plain guts but I’ll settle for just one example, the very first Marine I met there. His right arm was in a sling and I asked him how he got wounded. He said he was a passenger in a HumVee going through Baghdad. They had taken the doors off the vehicle and were watching a large crowd of Iraqis for threats. He said he got fixated on a guy on a bicycle with a rack on the front of it with a package in it, worried the guy might be a suicide bomber. He stated he never saw the guy with the AK-47 who popped up out of the crowd and shot him in the right shoulder, so “I switched my M-16 to my left hand and got him with a head shot.” “That’s outstanding!” I exclaimed. The young man hung his head and said with some embarrassment, “Oh, no sir. It took me two rounds to get him.”

    As long as we have young men and women like them, we’ll do just fine.

  20. I actually have more of a problem with ‘Criminal Minds’. They often have episodes with crimes taking place where folks can carry guns, and logically would be — large restaurant — but it’s written as if every episode takes place in no/may-issue place.

    Worst was the lead detectives ex-wife is in Virginia, they know some clever serial killer is going to target her, serial killer shows up, he doesn’t have a firearm and she doesn’t either. Really? You’re an FBI agent whose ex (and their kid) are under threat and she doesn’t tool-up in a shall issue state?

  21. American has become too disparate of a term. I realize we are all part of the same political entity but it seems that is where it ends. We’re talking fundamentally different outlooks on life, reality, government and the way the world works. Just look at POTG and all the different sub-groups we comprise of. Now multiply that by what seems like an infinite number of cultures and sub-cultures. Geographically we’re a large country, but demographically and culturally, we’re an even bigger country. Everything is finite.

  22. Fuck Arrow. I’m glad I swore off it after that bullshit CCW holders are unstable and more a danger than a help.

    Typical leftist elitist hollywood conspiracy to make firearms unacceptable. Sad that Stephen Amell and other actors I liked are yoked to the show, but I will watch crap actors support something I agree with than good actors try to sell me propaganda.

    I guess I feel how Americans did during the attempted communist subversion of Hollywood. Not that I support HUAC, but I DO support general/public boycotts.

  23. No, we’re not. We’re scared of anyone. Not just some dude with a gun but guys with box cutters.

    America should have dropped that whole “home of the brave” thing the moment they passed the “Patriot” Act.

  24. Although the team was split, they were not allowing a response to the gun control propaganda. All they were able to say was “2nd Amendment” while the pro gun control faction was able to get out the bloody shirt at every opportunity.
    If they wanted to be fair, they would have let the pro gun people say something substantive. The episode was a shameful, hackneyed attempt to look impartial while really not.

  25. Brave has also become a rather meaningless term, like racist. For instance, every time someone is diagnosed with some terrible malady, or are openly gay or make some sort of bold public statement, they are deemed brave.

    You are not brave simply because you have cancer. You are not brave because you prefer the same sex (especially if one believes you are born that way) and you are not brave because you are in the NAACP. Real bravery is actually going out on a limb. How SJW’s today can compare themselves to the Civil Rights leaders of the Jim Crow Era is ludicrous.

    So no, we are home to some brave people and some not so brave people. My courage has never really been tested so I don’t know if I am or not and won’t claim one way or the other.

  26. In reference to the actual question:

    Every country has brave people and every country has pansies. I doubt everyone in ancient Sparta was truly Spartan in the modern sense of the word.

    As a society we’ve always had our internal divisions and tensions. That’s normal for any society. Generally speaking however, this country has been willing to step up to the plate when needed, even if we’ve sometimes followed a rather Biblical story arc in that regard. It doesn’t make us popular but doing what needs to get done usually steps on some toes and the people who’s toes were stepped on rarely are happy about it.

    So, I don’t know if “brave” is the right diction but this country, generally speaking, is a country a doers.

    We moan and complain about it but we usually get it done. For example, when the British Empire fell apart at the end of WWII we kind of picked up the torch of being the stabilizing force in the world. We didn’t want the job and, quite frankly, still don’t but we begrudgingly do it because on some level most people understand there isn’t a better alternative. Sometimes we go too far with that job and sometimes we don’t go far enough. This is, IMHO, due to our internal conflict (exemplified by our political process) about having to do the job in the first place. However, on the whole and irregardless of what other people may think about it, we tend to do a damn fine job.

  27. America may no longer be “The Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave,” but brave, free people still live here and are working to make America great again.

  30. Network entertainment fails enough, without injected politics. It is failing because so much of the writing is terrible. I’ve tried watching and it is embarrassing. It is part of the reason reality shows do so well.

  32. One does not discuss violence. You’re either creating or being consumed by it. Any deviation is an exercise in hope.

  33. I’ve never even heard of this show “Arrow”, but then again, we don’t have cable. So I’m not plugged in to the latest television tripe. If this clip (not magazine) is representative, it appears to be maximum saccharine schmaltzy. We’ll be sure to skip it on Netflix and Amazon.

  34. You have remember Green Arrow has always been liberal in the comics. So it doesn’t surprise me that they would include his politics in the show. But depending on who’s writing his character, he can come off either atypical or absolute Communist SJW madman.

  35. Yes, the left has been obscuring the line of the definitions and meaning of words until they have emptied the very value and meaning out of many keywords. Words that once defined a culture and society being the foundation for integrity and nobility is no longer valued. A nation is in grave danger when an entire generation is no longer willing to defend its nations because it no longer believes the same as the forefathers of their nation believed. It is a decrepit state when the young men think the brave thing is wait to blindside their unexpecting victim as they are attacked from behind. I could write a small book about these 20 something pussys in America today.

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