Movies promote unsafe firearms use

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Pthfndr

New member
Was sitting here at the computer last night with the TV on in the back ground and "The Last Action Hero" was on. Watching bits and pieces of this, especially one scene where the kid is running towards some tar pit firing a pistol into the air to get people to leave the area, and it got me to thinking. Every movie, and TV show, that uses guns are doing so in an unsafe manner and blatantly promoting unsafe gun handling. While I realize that it's "make believe", the guns are real, even if loaded with blanks. And even blanks can cause injury. The rules of safe gun handling say never point a gun at something you aren't willing to shoot (and kill?), yet it is done all the time. As supposedly safe and responsible gun owners, would you point a gun at someone and pull the trigger if it wasn't a BG? Isn't that an accident looking for a place to happen? Even if you personaly checked the weapon, would you be willing to put the barrel in your mouth (as in LW1)? I guess I just felt a wave of hypocrisy because sometimes I tell someone that a movie is really good but don't think about the implications of how firearms are used improperly in them. How do you reconcile watching a movie that uses firearms and enjoying it and at the same time KNOW that how they are being handled is wrong?

[This message has been edited by Pthfndr (edited June 18, 2000).]
 
"As supposedly safe and responsible gun owners, would you point a gun at someone and pull the trigger if it wasn't a BG? Isn't that an accident looking for a place to happen? Even if you personaly checked the weapon, would you be willing to put the barrel in your mouth (as in LW1)?"

Yes, as an actor or in certain training scenarios. Possibly if safety precautions aren't followed. As an actor, yes.
 
There has been at least one incident where an actor has been killed "horsing around" with a blank. As I recall he put the muzzle of a .44 magnum to his temple and before pulling the trigger said "imagine what would happen if this were real." You can imagine the rest.

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"Quemadmoeum gladius neminem occidit, occidentis telum est."
("A sword is never a killer, it's a tool in the killer's hands.") -
Lucius Annaeus Seneca "the Younger" (ca. 4 BC-65 AD).
 
Of course they do. They also promote unsafe driving skills, unsafe sexual choices/practices, life-deadening philosophies, rewritten history, political agendas, anti-hero worship, etc. What else can anyone expect from a ****hole like Hollywood?
DAL


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Reading "Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal," by Ayn Rand, should be required of every politician and in every high school.
GOA, JPFO, PPFC, CSSA, LP, NRA
 
LoneRanger,

That was Jon Erik Huxom, on the set of his series with Kate Jackson (I think). I can't recall the name of that series.

There were some lengthy delays in the shooting of the show, so Huxom took a nap. He later woke up to yet another delay. He took the prop gun (loaded with blanks) put it to his head and pulled the trigger. He meant to be funny, showing his frustration at the production delays.

The force of the blast from the blank caused his skull to fracture, sending a quarter-sized chunk deep into his brain.

GUNS ARE NOT TOYS!!!


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Remember, just because you are not paranoid doesn't mean they are not out to get you!
 
Well, yuh!?! It's their first amendment right to use their 'creative license' (sic) to portray what ever they want however they want. it's all make believe, you're susposed to suspend disbelief. There's no requirement for a disclaimer that what you are seeing isn't real, that any connrection to or relection of real life (aka "reality")is purely coincidental. That's why the opinions of actors/entertainers, people who make their living playing make-believe, are so much more valid and insightful than us 'normal' people who work for a living, pay taxes, and can't afford bodyguards 'in the real world'.

I have long suspected that many people get much of their 'education' and fact base from TV and/or the movies (ever see "Jay Walkiing" on Leno?) and use no analytical or critical skills (because they're either lacking or lazy) to filter out the crappola. They believe what they see, think it's 'normal' even. And since Hollywood is such a paragon and promulgator of goodtaste, sound practice and restraint, it's a mystery to me where all the violence, degeneracy, and bad gun handling within the public at large comes from.
And the sky is mauve in my world today. M2
 
Yes, I agree, the movies portray all sorts of nonsense and trash.

But you have to admit that scene from last action here was pretty cool when the kid asked for a gun and Schwarzenegger said "Theres one in the glove box." And a bunch of pistols, grenades, and belts of ammo came falling out.
 
I read an article recently on room clearing which pointed out the "Starsky & Hutch ready Position", where you hold the weapon pointing upward in front of your face. They showed a photo of a guy who did this and then went to peek around som ecover, the muzzle wound up pointing into his skull just below his ear.

As the article points out, this so called ready position was developed by film directors so they could get the actor's face and the gun in the same shot (camera shot, not firearm shot). I wonder how many people have been blinded or worse by following the movie procedure.
 
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