Movies, finger off the trigger!

[chicharrones]

Movies make great training tools.

My kids learned to drive safely and courteously by watching To Live and Die in L.A.

and learned to fight by watching Bob Barker

and learned to shoot by watching Charlie Sheen

 

[bdickens]

How does that matter?

Are you serious?

 

[cfullgraf]

Following that logic, everyone would wear seatbelts, drive the speed limit, not smoke or do illegal and dangerous drugs... or murder people.

Yep. Why should movies and TV shows promote bad practices and habits. They don't need to make a big thing of it but the "good guys" should do stuff that complies with safety.

In the mid 1960's, my parents bought my sister a Mustang convertible. We had to wear our seatbelts in the car religiously. As a result, I'm uncomfortable being in a car without a seat belt stretched across my body. Besides, I race cars wear seat belts are required. My mother never took to liking seat belts even after it became Ohio law requiring one to wear one. She'd wear one grudgingly until she past away

Wearing seat belts is a normal thing for me.

'Check it! Dude just killed 37 people... but he didn't put his trigger on the finger until he was ready to shoot!'

At least the shooter was following safe shooting practices. See comment above.

Hollywood is make-believe, sometimes more so, sometimes less... but it is solidly in the nebulous land of Make Believe, and that goes not only for the trigger finger, and firearms in general (the 100rd magazine comes to mind, too...) but also an endless list of just about everything else. If anyone is looking at a movie to instill safe firearm habits... or any other life-lesson... I feel sorry for you.

Agreed, it is not the film producer's job to educate the public, but they should be considerate to not promote bad practices. It is not a big deal but can definitely promote safe practices.

Let the "bad guys" handle firearms in an unsafe practice and show that it gets them injured. The bad guys are bad for a reason.

I'm not saying producers need to follow appropriate firearms practices, I just think they should promote safe handling practices in theuir shows.

Yes shows and movies are not real, but today's impressionable youth will disagree.

The recent Alec Baldwin incident shows that film sets do not give firearm safety the due that is needed.

 

[bdickens]

The recent Alec Baldwin incident shows that film sets do not give firearm safety the due that is needed.

Wrong. It shows that Alec Baldwin did not give firearm safety it's due. The film industry bends over backwards to handle them safely.

 

[420Stainless]

I will admit that I always look to see what model is being used and I sometimes look to see if a single action is cocked or not, but I never pay attention to the trigger or round counts in movies.

 

[Charlie98]

In the mid 1960's, my parents bought my sister a Mustang convertible. We had to wear our seatbelts in the car religiously. As a result, I'm uncomfortable being in a car without a seat belt stretched across my body. Besides, I race cars wear seat belts are required. My mother never took to liking seat belts even after it became Ohio law requiring one to wear one. She'd wear one grudgingly until she past away

I'm old enough to have lived in both Indiana and Ohio before there were seatbelt laws, and, drove big trucks over-the-road for for a few years before there were mandatory laws. In fact, my first few trucks only had lap belts... so no one could tell whether or not I was wearing one, anyway, including the DOT. That, of course, changed... and for the better, although I think one's decision to wear a seatbelt should be a personal choice, not a law, per se. Back when I was young and indestructable... and rode motorcycles... I hardly ever wore a helmet. These days, I won't ride around the block after an oil change without a helmet. I like that wearing a helmet is, at least in Texas, somewhat of a personal freedom.



As far as the Hollywood OP comments... and I think CapnMac eluded to this... actors just act. FWIW, from what I've seen, true knowledge of firearms is somewhat limited in Hollywood... a firearms-ignorant director and crew wouldn't know to tell an actor or actress to keep their booger hook off the trigger, or anything else... it's all about optics. That's why, as a firearm enthusiast, it's always so refreshing to see a movie with realistic firearms use, among other things, but those are exceptions and not the rule.

Think about it... how many times have you seen completely made-up firearms nonsense in a movie or TV show? Kop Killer Bullets, Glocks have a ceramic frame to avoid detection, full-auto firearms on sale behind the LGS counter, exploding tip bullets... the list goes on.

 

[Kleanbore]

Are you serious?

Very.

How many times have we seen in screen fiction someone using deadly force or the threat of same to terminate trespass. Or someone shooting at a fleeing felon. Or trying to detain a suspect....

Such stupid things are done foe dramatic effect, but ia it nor reasonable the think that at least some of the similar real word incidents that get people into very serious trouble may well have reulted from conditioning that infolved watching that kind of thing on the screen, repeatedly?

I rarely pay attention to where actors keep their trigger fingers.

I do cringe whan someone lowers the hammer on what would be a loaded chamber on a Colt SAA or replica.

 

[Show Me]

A garand with its trigger guard safety? By the way John Wayne movies are real

 

[bearcreek]

Yes shows and movies are not real, but today's impressionable youth will disagree.

Poor trigger discipline is way down near the bottom of the very long list of negative things that today's impressionable youth learn from shows and movies.

 

[bearcreek]

Very.

How many times have we seen in screen fiction someone using deadly force or the threat of same to terminate trespass. Or someone shooting at a fleeing felon. Or trying to detain a suspect....

Such stupid things are done foe dramatic effect, but ia it nor reasonable the think that at least some of the similar real word incidents that get people into very serious trouble may well have reulted from conditioning that infolved watching that kind of thing on the screen, repeatedly?

I rarely pay attention to where actors keep their trigger fingers.

I do cringe whan someone lowers the hammer on what would be a loaded chamber on a Colt SAA or replica.

I'll certainly agree that stupid people do sometimes copy things that they see on TV. Does that automatically translate into the producers having a responsibility to not portray those things though, to protect the stupid people from themselves?

 

[buck460XVR]

No.

Movies aren't real.

They have no obligation to teach viewers about anything.

^^^I'm with Eddie here.

True, but…

I feel producers should portray current safe practices for various items.

You see many shows where the actors put on their seat belts when getting in a car.

I notice those lapses in judgement of the shows’ production staff.

Think about a youngster whose opinion is easily swayed.

There is so much that movies inaccurately portray, it seems, at least IMHO, that keeping your finger out of the trigger guard is pretty minor. What about the scandalous clothing, foul language and casual unprotected premarital sex that the same young people are being exposed to? How about the portrayal of using violence to solve your problems and the glamorization of vigilantism. Used to be movies at one time did promote morals with a so called "moral to the story". That went out back when I was a kid 60 some years ago. The minute we expect the movie industry to instruct those unfamiliar with firearms about firearm safety....we are doomed.

 

[The Night Rider]

I said this in the other discussion about movies and guns.

A lot of the modern Action Movie heroes go take professional training to add "realism" to their parts and even they do the finger on the trigger thing.

I really think that it's something that they do for dramatic effect.

I watched a phenomenally stupid movie last night called Con Air (If you ever get a chance to watch this movie, don't. For sure don't watch it if you have to pay for it).

There was a scene in the movie where the good guy and the bad guy were chasing each other all over the plane and they had shot at each other two or three times and they still did the racking the slide bit at the end of the chase to show that they were really serious.

 

[chicharrones]

The Hays Code died a long time ago. Kids need good parenting from their parental figures, not from movie makers.

 

[chicharrones]

I said this in the other discussion about movies and guns.

A lot of the modern Action Movie heroes go take professional training to add "realism" to their parts and even they do the finger on the trigger thing.

I really think that it's something that they do for dramatic effect.

I watched a phenomenally stupid movie last night called Con Air (If you ever get a chance to watch this movie, don't. For sure don't watch it if you have to pay for it).

There was a scene in the movie where the good guy and the bad guy were chasing each other all over the plane and they had shot at each other two or three times and they still did the racking the slide bit at the end of the chase to show that they were really serious.

I have a son-in-law that deals with gaining legal access to shooting locations, extras, and other behind the scenes work in movies and TV in the Atlanta area. He tells me of his work days when I get to visit him.

One of the problems with filming is when multiple takes are shot of a scene, that continuity of that scene can get disrupted. There is usually a person that is in charge of continuity during shooting takes, but the outcome is not guaranteed. And once all the filming is done and the movie makers are piecing it together afterwards, they usually cannot ramp shooting back up to fix continuity details.

Fer instance, I watched a silly movie called The Other Guys over the Christmas holidays with family. There was Mark Wahlberg and Will Farrell squirming on the ground after an explosion scene, and the wooden gun that Farrell's character had would be in his holster, out of his holster on the ground, in his holster, and back out of his holster on the ground.

 

[The Night Rider]

A while ago I posted an image of Roy Rogers, and several other B Western stars. All were shown with their revolvers drawn. That image was chastised, berated, condemned by the finger on the trigger crowd. Of course they all were toting Single Action revolvers and the hammers were down but the safety nuts were adamant.

Kevin

You do it one way across the board.

You treat an unloaded gun the same way you treat a loaded gun, the same way you treat a BB gun, the same way you treat a toy gun

 

[The Night Rider]

Who told you this?

I noticed when I was watching To Hell And Back that even Audie Murphy who was portraying (a fictionalized version of) himself had his finger on the trigger in every scene I saw him in with a gun in his hand.

 

[The Night Rider]

I remember reading an article about how influential Hollywood is. One of the examples that they gave was I think the TV show was ER but there was some medical drama that residents were showing up in hospitals and the first time they intubated the patient they were doing it wrong but they were all doing it wrong the same way. The instructors did some research and they found out that a lot of these people we're intubating patients the exact same way they'd seen it done on ER.

Having said that, Hollywood already has too much influence on our kids.

I don't want my kids learning firearm safety from television. I don't want my kids to hear Walt Longmire talking about registered guns in Absaroka County Wyoming. I certainly don't want to normalize the way he's constantly bullying people into allowing a search without a warrant or probable cause.

I don't want my kids watching Bones and hearing Doctor Saroyan continually talking about "The National Gun Registry".

I don't want my kids (all of whom are middle-aged at this point) watching Eddie Murphy teach the cops in Beverly Hills how to circumvent things like search warrants.

Because if you try to get Hollywood involved with teaching gun safety in their movies, everybody in Hollywood is going to be walking around with a 10-round magazine in their guns. Except for the bad guys who bought their guns and their magazines through the Gun Show loophole along with the radioactive nuclear tipped cop killer bullets.

 

[derek45]

Hollywood gets EVERYTHING WRONG

 

[bdickens]

Very.

How many times have we seen in screen fiction someone using deadly force or the threat of same to terminate trespass. Or someone shooting at a fleeing felon. Or trying to detain a suspect....

Such stupid things are done foe dramatic effect, but ia it nor reasonable the think that at least some of the similar real word incidents that get people into very serious trouble may well have reulted from conditioning that infolved watching that kind of thing on the screen, repeatedly?

I rarely pay attention to where actors keep their trigger fingers.

I do cringe whan someone lowers the hammer on what would be a loaded chamber on a Colt SAA or replica.

If somebody can't tell the difference between reality and fantasy, that's their own fault. Not Hollywood's.

 

[Kleanbore]

The Hays Code died a long time ago. Kids need good parenting from their parental figures, not from movie makers.

How many parents do you know who teach their kids that shooting at fleeing felons or attempting to detain suspects is unlawful?

Does that automatically translate into the producers having a responsibility to not portray those things though, to protect the stupid people from themselves?

How about not promoting actions, whether by"stupid people" or the uninformed, that coumd endanger innocents?

 

[doubleh]

Movies and TV are entertainment, not reality, and certainly not training films. I see many scenes that if it were me and it was real my finger would damn sure be on the trigger. If either showed real world situations characters wouldn't be able to jump out windows, fall 30 feet to bounce off a closed dumpster, roll off onto pavement to only groan and get up and run off. People shot wouldn't be back in good health two days later either. Then there is the I'm shot and bleeding like a stuck hog but OK an and get right back into action thing. Baloney.

What I really like is the scene when the bad guy has a gun along with the good guy and they stand there threatening each other and shaking their guns to show they are serious. Many people poo-poo Steven Seagal and he has made some stinkers but he doesn't mess with all that. He just shoots his opponent and is done with it.

 

[chicharrones]

How many parents do you know who teach their kids that shooting at fleeing felons or attempting to detain suspects is unlawful?

Geeze Us. The Hays Code aimed to give us moral movies, not legal movies. Bad guys always died or went to prison, couples got married before cohabitating, etc., etc.

Parents aren't necessarily lawyers, cops, or politicians. The best a "layman" parent can do is direct their kids in the right direction, morally and legally. And if that parental figure doesn't know the correct answer, hopefully they'll admit that and help the kid seek the right answer (if it matters). Of course, humans are humans and even parents will have their own political agenda or are simply ignorant.

 

[Kleanbore]

The best a "layman" parent can do is direct their kids in the right direction, morally and legally. And if that parental figure doesn't know the correct answer, hopefully they'll admit that and help the kid seek the right answer (if it matters).

The answer? For my examples, most people do not even know the question.

Just a tad of responsibility in screen fiction, rather than always opting for what ignorant screenwriters dream up, could save lives and prevent the waste of lives.

 

[bearcreek]

How about not promoting actions, whether by"stupid people" or the uninformed, that coumd endanger innocents?

They can't do that. No one would watch the movies and they'd go out of business.

 

[bearcreek]

How many parents do you know who teach their kids that shooting at fleeing felons or attempting to detain suspects is unlawful?

Not many. Since they don't, are you suggesting that the kids should be learning it from Hollywood movies?