Posted on 12/19/2012 12:10:35 PM PST by null and void
In light of the attention recent events have focused on gun violence and the current approaching "Financial Cliff" I propose a partial solution to both issues.
it is hereby resolved that Congress act to penalize the glorification of firearms in entertainment media.
Whereas the Federal government is financially deep in the red, and
Whereas Congress is incapable of trimming even the most minuscule amount of spending, and
Whereas raising taxes on this side of the Laffer Curve reduces revenue, and
Whereas medical care mandates (ObamaCare) are a major contributor to budget woes, and
Whereas violent crime in general, and gun violence related injuries in particular are perceived as a major contributor to rising medical costs, and
Whereas the Second Amendment specifically forbids Congress from regulating firearms, and
Whereas regulation and taxation of the promotion of firearms in criminal acts is within Congress' purview,
Specifically Congress should act to impose the following charges for each act promoting gun violence in any form of video entertainment, spoken word, music or print at the production level:
Each firearm shown, named, or alluded to in any given work of entertainment shall accrue a production use cost of $100.
Each individual display, mention of, or allusion to an above named firearm in an given entertainment product such as a written article, video or musical track carries a production display cost of $10.
Each individual discharge of a firearm in an entertainment product carries a production shot cost of $1.
Therefore a video that shows 5 different guns accrues a $500 production use fee, if one gun is shown 20 times it accrues a $200 display fee, a second gun shown in 3 scenes would accrue its own $30 fee, and the cameos the 3rd, 4th, and 4th guns each accrue their own $10 display fee. If 50 rounds total are fired in the course of the video, the production shot fees add up to $50.
Therefore the total video production fee for this entertainment video is $810, a minuscule percentage of typical production costs.
Each retail sale of the resulting video or other entertainment product carries a 0.1% residual fee. In this case that would be 81¢ per DVD, CD, book, magazine, download, theater or live performance ticket.
All collected fees go into a gun violence reparations fund and are used to cover immediate care for firearms injuries, rehabilitation and continuing care. Excess funds go into the general fund and are used to help pay down the national debt.
Specifically exempted from this bill are historical documentaries, news footage and reports, and works produced solely for educational purposes.
This is only intended to penalize glorification of, promotion of and/or normalization of firearm related violence. It assess no penalties for legitimate manufacture, sales, transfers, possetion, ownership or use of any firearm for lawful or Constitutional purposes.
what about re-runs?
Should NOT be based on per-shot.
How about using a metric like per-shot-viewers, meaning if you produce a show where 10 rounds get expended, and your ratings viewership is 5 million, that is 5*10, or 50 million violations times the fine-per-violation to determine total fine.
Tax “action hero” George Clooney till he sqeals like a girl or Matt Damon not that there is much difference.
and games.
Add one or two, maybe three zeroes to each category.
What about guns displayed in video games? $1 per discharge will rack up some serious bills....
Awesome. A-team re-runs alone would pay off the entire national debt in a month.
Of course, more television murders would be by knives, clubs, and poisons. Even Hollywood is smart enough to evade a tax.
ping
I'm open to that. I suppose the same method used to calculate an actor's residuals could be adapted seamlessly to this.
How about using a metric like per-shot-viewers
Works for me, but mine's simpler...
*forehead slap* and games...
Decades ago, cowboy movies didn't show blood and guts all over the place. They didn't even show bullet holes. Back then, kids could bring their guns to school for show and tell.
Same thing with sex. There was outrage when Lucy and Ricky were shown in the bedroom together - even though they had separate beds. They didn't have 11 years olds wanting abortions, teen mothers as the norm, adultery leading to divorces on a record scale, nor the rapes and child molestations we see today.
Homosexuality was a mental condition, and the homos were kept in mental institutions. They didn't have the boy rapes, homo mass murders, the child eating, or the deadly disease we have today, either.
All these things were in the theaters before they started to show up in real life. The nation was and is being flooded with this crap 24/7 - and it gets worse by the day.
Has anyone noticed there have been reports of people attacking and eating others like Zombies? Three is the U.S. so far (that I've heard of). Some blame "Bath Salts", yet the "zombies" had no "Bath Salts" in their systems. Where did this come from? Where have we seen 24/7 Zomies lately?
Not at first...
I think we shouldn’t name our kids Cult, sell Champagne by the magnum or listen to 38 Special. From this point forward, the joke, “She came at me with 2 44’s and a gun” will never be told again.
The character on M*A*S*H, Charles Emerson Winchester will now be known as Charles Emerson.
Any others?
I think we shouldn’t name our kids Colt, sell Champagne by the magnum or listen to 38 Special. From this point forward, the joke, “She came at me with 2 44’s and a gun” will never be told again.
The character on M*A*S*H, Charles Emerson Winchester will now be known as Charles Emerson.
Any others?
You mean just like real life?
Even Hollywood is smart enough to evade a tax.
Barely...
“Kennedy 45. Works everytime”
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