GaleAnneHurd_Main

“I worry more about the fact that we have guns on the street here (than violence on the screen). I mean, in Australia, countries around the world where they have the same entertainment, and they don’t have the homicide rates that we do here, it’s clear that there’s another reason for it. [In] all my films, the antagonists are monsters or cyborgs, or you name it. The Walking Dead is the one [that’s] different, and I found that it’s inspired a debate about what does it mean to be human and can you justify resorting to this kind of brutality?” – The Walking Dead producer Gale Ann Hurd in ‘Walking Dead’ Producer Talks Spinoff, “Guns on the Street” and Killing Off Characters [at hollywoodreporter.com]

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75 COMMENTS

  1. Funny, I would argue the Walking Dead probably does a better job of showing the need for guns to fence sitters/ non people of the gun then literally anything else out there….

  2. She should take a good hard look at the murder demographics in this country and compare that to the demographics of Australia and the other countries around the world she’s thinking of. She’d find that guns have nothing to do with murder rates, but then that would be racist so it’s better to blame an inanimate object than to blame the human who misuses it.

    • Yup. America does not have a gun problem, it just has a culture of violence. The U.S. was forged into existence through the gun and it has kept us intact ever since.
      Unfortunately people in the US will come to blows over a parking spot. The guns aren’t the issue here, behavior is.

    • The problem to which you elude is actually a planned byproduct of LBJ’s racist push to create a permanent, dependent, black underclass in this country by destroying the black family. They called it the “Great Society” initiatives. Welfare handouts that were dependent on the father not being in the home. Before this, the out of wedlock birth rate in the black community was on par with that among whites. So were crime rates.
      The plan worked. 50% of black babies are murdered before birth. And 70% of those who are born, are born to single mothers. Out of wedlock birth also rose among poor whites as well. Married? Screw you. No welfare. But act irresponsibly and you are set for life.
      Incarceration rates track single mother households better than race does. It is the only factor that correlates across race and income. It also correlates to academic performance as well. But black preachers have been bought off too and refuse to allow this fact to even be discussed when talking about the gap in academics and criminal involvement.
      Yes, 6% of the population in the US is responsible for over 50% of all murders. And that was the plan set down by liberal democrats over 50 years ago and continued by liberal democrats today. 90% of their victims are other black men. So you have 50% killed before they are born. Then a significant number of those that are born kill off another chunk of the population. Margaret Sanger must be smiling in her hot room in hell. (just look up some of her more famous quotes. She was pure Hitlerian evil.)
      When you have a black “journalist” trying to equate gun owners to the KKK, he is proving he is a useful idiot for those who control him. He doesn’t even know history. That the KKK and other white democrats used gun control to disarm the black population is lost on this fool.

      • Careful we don’t want any heads to explode. When I talk about that most people glass over pretty quick. I’ll simply say that the plan has been successfully so far.

      • BINGO! You are right on target with that. If you took all the gang-related killings out of the picture (and suicides), America would be shown as a rather safe place, with a homicide rate lower than some European countries. America doesn’t have a gun problem, it has a gang problem (brought to you by the Democrat Party).

      • I don’t know if it was a “planned” byproduct, but the welfare-dependency concepts promoted by LBJ and company surely harmed the black family and are well on their way to destroying the rest.

      • I agree that the primary problem is children growing up without fathers. We’re going on third and fourth generations of people who have grown up without ever seeing a parent get up and go to work in the morning. It makes more sense for people with that upbringing to sell drugs on the corner than to get a McJob and develop skills that can lead to a more prosperous living down the road.

        But when you start comparing countries it gets a little more complicated. The murder rate among white Americans is right in line with those in Australia and western Europe. The murder rates for Hispanic Americans is much higher and the rate for black Americans is much much higher. Now take a look at this map of global murder rates – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_intentional_homicide_rate#mediaviewer/File:Map_of_world_by_intentional_homicide_rate.svg

        Interesting how those dark colors are almost entirely in Latin America and Africa. I bet Ms. Hurd doesn’t have much to say about the astronomical homicide rate in Honduras or our heavily gun controlled neighbor to the south. And I bet she’s not about to compare the murder rates (and rates of gun ownership) in Chicago or DC to Vermont or Iowa either. She’s not looking for solutions to problems, she’s looking to score political points.

      • If you read quotes from George Weily a founder of the welfare rights movement, you will see his desire for cash assistance to the poor was based on the fact that he believed “certain people” were not capable of taking care of themselves so the government had to do it. In other words, he was racist trash.

        Welfare has done more societal damage and killed more people than any other social policy.

        It is slavery. A political plantation. The poor get cash and the liberals get votes. Meanwhile the true human potential of those people is wasted.

    • Well, maybe we could get away with simply asserting that if you remove a single demographic group, our murder rate would plummet by 90%. Little Mikey knows who we’re talking about, and he agrees with me completely. That’s not racist, right?

    • Non suicide gun deaths average about 13,000 deaths per year out of roughly 2 and a half million fatalities. That works out to about .4% of total deaths. The “Gun violence” problem really isn’t that much of a problem. Statistically speaking, you could leave a loaded gun in plain view on your end table and your child would still be four times more likely to die by drinking drain cleaner under the sink. But little Billy getting killed by Drano doesn’t threaten control by the establishment, so it’s not a problem that deserves attention.

  3. I for one love that the whole world seems to think the US is freaking Thunderdome. “I am master, HE IS BLASTER!”

      • Mad Max rules. Well, as the best known early post apocalyptic memes.

        It tapped into the world sub-conscious nihilistic self-destructive under current people were falling into. “Bladerunner”,

        There are reasons cultures collapse and fall into a dark age with general chaos and death with general lawlessness.

        We are seeing it now as it continues to develop. This is one reason I believe for the popularity of “The Walking Dead”. Even when zombies aren’t real, the post apocalyptic theme is what people are drawn to.

    • I’m fine with a reputation of being a whole nation of trigger happy barbarians. Charles Krauthammer said a civil society didn’t need guns. Maybe he’s right. But civil societies tend to get passive and over run by the barbarians who aren’t all that worried about being nice and civil. It happened to the Romans. It’s happening in Europe right now. In America, we’re going in the opposite direction. More people are making the tool of the modern warrior part of their daily lives, even if it’s a little poly pocket .380 or a snub nosed .38 revolver. The liberal old guard is fighting it, and are doubling down in places like California and New York. (Knife bans, New York? Really?) But the writing is on the wall. America is recapturing her civilian warrior tradition. And it makes people who want the world to be all rainbows and unicorn farts uncomfortable. Good. Let ’em be squeamish. The rest of us will be armed when the barbarians come knocking at the gates.

  4. If those who like to compare US murder rates to those in the UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand had a sense of historical context they would discover that the US always has had a higher homicide rate than the other “five eyes” countries. Even with our gang problem our murder rates is relatively less today than it was when the other English speaking countries had free access to firearms.

    • Let’s also remember that the number of murders in Europe between 1935 and 1945 is greater than the number of murders in America since 1776. I’d think they’d be able to skip the “holier than thou” bullshit.

  5. Oddly I don’t believe the comic book artist who produced ‘the Walking Dead’ comics, that the TV series is based on, ever touched on this topic.
    But then, I gave up on TWD long before they made it into a TV series. It became less entertaining and more depressing over time, and I don’t like watching people who feel like they are losing.

  6. Is this Hollywood producer using make believe, imagination, and creativity to make a real life point?

    “Golly wally, When those cops were shooting at the bad guys car, It didnt blowup or burst into flames or anything Like they do when Arnold shoots cars.”

  7. That’s probably why most of the firearms (and crossbows) are missing their sights… Harder to be used against actual humans…

  9. Gale Ann Hurd is a liar. Other countries are WAY ahead of America in murder rate.

    As for Walking Dead, it is about people, and the incredibly stupid decisions they make in high stress situations. Sorry, Officer Friendly(Rick Grimes) has made the wrong decisions at every turn from the start. Others not much better. That is the take away I have gotten from the show. That and the “fact” crossbow bolts can’t penetrate a skull at 10 foot range. LoL.

  10. I always enjoy the show. Ya know revolvers that eject spent cartridges, Airsoft guns, safetys on Glocks weapons without sights making 100 yard kills et certra. Their “weapons advisor” must be from australia as well, not mentioning all the stupid gun sounds. I will say I was impressed with the one where rick shot inside of a tank and was almost knocked out by the concussion. Maybe the first time in hollywerid?

  11. I’ve heard “Murder Rates” comparisons across countries for years. But the rates reported are those rates reported by the country, not by a single uniform source.

    Does the US consider Suicide a murder but not Australia?
    Does Australia dismiss a killing as not “murder” if there is no trial and conviction?
    Does Australia not consider someone under 21 capable of murder? Under 17? Under 12? so it’s not “murder”?
    Do Police in Australia not report all suspicious deaths as murders?

    There are any number of reasons that the rates between two countries may not even be comparable.
    It’s foolish to take a Murder Rate published from two different entities without first verifying they are both based on the same logic.

    • Consider that the UK only reports “solved homicides” as murders. If the case isn’t closed, it’s not reported as a murder. See, it wouldn’t be “fair” to declare it a murder if there’s no proven murderer…which of course skews their rate lower. The UK is actually a very violent place…with very careful statistical reporting.

      • I lived in England until I was 27. While travelling to/from work in London you never know what’s around the corner – it’s like Detroit, only without the empty buildings.

  12. Human nature darling. It ain’t pretty. Your fellow human is more animalistic than you want to accept so you rationalize that it must be the guns, not the human. Anatomy of a closed mind.

  13. The Walking Dead is a libs apocalyptic fantasy. These people started in Georgia and had a HARD time finding guns and ammo? In five seasons plus they haven’t been to a WALMART? I understand looting and chaos at the start of the outbreak, but it could not have been sustainable, zombies don’t loot and don’t need guns and ammo. No one has an SBR, drum mags, grenades (from military depots are dead soldiers), flame throwers, claymore mines or other destructive devices. Though the show has started to use silencers on some weapons, its clearly written/produced by anti-gun people. Gale Anne Hurd is a hypocrite, she has made a career out of “gun violence” and general mayhem.

    • They do have full auto weapons now. Rick stole a SBR, full auto UZI from a member of the “claimed gang”. The Governor and his men also had full auto weapons, MP5Ks, humvees, .50 machine guns, and even a tank. The people at Terminus also had full auto weapons.

      • That covers it pretty well, most of them learned about “guns” by working in video production. They have some tech advisers who do know, I bet they do stupid crap because doing things more realistically or factually most likely gets shot down by producers and/or directors. They are more concerned with “effect” and “visuals”.

  14. I think if you’re comparing homicide rates among countries, it would be much more illuminating to compare the drug laws in those countries, not the gun laws. The majority of murders in America are connected in some way to gangs and the illegal drug trade.

  15. Haven’t watched the show since season 3 made me want to hibernate. I keep being told “Nah dude, it’s still really good” but the few parts I’ve seen since have proven otherwise.
    Gale, our problem isn’t “guns on the streets.” It’s that you guys are hacks. Why would I give a shit what your opinions on guns are when you can’t even handle your own business?

    • “Gale, our problem isn’t “guns on the streets.” It’s that you guys are hacks” Oop, there it is. Just a bit of originality would radically change their world. THAT will never come from her, or ANY one in her “industry”. Period. Full stop.

  16. I say make the show, “Guns on the Street.” Let it show all watching that guns are non-thinking inanimate objects and it is people who are violent.
    There was a show like that 20 years ago that followed a gun and how it changed owners. The show was cancelled quickly once viewers and the Old Media figured out that the problem was not the gun.

  17. She worked on Aliens, and at least one of the Terminator films (the good ones). Both the first two Terminator movies feature a lot of humans getting shot. One could say that those 80s sci-fi/action movies did a lot to glorify certain weapons and such. I grew up with those movies and damned if I don’t still want a pulse rifle.

  18. Get back to me when Australia has a similar, rampant gang and drug trade problem and then we can compare murder rates.

  19. The walking Dead- one of the worst shows-ever. It’s hard to take anyone seriously that discusses tv or movies or pop culture without involving the agendas behind the programming.

  20. One two possibilities here: Either this lady loves guns, but wants Hollywood to think she hates them, just like they do, because no show on TV glorifies gun use more than TWD, OR she’s actually dumb enough to think that a zombie shoot-em-up show is some sort of deep, philosophical morality play on how bad guns are (cuz jus shootin zombies randomly is soooo wrong, ya know?).

  21. “I mean, in Australia, countries around the world where they have the same entertainment, and they don’t have the homicide rates that we do here”

    In other words, don’t blame the thing I make a living at for violence, and then restrict that. Go blame and then restrict this other thing that I don’t own and don’t care about.

    Life imitates Art.

    That said I still like the show (and the comic), because it is post apocalyptic fiction, and specifically zombie fiction, with proper G Romero type zombies. I watch and read it all, even the shit zombie movies. What fiction like this brings to the forefront is that People = Shit, they just hide it when society is stable.

  22. Don’t know the exact homoicde rate in Australia, but am certain beatings, breaking and enterings, ect are very common.

  23. My wife had to accompany her elderly mother to court a year ago.
    It was a large metropolitan criminal court.
    She was shocked to see just how quick to violence over trivial things a certain segment of our population tends to be.
    In different parts of the country the demographic in question may have a different ethnic/racial make up, but the common thread is obvious.

  24. The source of the problem (inner-city minority on minority violence) can be found at the intersection of drug prohibition and government social welfare policies/programs. Welfare programs remove the need for traditional family groups, which leads to lack of discipline and a lack of respect for authority, while prohibitions create opportunities for great profit via underground markets. Nothing will be solved until both are abolished (or at least greatly revised).

    • One of the shortest and concise summaries of the root of what will in the end destroy our culture if not remedied.

    • Don’t ignore the anti-establishment/anti-authority mantra coming out of Hollywood/entertainment industry since their founding. Nothing puts “bums in seats, luv” quite like tearing down the existing societal norms.

  25. I find it hilarious that almost every rifle they find/carry is full-auto. Didn’t realize NFA items were so plentiful in Georgia.

    • I find it even more hilarious that they actually use them in FA. What is the advantage of long series against zombies as opposed to carefully aimed head shots?
      It’s not like it will make the walkers to keep their heads down or even slow them down. Only effect would be rapid depletion of ammo. It makes me want to yell at the screen: “Kneel and AIM!” On related note – why is no one reloading their cartridges and why every long gun doesn’t have bayonet attached?
      Oh – one more pet peeve of mine. Why is nobody thinking further ahead than couple of days? If they don’t preserve knowledge of how things work, the fall of remaining humanity to savagery will be much further and longer before starting to climb back to civilization. See Lucifer’s hammer or The day of trifids. Books are as important as food and shelter. Not to drag around, but protect from destruction and stowe away for future.

      • Just spent $6.39 on Amazon for ‘Trifids’ based on your recommendation and my absolute love of Lucifer’s Hammer’. Highly reccomend ‘Alas Babylon’ by Pat Frank’ as well…

      • Yea, why would you not be securing structures against walkers just as a matter of course. In the start why did Rick not take the group back to his Sheriff Dept building? Left it secured, it had some power and gas and water, in an area he and Shane knew well. Bad choices.

  27. A child without a mother and father to guide and protect them will fall into trouble. Sometimes terrible trouble. Non western society’s have intact families. American has purposely broken up families using many different means. A socialist will of course deny this because they wanted the American family broken. They just got the black family first. What will be their next target?

  28. Maybe she’s afraid of phased plasma rifles in the 40 Watt range, since she produced Terminator as well 😉

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