Natural Born Killers
Courtesy Warner Brothers
Natural Born Killers america's gun culture
Natural Born Killers (image courtesy Warner Brothers)

By Larry Keane

Gun control groups are recruiting Hollywood elites to sell the reasons why more gun control is necessary. Never mind these same Tinseltowners live within gated, secure neighborhoods and often pay for private security details whenever they feel like it. They haven’t learned the lessons that nothing is more off-putting than Hollywood hypocrisy, so they’re going for a sequel.

The Giffords gun control group is putting on a press offensive to engage celebrities to help limit Second Amendment rights. That’s not reflective of the over 21 million background checks for the sale of a firearm that were run last year, including more than 8.4 million first-time buyers. Hollywood might want to sit this one out.

Ignoring Reality

Last year produced more than a record-breaking number of background checks. The year 2020 saw more women and minorities joining the ranks of gun owners, diversifying the gun-owning population in America that’s often caricatured as only old, white men. Buyers literally voted with their wallets when it came to owning guns.

This included women, who comprised forty percent of all firearm purchases last year. African-American men and women gun buyers grew by 58 percent from 2019-2020. All Americans saw violence and rioting erupt in their communities and politicians campaign on gun control platforms, literally shouting for gun confiscations and decimating the firearm industry from the campaign trail. These same politicians backed calls to “defund the police,” leaving folks to reconsider their personal safety.

Former U.S. Rep. Gabby Giffords (D-Ariz.) announced she’s even recruiting Hollywood elites to use their platforms to influence policy, even though voters rejected more gun control at the ballot box. Michael Bloomberg spent more than $1 billion to flip seats in the U.S. House of Representatives, U.S. Senate and state legislatures and roundly failed. That includes his own short-lived presidential run.

Giffords recently told Variety magazine, “Part of our mission at Giffords is to change the culture around gun violence, and few industries play a larger role in shaping culture than the entertainment industry.”

Hollywood Fantasy vs. Reality

The same celebrities and entertainers in Hollywood who Giffords wants to recruit are the same individuals who have little understanding of real American neighborhoods and Main Street businesses. Throughout the rioting and looting witnessed last summer, celebrities rushed to offer funds to bail out those criminals responsible for community destruction.

Vice President Kamala Harris, who ran with President Joe Biden on the most antigun presidential ticket in history, even tweeted to solicit funds to help those arrested. Hollywood celebrities like Chrissy Teigen, Seth Rogen, Patton Oswalt and more all joined in.

The reality was much different for law-abiding citizens who embraced gun rights to help protect their businesses, their homes, their neighbors and their livelihoods.

Watchful Eyes Focused on Washington

Last November, gun control politicians were defeated across the board with pro-Second Amendment candidates winning state legislative seats and even narrowing the Democratic majority in the House of Representatives. A 50-50 U.S. Senate means Vice President Harris will cast any tie-breaking votes but the Senate remains a gun control backstop as Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.V.) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) have announced they will not vote to remove the filibuster.

This is a good sign for Second Amendment advocates.

Giffords and gun control groups should listen more closely to the American people about their concerns for self-protection and the ability to own a gun. If they looked outside the red-carpet galas and flashing cameras, they’d realize, America’s reading from a different script.

 

Larry Keane is SVP for Government and Public Affairs, Assistant Secretary and General Counsel of the National Shooting Sports Foundation.

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58 COMMENTS

  1. You know, despite the plethora of Hollyweird stars decrying guns and gun violence, I don’t seem to recall any media moguls joining the bandwagon, other than Disney. These guys know what sells; sex and violence sells. They are not going to kill the goose that lays the golden eggs. And this should continue to be true until they can’t find someone to star in the next blockbuster shoot-’em-up film.

    • Rest assured the spoon fed perp who shot Gabby Giffords was full of hollywood and demoCrap. The perp also adsorbed a lot of garbage in a school he attended with a marxist based curriculum connected to sicko bill ayers and his pals.

      People who reside in an ivory tower go bonkers when tragedy lands on their door step. The finger pointing, the blame game is directed to anywhere and everywhere but themselves. And with that behavior sometimes comes reward money from sick hypocrite Gun Control dirtbags with armed security like mini mike bloomberg et al. In the case of the Giffords it’s rotten money with its roots extending to Jim Crow Gun Control and nazi genocide.

  2. “Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.V.) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) have announced they will not vote to remove the filibuster.”

    At the end of the day, both will do what they are told. And there are as many as five RINOs who might switch — led by Mitt Romney. I think his “temple underwear” is too tight and is cutting off circulation to his brain.

  3. Hollyweird would die on the vine without “gun violence”. Possibly the best movie I saw in the last year was “Tenent”. Violent as he!! And the only movie I attended in a theater (in a year!)was Wonder Woman 1984. I sure didn’t miss traveling to the movies!!!

    • All that would be left to see without guns and mayhem is these Hollywood sicko transsexuals is having sex with each other. Only Democrats will pay for that. AOC and her friends will have to make public masturbation legal.

  4. Liam Neeson. I won’t see any of his movies since he trashed gun owners. Back when PARA was still its own company, before Cerberus and Remington ate them, Neeson had made movies where PARA USA supplied all the handguns used by Neeson. He came out with all this anti-gun talk and PARA told him that was it, they were thru with him.

    Me too.

    • Hah, I thought the same thing about Liam Neeson. I liked some of his movies, but when he went all “guns are evil”, I quit. His movies are all about revenge killing.
      When Hollywood went anti-cigarette, they stopped smoking on screen.
      When Hollywood stops showing all guns in movies, I will believe they are sincere.

      • He’s a good actor because he makes you believe he can really kick ass. Then the camera has to zoom out when he scales a fence so they can use the stunt double.

      • If we “boycott” leftist actors/actresses/studios, there would be nothing to watch in TV or Movies. Better solution, get these movies and shows from ”alternative means”. You get to watch some acceptable films and they don’t get to make money off of it.

    • enuf…When it comes to you trashing gun rights and contributing to and voting for Jim Crow Gun Control joe so that mentally illl pos could kill thousands of jobs that POTUS DJT started you are much, much worse than any Liam Neeson.

      For months and months you boasted about buying guns and ammo thinking no one would notice your hypocrisy. For the past 4 years you treated yourself to the gun store goodies all off the backs of those who got DJT elected POTUS and defeated your stinking hilliary rotten clintoon. By your own words and actions you are one self serving pasty mouth lowlife pos who is all hat and no cattle.

      • Think your life sucks? Well, just imagine being the poor geezer what lays down with this miserable, foul mouthed crone. You’re welcome.

        • Well, unlike little fuckwit you, at least he’s getting laid… 😉

        • Hpw
          And your big guy is a senile leftist pos who has never accomplished anything good for this country. Only for himself and his cronies. You can fuck off.

        • HPW,

          That was your definition of a coup??? No wonder you Leftists are suck limp-d***s. I pity your wives.

          Best you hope the real 2A supporters never decide it’s time for a REAL coup – your sorry @$$ will be suckin’ mud.

    • See the movies. Just don’t pay for them.

      Time to hoist the Jolly Roger. There’s some pirating to be done!

        • Not that much of a stretch really. The leftist’s will use anything to justify anything else, no matter how preposterous the connection in order to further their cause. It’s only fair to respond in kind.

        • According to Hollywood accounting, no movie has ever made a profit. There are actors, directors, and special effects companies who were promised a percentage of profit on highly successful movies and have never received a cent in decades.

          When asked about the high cost of home media the studios said it was for the cost of the content, not the physical disk. But if you want to watch content you already own on another media type they expect you to pay again. They want to have their cake and eat it too.

          Former abuses such as the vertical integration with cinemas and locking down actors with the studio contract system, they’ve been ripping off everyone else for more than a century.

        • To serpent Vision
          You need to update your libertarian talking points because Libertarians from what I understand don’t support the idea of copyright.

      • Leftist scum deserve nothing from true Americans. They have stolen from us for far to long.

    • You won’t watch a fucking Liam Neeson movie but you’ll vote for a democrat who makes an entire campaign on gun control?

      Wow.

      • *And supported and even promoted the Lincoln Project who was working on flipping the Senate to D control while sexually harassing young men.

  5. Guns
    Bombs
    Swords
    Bows and Arrows
    Aliens
    Zombies
    Monsters
    Good guys winning
    Bad guys losing

    What more can you ask for in a movie?

  6. These actors sell more guns by glorifying them in their movies than any manufacturer could hope for. The obscure S&W Model 29 became a best seller because of “Dirty Harry.” The Beretta 92 became the gun everyone wanted because of “Lethal Weapon.” “Starsky & Hutch” sold a bunch of 6-inch Pythons. And we all know who caries a Walther PPK. So if these actors want to make a difference, they will have to sacrifice these “action/adventure” movie paychecks. Reportedly Gene Hackman actually tried to avoid movies with gun violence at one time…that was when he disappeared from movies for a while. So no more “Agents of SHIELD” for Oswalt and no “Pineapple Express” for Rogan.

    • AI,

      Won’t deny that Hollyweird doesn’t have an influence (also video games), but the S & W 629 was a fine pistol, the Beretta 92 might have gained just a TEENSY bit of popularity from being chosen as the standard DoD issue handgun, and the Colt Python? IMHO, the finest wheelgun ever made.

      Hollyweird has some influence, but mostly on noobs. Most serious gun owners I know do tons of research on their choices, usually including range rentals to try their prospective toy (and ALWAYS including reviews and opinions from friends). I don’t think many serious gun owners buy a weapon because they “saw it in a movie”. I think the folks that get their “knowledge” of firearms from movies are mostly the kind of people who wouldn’t own a firearm if you gave them one. And, while there are exceptions, a lot of the guns “featured” in Hollyweird’s output are pure crap (i.e., the Desert Eagle in “Charlie’s Angels” (I’d pay major bucks to watch Demi Moore try to actually shoot a Desert Eagle. I’d laugh my @$$ off!)

  7. Too many decent streaming movies with unknown stars available.
    HollyBoob is slowly but surely going down””

    This is the main reason: manly men are disappearing…

    Robert Mitchum
    Burt Lancaster
    Humphrey Bogart
    Yul Brenner
    John Wayne
    Charles Bronson
    Steve McQueen
    Richard Burton
    Michael Caine
    Gary Cooper
    Lee Marvin
    Charlton Heston, and a host of others, all patriots. I sure miss those days…

    • Cain is a lib.just read his two Autobiographies. They are a hoot and he did lead an interesting life but for a boomer, he has a lot of left leaning ideas….. although he did leave the UK for a bit in the 70’s or 80’s when they instituted a wealth tax so….

  8. Hollywood has always been fixated on 3 things: Sex, drugs, and money. Nothing else matters to them

  11. Pretty much everything I know about guns, I learned from the movies. Too late, piss-whiskers!

    • I like the movies selective bullets, some times they shoot through 3 feet of concrete and blow up cars other times they wont go through a refrigerator

      • or a tree. or a car lol. it’s funny how often they use cars as cover… even just a car door or something.

        • Even my son knows that one. For a 12 year old he knows more about guns than nearly all Hollywood executives and actors.

  13. Maybe the firearms industry and dealers should pull a Barrett on Hollywood. I don’t believe the level of sales lost would be significant enough to hurt finances. Then, maybe Hollywood’s hypocrisy would be on better display.

  14. “But John Wick was so cool and all that training really paid off”

    Stupid fucking movies.

    • But let’s be honest, the gun industry does just as well as Hollywood does when shit like that comes into play. It fuels new designs, innovation, and consumerism. Hollywood might fuck it up royally, but it’s not real, it’s just a story (most time). Even the ones they “recreate” they will fuck up, but that’s just entertainment in general. I try to watch a little bit of everything, but once I see a scene like the crowded hallway scene in John Wick, it’s dead to me. They can’t all be so well done that you can overlook the little stuff – like a band of brothers series or saving private ryan movie… so it is what it is. Jordan Peterson had a great point about all the “liberal arts”. Conservatives exist in all this for a reason, and it’s to check the bullshit. But to an extent, we need each other. Pretty much as centric as it gets. Inb4 the pissed off people commenting about their lack of understanding what centric is.

  15. I don’t know why we don’t see more movies about social workers going out to talk through problems. Sounds exciting.

    • Ideally, society’s challenges should be addressed in a manner that minimizes excitement. Of course, that does require some degree of cooperation from whomever is creating the challenge of the moment.

  16. Something to keep in mind. There is only one job where everyone is a professional liar. And that is….. actors. That tall guy in black? He isn’t really Luke’s father! And Luke isn’t even Luke!
    So why would anyone take their word on or for anything?

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