Purposeful misinformation

TrickyDick · Jul 31, 2017

So the wife and I just finished watching a television series on Netflix, called Ozark.

In episode 9 I believe, the (13 year old)son of the protagonist sends his friend who's of age to purchase a firearm on his behalf. Now, this friend is a bit slow, perhaps borderline mentally handicapped.

This friend walks into the LGS, with a piece of paper in hand. He hands this to the dealer over the counter, in which the dealer asks if he wants to see it first, or just be on his way with it. The friend replies that he'll be on his way. Clearly, the paper had the make and model written on it.

So of course, a 4473 is needed. The friend fills it out, and hands it back. The dealer looks it over, and notices that he answered yes to a question regarding straw purchases. The dealer then tells the friend that it must've been a mistake and basically says that he should change it.

And to top it off, the dealer asks if he'd like a "High-capacity magazine" with it.
And of course, he says yes.

Then finally, the young kid gets it, loads it, and pulls the trigger. And voila, a Mini-14 with an ATI "tactical polymer stock" is all of a sudden, a machine gun. Just about dumps the mag with a single squeeze.

So it's quite clear that the production of this episode purposely implied that mentally handicapped people can buy machine guns and the dealer will knowingly break the law just to make a few bucks.

Kinda made me sick to watch. The agenda was pretty obvious.

RMH · Jul 31, 2017

The gun control folks will never quit. All we can do is stop supporting there garbage by not watching/paying for it. Don't contribute to there paychecks.

We have to win every time, They just have to win once.

Crawdad1 · Aug 1, 2017

I first I thought it was just ignorance of firearms and how firearms are acquired by the general public on the part of Hollywood producers but I started noticing that their anti gun agenda is systematically inserted in every thing they produce for the public.

Tirod · Aug 1, 2017

Yup, it's been the same on other subjects we don't discuss here which many would find equally offensive. Once they start in on it, the "entertainment" value of the program is ended, and so is our watching.

As I grew up in the 70's as an adult I ran across an expressed attitude related by those from the turn of the century - entertainers were not considered the morally higher social class then and were given short shrift. If anything the media has been attempting to prop them up on a pedestal, along with their own editorial slant, while also documenting their faults and shortcomings to an extreme degree. For the most part our Victorian predecessors were right - they are, after all, just entertainers. They recite the lines given to them and pursue their careers in an atmosphere of portraying excess.

What one generation takes to excess the next embraces. This is why it's said we continue down a slippery slope. Its not as bad as some would make out, and in other regards it's much worse than it was in the past. In as far our 2A rights it's been an upward trend, tho albeit our conversations have changed from "we can't carry anywhere" to "carry in that location is fraught with peril."

It could be worse.

Wisco · Aug 1, 2017

When the writer, director, producer, etc of a show can't be bothered to get some easy things right, I assume they got none of it right, technically speaking.

Some of it is likely agenda. Some is ignorance. All of it is unacceptable given the reach of the material and the salaries of those who are paid to make it.

Of the ignorance, owning a gun is quickly becoming like military service - fewer people are doing it compared to 75 years ago. Back then "everyone" served and "every" household owned a gun - not every, but it was common. It's no longer as common and becoming uncommon for large segments of society so fewer people notice when things are portrayed incorrectly.

4v50 Gary · Aug 1, 2017

"The media is agenda driven." - Dr. Paul Craig Roberts, former Asst-Sect. of the Treasury under Reagan.

TrickyDick · Aug 1, 2017

It was the details that bothered me. The fact that it even went length to show the 4473, and how the gun dealer swayed the customer to lie on it.

And that it didn't pick an AR-15, but instead a "tactical" mini-14 and made it fill Auto, while calling a standard 20 round mag "High capacity".

Speedo66 · Aug 1, 2017

Why use actual facts when the opposite makes for better TV?

On a previous episode of "Ozark", the mother seemed to feel the boy practically needed psychiatric help because he wanted to hunt birds. That put up flags for me right there. And, of course, anyone with a gun must be a brain dead local hillbilly who will use it illegally.

The picture TV and Hollywood portray of anyone who doesn't live in a city is often quite negative, like they could all have bad guy parts in "Deliverance".

AlexanderA · Aug 1, 2017

I never heard of this series. But then again, I don't subscribe to Netflix.

The media world is so "sliced and diced" these days that no one segment commands a large audience, like the three major broadcast networks did in the old days, with their monopoly of the news. Propaganda is much more difficult when you don't have a captive audience. It's practically impossible to convince people who don't already agree with your views. If you lay it on too thick, they'll simply switch to another channel.

Theohazard · Aug 1, 2017

TrickyDick said:
The dealer looks it over, and notices that he answered yes to a question regarding straw purchases. The dealer then tells the friend that it must've been a mistake and basically says that he should change it.

11a is the question on the 4473 about straw purchases. "Yes" is the correct answer to that question if the gun is for you and not for someone else.

MillennialGunslinger · Aug 1, 2017

TrickyDick said:
Kinda made me sick to watch. The agenda was pretty obvious.

That stuff boils my blood. If nothing else it absolutely breaks the suspension of disbelief for the people who know better. And what pisses me off even more is if you tell anyone (outside a gun forum), they tend to just shrug it off and say "It's just a movie, what's the big deal?". But like Breitbart said, "politics is downstream from culture...". Oh well.

There is actual a set of guidelines in the movie industry to "raise awareness for gun safety". I wish I had the link saved. It's literally a list of hypothetical situations that make guns look bad. Just pick and choose one. I'm all for treating firearms in an adult manner, but wilfully misinforming if far from it.

Nanook · Aug 1, 2017

I watched the first two episodes. That might be enough. The older kid reminds me of Rodney Dangerfield's line "that's why tigers eat their young".

I think I'll pass on watching any more of it.

buck460XVR · Aug 1, 2017

I dunno.....I seriously doubt if too many folk(other than those who want to) believe everything they see on "made for T.V.". I present "Sharknado" and it's 4 subsequent sequels as examples. How about those old Saturday afternoon matinee westerns where the good guy had a six-shooter that shot infinite rounds without reloading and whose horse was trained to untie itself from the hichin' post when the secret "whistle" was given and help untie the bound hero so he could ride off into the sunset with the leading lady. I like the show "Wynonna Earp" on Netflix, but pay little or no attention to whether the guns and their effect on the demons that roam the streets of her hometown, Purgatory, are realistic or not. It's just T.V. I don't really believe that Doc Holiday is still alive and well in western America, 130 years after his real death, nor do I believe many other folks do.

But that's just me.

JR24 · Aug 1, 2017

Hmm. Was debating warching that show, seems that I will pass.

Deanimator · Aug 1, 2017

Most "popular" media is to guns as "Birth of a Nation" is to race, nothing but hate filled propaganda.

TrickyDick · Aug 1, 2017

Theohazard said:
11a is the question on the 4473 about straw purchases. "Yes" is the correct answer to that question if the gun is for you and not for someone else.

Then he must've put no, but the dealer knew that his answer would void the sale, so he "corrected" it.

MedWheeler · Aug 1, 2017

So, you watched a fictional show, and now you're disappointed that it portrayed a fictional scenario. Gun-related inaccuracies in TV and movie fiction come up in threads here from time to time. Most get closed pretty quickly. These fiction-writers know what sells, and it's pretty much crap. The story probably would not have gone the way its writers needed it to had the "straw purchaser" simply been turned away, political agenda or not.

I knew there was (yet another) reason I never subscribed to NetFlix..

mokin · Aug 1, 2017

Wisco said:
When the writer, director, producer, etc of a show can't be bothered to get some easy things right, I assume they got none of it right, technically speaking.

Some of it is likely agenda. Some is ignorance. All of it is unacceptable given the reach of the material and the salaries of those who are paid to make it.

Of the ignorance, owning a gun is quickly becoming like military service - fewer people are doing it compared to 75 years ago. Back then "everyone" served and "every" household owned a gun - not every, but it was common. It's no longer as common and becoming uncommon for large segments of society so fewer people notice when things are portrayed incorrectly.

I think Wisco nailed it. It's part of the "information bubble" that was briefly discussed after the last election. The Hollywood types don't know the facts and don't bother getting them. Their peers see the script/show and, as they don't know the facts, they go along with it. Those who do know keep their mouths shut because they don't want to make waves. The greater public, many of whom have had no experience with guns, takes what is portrayed as fact. The cycle continues....

I've stopped watching many shows because of poor "editing" when it comes to facts, especially when dealing with firearms.

barnbwt · Aug 1, 2017

Man, just imagine how many attaboys that screenwriter must have gotten at the wrap party, though. How many young, attractive, and naive attendees got to hear how noble it was of them to include that public service piece for the good of everyone watching?

Who cares if it was inaccurate or just plain worthless in accomplishing anything important, it accomplished to aggrandizement of those involved, which was the entire point.

Just Hollywood virtue-signaling, same reason Ted Turner wasted all that money on Captain Planet to impress Jane Fonda (and presumably her replacement)

TCB

barnbwt · Aug 1, 2017

Of the ignorance, owning a gun is quickly becoming like military service - fewer people are doing it compared to 75 years ago. Back then "everyone" served and "every" household owned a gun - not every, but it was common. It's no longer as common and becoming uncommon for large segments of society so fewer people notice when things are portrayed incorrectly.

This statement might have been correct 10-20 years ago during the AWB when gun rights were at their nadir; more people, and of more diverse backgrounds, are getting involved in shooting today than has been seen in multiple generations. All available evidence points to this fact.

TCB

ColtPythonElite · Aug 1, 2017

I watched the full season and found it entertaining. I got exactly out of it what I was looking for. I am sure if I analyzed it and picked it apart, I could find all kinds of inaccuracies.

Wisco · Aug 2, 2017

barnbwt said:
This statement might have been correct 10-20 years ago during the AWB when gun rights were at their nadir; more people, and of more diverse backgrounds, are getting involved in shooting today than has been seen in multiple generations. All available evidence points to this fact.

TCB

What evidence?

Polls of the last two years report households % with a gun dropping significantly. They also show fewer people buying overall more guns.

This article quotes a GSS survey. https://www.google.com/amp/www.newsweek.com/us-gun-ownership-declines-312822?amp=1

Old Dog · Aug 2, 2017

Most of the network television shows display an anti-gun (in the hands of the private citizen) agenda.

Dick Wolf, producer of the various Law & Order franchises, has been responsible for the most blatant anti-gun episodes of network TV over the past twenty or so years. The CSI series comes in a close second. Even "Blue Bloods," supposedly vetted by series star and pro-gun actor Tom Selleck, frequently allows scripts depicting an anti-gun bias, however obliquely obscured.

I now watch motion pictures and television solely for the entertainment value, forgoing any expectations of accuracy or ... even truth.

You guys do know just how many folks in the entertainment industry are tight with the usual leftist-leaning politicians, right? We even went through that blatant Arkansas-Hollywood connection during the (Bill) Clinton years ...

barnbwt · Aug 2, 2017

Wisco said:
What evidence?

Polls of the last two years report households % with a gun dropping significantly. They also show fewer people buying overall more guns.

This article quotes a GSS survey. https://www.google.com/amp/www.newsweek.com/us-gun-ownership-declines-312822?amp=1

Every available sales, marketing, Youtube, and registration metric *everywhere* indicates a massive expansion in tye shooter base. But go on believing a diminishing number of Americans are sustaining eight straight years of market growth with no end in sight, if it makes you feel special. There's also the expansion of the NRA, other gun orgs, steady expansion of rights at the state level in nearly all places, expansion of legitimately pro gun representation at the federal level, and poll after poll demonstrating a much more widespread positive attitude toward gunownership among every demographic. But none of them are buying, I'm sure.

"Household" stats are screwy because the decline of marriage skews the numbers toward dilution (since women tend to own fewer guns). There's also the fact that many have valid reasons not to admit ownership (illegality/hostility in anti gun cities, immigration status, and fear of telling strangers about valuables in the house)

The idea gun rights are currently fading is a bad joke put on by donation hustlers, but some will only donate if they feel under attack. I personally am more inclined to give in exchange for results, which we're getting. Are gun rights less than they were, or need to be? Absolutely. Are we losing the fight? Not hardly; heck, "good cause" was just struck down in DC the other day, so you & I can sign up for carry permits there in a few weeks.

TCB

Ryanxia · Aug 2, 2017

Wisco said:
Polls of the last two years report households % with a gun dropping significantly.

I do tend to agree with barnbwt that a lot of gun owners refuse to answer polls/questions like that. And media polls are about as reliable as this tv show in question. Kind of like how all the polls showed Hillary winning by like 94% and the polls show that 90% of Americans support background checks. Looking at NICS data, firearm manufacturing reports and number of Concealed Carry permits, all of which have been increasing for the last decade are a good indication of firearms becoming more popular. Even knowing that a lot of the increase in sales are from the "Super gun owners", permit increases tell part of the story too, especially where 12 States now have Constitutional Carry and a lot of people don't bother with getting a permit anymore to conceal carry.

Purposeful misinformation

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