Posted on 12/22/2012 10:39:54 PM PST by nickcarraway
The NRA executive vice president has just proposed a plan that many predicted the NRA would come up with: The solution to guns is more guns. Liberal commentators are already lambasting it, but I think the news that the NRA is even discussing the matter is a positive sign. They have put a proposal on the table, and that implies that there is a problem. What was really worrying about Wayne LaPierre's remarks was the return of a very old trope — blaming Hollywood violence for real-life death. LaPierre even mentioned "celebrities" in his talk — as if Megan Fox were plugging thoughts into Adam Lanza's mind. The relation between culture and murder simply does not exist and has never existed. It just doesn't.
Below is the most relevant part of the NRA's statement, all italics theirs:
And here's another dirty little truth that the media try their best to conceal: There exists in this country a callous, corrupt and corrupting shadow industry that sells, and sows, violence against its own people.
Through vicious, violent video games with names like Bulletstorm, Grand Theft Auto, Mortal Kombat and Splatterhouse. And here’s one: it’s called Kindergarten Killers. It’s been online for 10 years. How come my research department could find it and all of yours either couldn’t or didn’t want anyone to know you had found it?
Then there’s the blood-soaked slasher films like American Psycho and Natural Born Killers that are aired like propaganda loops on "Splatterdays" and every day, and a thousand music videos that portray life as a joke and murder as a way of life. And then they have the nerve to call it "entertainment."
But is that what it really is? Isn't fantasizing about killing people as a way to get your kicks really the filthiest form of pornography?
In a race to the bottom, media conglomerates compete with one another to shock, violate and offend every standard of civilized society by bringing an ever-more-toxic mix of reckless behavior and criminal cruelty into our homes — every minute of every day of every month of every year. A child growing up in America witnesses 16,000 murders and 200,000 acts of violence by the time he or she reaches the ripe old age of 18. I have to say this lengthy piece of paranoid rambling really brought me back. It was like being in the nineties all over again, with the claim by very old, very uncultured people that youth and culture were really alibis for murderousness. The good news is that because we had to go through all this in the nineties, we don't have to go through it now. The studies have been done. Here's the clearest one, which the Atlantic republished three days ago.
Common sense says as much as any study, though. Widespread mass slaughter by guns is an American disease. Everywhere else in the world consumes American culture voraciously, and yet they don't have murder as a public-health problem. Canadians and Koreans play more video games than Americans, but manage to rein in their shooting impulses. Ever seen Japanese slasher movies? Or Japanese pornography? It redefines exploitation and disgust. Japan has virtually no gun deaths. Why? One answer — I'm just saying — is that it has virtually no guns.
People much more serious than Lapierre are tempted to listen to the cultural argument about gun death. Joe Scarborough mentioned "the culture of violence" on his show, and so did President Obama during his first legislative proposal. It is imperative to note, right now, that this is garbage. There are many fascinating and difficult questions to be had over guns. Even the possibility of armed guards in schools should seriously be discussed. But the question of culture is not worth discussing. There's nothing to discuss. Culture products do not lead to an increase in murder. Period. Leave Megan Fox out of it.
**** as if Megan Fox were plugging thoughts into Adam Lanza’s mind.***
I believe Jodie Foster was on John Hinkley’s mind when he pulled the trigger.
And the Columbine killers were fixiated on who would play them in a made-for-TV movie.
First, when your enemies are falsely blaming you for something bad that has happened don't deny the false charges. Instead go right back at your enemies and blame them for the problem. Second, never give an inch to people who are trying to destroy you.
Hollywood and the Media hate the NRA. The NRA knows this and instead of crying about the bad things Hollywood and the Media are doing to the NRA, the NRA is now going after Hollywood and the Media and trying to cripple them.
The NRA knows how to win a culture war. Maybe it is time for the GOP to take notes.
...our media has completely lost it...
Guns don't kill people. Video games don't kill people.
People sufficiently disengaged from all moorings will kill people.
Our public schools have been happily creating such sociopathic messes for decades.
All according to plans laid out by progressive educators to turn our country into a Marxist paradise.
Just wondering if there is anyone out there besides myself who interested in this aspect of the Sandy Hook tragedy.
You do realize that nothing Jody Foster did actually sent signals to John Hinkley or anyone to kill anyone. Hinkley was crazy.
Did you know Hinkley’s father was the largest contributor to George H.W. Bush’s reelection campaign.
(But the question of culture is not worth discussing. There’s nothing to discuss.)
This is the typical way that liberals like to have a “conversation”. It reminds me about the way Al Gore likes to have a “conversation” about global warming: the science is settled, there is nothing more to discuss!
It’s a wonderful discussion when it’s one-way, isn’t it?
“(But the question of culture is not worth discussing. There’s nothing to discuss.)
This is the typical way that liberals like to have a “conversation”. It reminds me about the way Al Gore likes to have a “conversation” about global warming: the science is settled, there is nothing more to discuss!
It’s a wonderful discussion when it’s one-way, isn’t it?”
And if you do want to discuss the subject, leftists merely tag you as “insane”. Just as the communists did in the Soviet Union with their adversaries.
You get it. It’s good to see someone else who does.
One guy said he remembered the lesson on the Andes plane crash and the resulting eating of dead bodies and he tried to joke about it with his teacher.
One mom said she opted her kids out of the classes where such desensitization was taught, and was successful at getting other parents to follow her lead.
Other than that not many people seem interested in what is the ONLY common denominator among all of the school shooters. That includes the Aurora and VA Tech shooters.
Blaming the guns is much easier than looking at what educators are really teaching. Best to keep to hidden. It might "weaken" the progressive plan.
The solution to guns is more guns says the NRA, and the left goes bananas! How is that different then when the libs saying the answer to our debt problem is having more debt?
What QE are we on now, I think I lost count!
Or the answer to our unemployment is having
more on the unemployment rolls?
The hypocrisy just never ends.
“Culture products do not lead to an increase in murder”
The idiot offers no evidence to prove his assertion. How does he know Hollywood isn’t inciting violence?
The solution to crime is more guns. More Guns, Less Crime is a book by John Lott that says violent crime rates go down when states pass "shall issue" concealed carry laws.
Wow. Marche is almost breath-taking in his sheer stupidity.
“The NRA executive vice president has just proposed a plan that many predicted the NRA would come up with: The solution to guns is more guns.”
I for one was very pleased with LaPierre’s response. Was afraid the NRA would cede ground.Now while I am all for more guns I did not hear LaPierre say that the solution to guns was more guns. That would imply that guns are a problem which they are not. All I heard was him calling for armed security at schools which would not require more guns.
I am also a little unclear on Lanza’s use of the Bushmaster. All the talking heads are saying he used it but I thought he left it in his trunk.
We need to be aware that phraseology is impoortant - they use it in everything to own the talking points. In this caes it's "The solution to guns is more guns". Other recent articles/statements talk about "balance" and "responsiblity".
We can never formulate our arguments by allowing them to posit some nonsense - we have to initially rephrase/destroy their initial phrases first.
Ya think the FACT (reported ONLY in the foreign press) that our sweet young murderer was a SATAN-WORSHIPER (check his website) had anything to do with his atrocity??
Naaaaah. Of course not.
Silly me.
He provides the evidence that other countries watch the exact same movies (and have even more violent locally-produced movies) and play the same video games, but are far less violent.
So what is your response to his evidence other than calling him an idiot? There's someone in this argument with no evidence, and it isn't the author of the piece.
The onus is on people to prove Hollywood IS inciting violence, not that Hollywood ISN'T inciting violence.
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