[Vision2020] Movie Violence and Guns

[Paul Rumelhart]

This article is a pile of crap.  I don't know what caused the reversal 
of the home protection vs. hunting numbers quoted in the article, but I 
suspect it had nothing to do with the gun violence in "Die Hard" or 
"Death Wish", or his more generalized "potency restored through guns!" 
hypothesis.  Perhaps hunting as a pasttime is in decline?  Maybe 9/11 
had something to do with it?  Who knows?

I can't speak for all the Bruce Willis fans who bought their guns in 
order to hide out in skyscrapers hoping against hope that some thieves 
will try to break in so they can restore their sex lives, but I look 
forward to using a handgun in an act of defense about as much as I look 
forward to using those airbags my car came equipped with.

Paul

On 03/31/2013 08:05 AM, Tom Hansen wrote:
> Courtesy of CBS News' Sunday Morning at:
>
> http://www.cbsnews.com/2102-3445_162-57577122.html
> -------------------------------------
>
>
>   Edelstein on "Olympus Has Fallen" and movie violence
>
> Last week I endured the red-meat blockbuster "Olympus Has Fallen," and 
> thought about violence. Now, I don't buy the idea there's a direct 
> correlation between violence on-screen and in life. But I do worry 
> about movie-fueled myths that make people say, "I /need/ a gun!"
>
> The myths have two parts.
>
> First, violation: men rendered impotent, women imperiled.
>
> Then, retaliation: potency restored!
>
> In movies, it goes back to 1915, and D.W. Griffith's wildly racist 
> "Birth of a Nation" -- the government corrupt, the women assaulted by 
> scary blacks, the Klan riding to reclaim white supremacy.
>
> Skipping to 1974, there's "Death Wish": Charles Bronson, the civilized 
> man whose wife is murdered and daughter raped, who becomes a 
> vigilante, a lone hunter in an urban jungle.
>
> 1988, a new template: "Die Hard," Bruce Willis as a New York cop 
> robbed of stature in La-La Land, his wife using her maiden name 
> (/Horrors!/). Foreign terrorists attack. The government spurns him. 
> But the cowboy conquers the alien, wins back his woman.
>
> So does Gerard Butler, Secret Service hero of "Olympus Has Fallen." 
> When we meet him, he's dishonored -- he saved the president but lost 
> the first lady. Then, a North Korean terrorist takes over the White 
> House with an army of Asians, Middle Easterners -- darker people. He 
> must win his (and America's) manhood back.
>
> "Olympus Has Fallen" has a hundred times the carnage of "Die Hard," 
> and a tenth the style. But it hits its marks. It makes you sick over 
> the threat to American might.
>
> Complete CBSNews.com coverage: Movies - News, reviews, videos and 
> galleries <http://www.cbsnews.com/2718-207_162-1158/movies/>
>
> Which brings me to a new Pew Research Center survey: 48 percent of gun 
> owners said they owned a gun for protection, versus 32 percent for 
> hunting -- the reverse of 1999, when 49 percent bought guns for 
> hunting, 26 percent for protection.
>
> We're obsessed with being attacked.
>
> I'm not saying we /don't/ face threats. I /am/ suggesting many people 
> (primarily men) expend a disproportionate amount of energy on 
> scenarios designed by Hollywood to inflame their inner gunslinger -- 
> to make them addicts waiting for the next violation, a chance to exact 
> vengeance. The next boneheaded action flick. The next bloody fix.
>
> -------------------------------------
>
> Seeya round town, Moscow, because . . .
>
> "Moscow Cares" (the most fun you can have with your pants on)
> http://www.MoscowCares.com
> Tom Hansen
> Moscow, Idaho
>
> "There's room at the top they are telling you still
> But first you must learn how to smile as you kill
> If you want to be like the folks on the hill."
>
> - John Lennon
>
>
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