terrible firearms handling portrayal on Fox TV show

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carterbeauford

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If anyone was as unfortunate as I was last night and watched all 30 minutes of the Fox show "It's always sunny in Philadelphia" then you'll agree with me. It took unsafe firearms handling to a whole new level.

Synopsis: 4 friends own a bar. Bar is robbed. Friends agree "we gotta get a gun!" Friends buy a large frame pistol that resembles a Sig or something similar. They wave the pistol around, point it at each others heads, with their finger on the trigger. They tuck it in the front of their pants and view it as a form of power. Ultimately one of the friends shoots the other in the head during a second robbery, but he is OK. On his hospital bed, they say "we gotta get rid of this gun! ...Not really!" and have a good laugh.

I know it's fiction, but does the general public really need to see things like this? I posted a similar thread about unrealistic/unsafe depictions in a movie over at PDO a while back and was not met with much agreement. Lessons non-gun-owners learned: it is OK to wave a gun around and point it at someone else's head with your finger on the trigger. It is OK to shoot someone in the head without identifying your target. It will be OK in the end because most head shots aren't fatal. And of course you won't be charged. Curious if anyone caught the show and has any opinions to share. I just really hate to see things like this. Really hate it :mad:

*edit* I posted this in the wrong sub-forum, please move as appropriate, sorry.
 
That's ok, as long as it was one of hollywood's fully automatic revolvers registered with the local police and had 'copkiller' teflon coated bullets and was made completely of porcelain and undetectable by x-rays.
 
Once upon a time Hollywood had the "Motion Picture Code" aka the "Hays Code".

It was a set of industry standards that instructed studios on things that couldn't be shown in movies.

Basically you couldn't have a movie that glorified badguys, or ridiculed religion or show disrespect to the flag etc. (you can read a lot about it here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motion_Picture_Production_Code )

That Motion Picture Code is dead today, but believe me, there are "Motion Picture Production Codes" in existence today ... among their tenants are that civilian gun ownership is to be discouraged and/or ridiculed. Any time a non-cop protagonist uses a gun in self defense it should be shown to be ineffective or somehow backfire on said protagonist.
 
The Brady Bunch or VPC (spit) one or the other has proposed their own set of rules that is to always show gun ownership as resulting to harm to an innocent. The MSM (which includes all network TV shows) follows along.
 
Other than the rampant stupidity

It was a pretty good showcase of how a gun isn't a panacea. Those morons bought it, played with it, brandished it, and ultimately shot one of their own.
Conversely, the character Collin, while not the penultimate gun poster boy, showed them that not everyone is a complete jackhole clowning around like Jerry Lewis with a pistol. He just pulled his shirt up and showed them his Glock™ in Mexican carry and calmly went on with his life.
So, the idiot primary characters fooled around and shot each other. The handsome, suave, ladykiller that had all his stuff squared away quietly and responsibly (other than going to bars heeled) carried his pistol.

I guess there are different ways to see it. I'd say that the average lobotomized lanechanger watching it would draw that conclusion, at some point. I watched it specifically for the gun handling and to see how a Fox show would treat it.

The subtext of responsible gun ownership was there, although not overt. and, not ideal.
 
The subtext of responsible gun ownership was there, although not overt. and, not ideal.
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You looked more into it than I did then.

The Colin fellow did make a pro-2A comment, "learning how to use a firearm is important" or something like that.
 
I saw the episode and I have seen the show, it is satire. Like the characters in Seinfeld or Malcom in the Middle, the characters on It's Allways Sunny in Philidelphia are morons who could barely function in the real world. The episode was a "comedy of errors" in which the characters buy a gun hoping that it will be a kind of "magic charm" against theft and other problems. They blatently misuse it, and end up shooting (non fatally) one of their friends.

I thought it was hillarious, and was acctually helpful for our side. The moral: don't play with guns if you are an idiot. This episode showed that guns are not a mythical good or bad thing, but simply a tool that is dangerous if misused.
 
I thought it was hillarious, and was acctually helpful for our side. The moral: don't play with guns if you are an idiot. This episode showed that guns are not a mythical good or bad thing, but simply a tool that is dangerous if misused.
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Alternate moral promoted by anti's to emotional masses: We need to ban guns [or "get them off the streets"] so that they are not available to dumb people and criminals can't get them. :rolleyes:
 
This is the problem: It is TV and it is not real. However, the liberal media and the anti's make it real. Just ask one.
 
Remember Hill Street Blues?

On "Hill Street Blues", the swat leader tried to commit suicide one episode but another cop had switched blanks into his pistol. The swat leader came in the next day (episode) with a small bandage on his temple.

It was a couple months later that some guy on a soap opera shot himself with a blank-loaded pistol and later died (not much later).

I don't expect realism in any TV program.
 
I believe it was John Erik Hexum in a tv spy show COVER UP who put a blank loaded gun to his head and pulled the trigger. The explosion of gasses severely fractured his skull and he lingered in a hospital awhile before he died.
Firing blanks directly at anyone is dumb, and Hexum's antic didn't even allow the gasses to escape.
It was a tragic event motivated by ignorance and lack of respect for firearm safety.
 
The Colin fellow did make a pro-2A comment, "learning how to use a firearm is important" or something like that.
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And Colin also turned out to be the bad guy in the end.
 
I had read somewhere that the movie/TV industry has been given a laundry list of [negative] things for characters to do with guns by the VPC (I think it was them, or some group similar to them), which includes such things as:

* Have the gun owner be unfamiliar with gun handling/use and shake terribly out of fear when confronted by a BG, pointing the gun at other GG's and having it "accidentally" go off and either damage unintended property or shoot one of their GG pals.

* Have the gun owner pull the gun for protection, only to have it taken away by the BG and used against them.

* Have the gun kept in an unsecured location, and with a point made as to the gun's lack of a trigger lock, have the gun found and misused by kids playing, thinking it was a toy.

* Have a gun owner that uses a gun for protection suddenly become terribly distraught over having to use the gun and second guess themselves on the force they used to stop the threat, leading to severe mental anguish and much consoling by anti's as to how guns are evil and kill.

* Have a gun owner be surprised by a suspected burglar in the dark of night, only to find that they almost, or did, use the gun against a family member/friend.

I'm sure there's a lot more scenarios on the list, but it was amazing that after reading the list I started paying attention to the TV shows (and many movies), especially ones on the liberal-left stations, and could plainly see these scenarios played out to a "T".

The "media" is a powerful weapon, and just like a gun, it can be used for both good and bad. Forget the violence, language and nudity barriers that are "supposed" to restrict some media from being viewed by the young and impressionable, as these types of "mind setting" plots can and do exist in everything from cartoons to "family" shows (especially during prime-time).

I can remember watching "Good Times" with all its "Dy-NOOO-Mite!" glory when it originaly aired, but when viewed today it's so plain to see how even then the scripts were heavily influenced by the liberal left in so many areas. Did I consider this when watching it back then? Nope. But I can see clearly now how it had an affect on my thoughts and thinking at the time (some of which never stuck, thank goodness). Get a popular funny show on the air and make people laugh, but use a plot that deals with their "hidden" agenda and you have a perfect mold for "character shaping" that can be used to sway the thoughts and feelings of millions.

And no, I don't have a tinfoil hat (not yet at least). ;-)
 
I saw that eppisode too. :cuss:

why don't we send a message to hollywood and stop watching the crap they pump out? 80 million gun owners stop going to movies and watching TV they might just back off.
 
Surprised they didn't show them with AKMs and dixie flags.
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The wearing of Waffen SS uniforms and anti-semetic ex-Nazi relatives were last weeks episode.:barf:
 
carterbeauford said:
If anyone was as unfortunate as I was last night and watched all 30 minutes of the Fox show "It's always sunny in Philadelphia" then you'll agree with me. It took unsafe firearms handling to a whole new level.
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I agree. The whole episode seemed to lampoon the idea of gun ownership. They made it appear as though: (1) only foolish idiots buy guns; (2) any moron off the street can suddenly decide "we gotta get a gun" and walk out of a Wal-Mart with a semiauto in 5 minutes; (3) once you buy a gun, you turn into a macho idiot; (4) guns make normal people threaten their neighbors and commit violence; and, (5) if you have a gun, you will eventually shoot one of your friends by mistake.

carterbeauford said:
Friends buy a large frame pistol that resembles a Sig or something similar.
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Not that it matters, but it looked like a S&W 5906 to me.

carterbeauford said:
I know it's fiction, but does the general public really need to see things like this? I posted a similar thread about unrealistic/unsafe depictions in a movie over at PDO a while back and was not met with much agreement. Lessons non-gun-owners learned: it is OK to wave a gun around and point it at someone else's head with your finger on the trigger. It is OK to shoot someone in the head without identifying your target. It will be OK in the end because most head shots aren't fatal. And of course you won't be charged. Curious if anyone caught the show and has any opinions to share. I just really hate to see things like this. Really hate it...
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I have to agree. It's the typical, 1-sided "liberal media" stereotype of gun ownership.
 
Responsible gun ownership is boring. Safety. Trigger discipline. Making sure the shoot is good. Aiming. Stuff like that.

Irresponsible gun ownership is exciting. AG. NG. Accidental shooting of friends and family. Accidental removal from the gene pool by carrying in down the front of the pants. Shooting people in a murderous rage.

Boring does not sell. Exciting sells. What do you think the entertainment industry will do?
 
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