Article:U.K. watchdog condemns film's violent gun ads

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nwilliams

nwilliams

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Sad, just plain sad.

So now the very image of a gun is considered harmful in Britain!:uhoh:

I don't know what else to say about it its so utterly pathetic...:banghead:

U.K. watchdog condemns film's violent gun ads
Wednesday November 21 8:59 PM ET

Britain's advertising watchdog on Wednesday upheld complaints that images used to promote an action film glamorized guns amid growing public concern about youth violence.

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) said it backed 55 people who complained about posters for the thriller "Shoot 'Em Up."

One of the ads showed actor Paul Giamatti pointing a gun while holding a mobile phone with text saying "Just another family man making a living."

Another depicted actor Clive Owen jumping in the air holding a pistol in each hand which he was pointing toward the viewer.

A London-based community safety group complained, saying the ads glorified gun crime.

The ads attracted complaints from people who said they were offensive and insensitive to those who had been affected by gun crime, citing the family of Rhys Jones, an 11-year-old boy who was shot dead on a street in Liverpool, northern England.

His death, which followed a wave of teenage murders involving guns, horrified the country and prompted Prime Minister Gordon Brown to promise action to tackle the issue.

Entertainment Film Distributors Ltd,, which made the posters, said it did not believe they glamorized gun violence. It said they had been specifically designed so the guns Owen was holding were angled away from the viewer.

But the ASA, in explaining its ruling that the ads should not be used again, said it was mindful of growing public concern. Whilst it did not uphold complaints relating to Jones's death, it did back the views of the community group.

"We concluded that (the) ads could be seen to condone violence by glorifying or glamorizing the use of guns."

Earlier this week the ASA reported that there had been a sharp rise this year in complaints from the public about advertisements that depict or allude to violence.

So far this year it has received 1,748 complaints about 523 ads, compared with just 1,054 complaints received in the whole of 2006 about 254 ads.

"The ASA takes the increase in complaints very seriously and is keen to hear the public's views," said Lord Smith, Chairman of the ASA. "Our key priority is how we ensure children are protected from harmful images."

The ASA is holding a seminar on Wednesday to discuss the issue through debates focusing on the depiction of guns and knives, horror films, video games and general violence.

Reuters/Nielsen
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http://movies.yahoo.com/mv/news/va/20071121/119570754300.html
 
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A London-based community safety group complained, saying the ads glorified gun crime.
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Actually, most movie advertisements and movies themselves I've seen promote crime in general, violent crime in particular, and the irresponsible handling of firearms.

Instead of sniveling and whining for greater government control like some wimpy British subject, I simply don't waste my time and dollars on movies.
 
Sometimes my 6 old grand daughter gets scared by what she sees in movies.

I explain to her it's just light and sound, it's not real, it cannot hurt her.

6 years old. She gets it.

Gotta make you wonder about a nation filled with people that don't.
 
Britain's advertising watchdog on Wednesday upheld complaints that images used to promote an action film glamorized guns
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So what? They already pretty much banned guns. Either they're complaining about nothing, or the ban simply hasn't worked. Which is it? Simple question, but of course they'll never answer. :rolleyes:
 
Oh we have balls I can assure you of that,let's not forget Britain never had a gun culture,guns were always the domain of the ruling classes.I think you all forget how small we are in comparison to yourselves.
When our ban was broght in,only a very small percentage of the population owned or used said banned firearms.

Hey,let's not forget our Maggie (Margaret Thatcher),she even had your President eating out of her hands.
 
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Funny thing is that the movie " shoot them up" is supposed to be a anti-gun/violence movie. At least that is what the director and Clive Owen stated in an interview after its release.
 
Britain never had a gun culture,guns were always the domain of the ruling classes.
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Rubbish. Britain is (and used to be more so) scattered with gun clubs set up for ordinary, working men. Many, perhaps most, of those were set up with the goal of having "a rifle range in every village". In the first half of the 20th century guns were sold not only from expensive London gunsmiths, but from bicycle shops and hardware stores and iron mongers and department stores. Guns like the Webley bulldog were made specifically for ordinary people - with custom versions available for richer customers. And not every shotgun was for the upper class - the vast majority were made for simple farmers, game wardens and so on. Both my father and grandfather, neither of whom were members of the 'ruling classes', carried pistols in public and kept guns at home with little or no restriction.

Certainly Britain did not have gun culture of quite the same calibre (excuse the pub) as the United States where in many places you couldn't survive without one, but it did have a considerable one.

The first time guns were banned in modern Britain was 1937, when machineguns were effectively restricted to the military. Even in America I doubt any significant number of people owned machineguns at this time (or in 1934, when the US restricted them).

Next was 1989 when self-loading fullbore rifles and short-barreled self-loading shotguns were banned, but by this time the creep of, largely non-legislative, controls on firearms had destroyed most of Britain's gun culture.

Go back to 1920 when it all started, and a significant proportion of the population was carrying a gun for self-defence, with yet more owning rifles and shotguns for sport, hunting/pest control or protection.
 
I do not agree at all.We never had a gun culture,farmers used guns for vermin and the odd bit of food when they could afford the cartridges.I live in the North and am certainly unaware of gun clubs,ranges set up for villages.Gun clubs have closed now at alarming rate,there are more on the cards with local councils enforcing noise abatement regulations.There were guns around but never in great numbers.I am from a long line of firearms dealers in the UK and India (Colonial),looking back through are records (165 years)there are very few locals who ever managed to buy a gun.
The local miner never had a gun,the baker,the millworker,the sweep,the farm worker the list goes on.These guys poached with hand made traps to feed their families,they dreamt of owning a gun but could never afford one.

I believe the vast majority of your post is based on what most people believe is Britain,the south East and London.We did do some business with a couple of gunmakers in Sheffield in 1926,but these were to send to Plymouth for export.
 
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Britain never had a gun culture,guns were always the domain of the ruling classes.
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My limited experience tells me that Fosbery is correct when he says "rubbish". My Grandad was a working class laborer, repairing England's railroad tracks. Prior to that he served 12 years as a private soldier in the Essex Regiment in "India".

I lived in England for five years, and while I never handled it, I was well aware of the Webley that my Grandad kept in his house.

During the year that my Dad was in Vietnam, Grandad and I would hike the sides of north Mr. Franklin (El Paso, TX) and take turns popping jackrabbits with my .22 rifle while he regaled me with tales from his adventures at the Khyber Pass. He was a darned good shot, and could roll over the bunnies with ease.
 
In 1887 a .455 Webley pocket revolver cost £3/1/1 which, using a purchasing power over time converter, comes to £233 today i.e. easily affordable by ordinary people in 1887. Though Webley of course were top-notch guns of military grade. There would have been dozens or hundreds of makers and gunsmiths producing even cheaper pistols - not to mention all the Belgium rip-offs and deep-conceal guns, as well as the odd French pinfire and plenty of S&Ws and Iver Johnsons and so on.
 
I just hope they get those posters down... before violent crime gets out of hand over there across the pond. :rolleyes:
 
May be they should do what we did in 1776. Oh, I forgot they turned in their guns. Guess your out of luck and will remain subjects not Citizens.
 
Once the most powerful country in the world, now afraid a a still image. Pitiful.

Worse, our country is heading down the same road at an ever increasing pace.

Most everyone in this country is here because their parent/grandparent/great grandparent/etc. wanted to escape Europe. Now the decendents of those people want to use Europe as a model for our government. ***????
 
1887 average weekly wage for a farm worker 13 shillings 8 pence.He fed on average himself,wife,2 children.Clothed them,paid for heating fuel and maybe had two beers on a Sunday.The percentage who owned a firearm is not recorded.If you travelled further north or to Wales,Ireland the wages were 30% less.Little or no money left to buy a firearm.
 
I'm kind of in two minds about this. I don't believe in censorship or thoughtpolicing, but then I want the responsible use of guns to be furthered in this country and so part of that is reducing the attitude of some idiots who think that having a gun could be cool because they could go round and terrorise people. These adverts seem to be promoting the latter view, but my moral objection to censorship wins.
 
MacFarlaine

I think you're on the mark. If firearms were so common in England, back in the day, why did your goverment have to ask U.S. private citizens to send their firearms over the pond in 1940/41? It's been my understanding that it was all that the Defense Ministry could do to arm the troops in the early days of WW2. There wasn't much in the way of privately owned firearms.

The Home Guard had to scrounge. Many Americans responded and sent the guns. By the way is it true that after the war your goverment destroyed those firearms instead of returning them back to the rightful owners in the U.S.?
 
I have no hard evidence but it would not suprise me.You should write to Mr Brown and ask for them back !!
 
I think you're on the mark. If firearms were so common in England, back in the day, why did your goverment have to ask U.S. private citizens to send their firearms over the pond in 1940/41? It's been my understanding that it was all that the Defense Ministry could do to arm the troops in the early days of WW2. There wasn't much in the way of privately owned firearms.
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Okay and let me explain about the firearms situation in my country.GB never prepared for WW2 properly as did Nazi Germany,smgs wern't thought of and the existing ones from the US,the Thompson,was considered a "gangster weapon" of the mafia and was frowned upon,by our then stuffy establishment.Now I could go on for about hours about this,but at the end of the day,private arms of any kind,except full-auto's were legal,with a license,most people didn't want guns anyway and the American 'lend-lease' deal,was about helping out British troops and Home Guard (Provisional National Guard units,comprised of medically-unfit young men,men who held important jobs,based on the mainland- and old men,considered too old for service.)because they never prepared fully for ww2.

The rest,is politically-correct nonsense,brough on by anti-gunners,who are also anti-military,etc.
 
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