You go to the movies to see a James Bond flick – or some action flick. You’re enjoying the film – and then it happens. The star mishandles a firearm – breaking one of the rules of firearms safety. For one such example, see the 1996 movie Broken Arrow. In that film Christian Slater’s character, Riley Hale, decocks a revolver by pulling the trigger and thumbing the hammer down while it is pointed at the direction of the park ranger, played by Samantha Mathis.
Just about anyone reading this article can probably tell that this sort of thing was weapons-grade stupid. They could probably even recite the safety rules violated (pointing the firearm in an unsafe direction, finger on the trigger when there is no intention to discharge the firearm). But Broken Arrow picked up over $70 million in the United States during its run in theaters.
So what? You might ask. Well, consider this: Over 16 million people saw that film in theaters, based on 1996’s average ticket price of $4.42. In addition to Christian Slater’s demonstration of how not to safely handle a firearm, viewers also got an unrealistic idea of what guns could do – and that affects your Second Amendment rights. Let’s take a look at another scene in that movie.
Near the end, Vic Deakins, the villain of the piece that was brilliantly played by John Travolta (who was unfairly snubbed for an Oscar nomination that year), uses a Beretta 93R (which fires the 9mm NATO round) to shoot down a UH-1 Iroquois helicopter. Now, that scene shows some real issues as well. The Beretta 93R, being a full-auto machine pistol, is just not available – even for Air Force personnel. Thanks to provisions of the 1968 Gun Control Act, full-auto firearms cannot be imported for civilian use. That’s for starters. But those 16 million viewers also saw that Beretta help shoot down a helicopter.
Lately, in the wake of San Bernardino (not to mention other mass shootings in the past), gun-grabbers have made noises about banning so-called “assault weapon” – and they often will toss in the phrase “high-powered” as well. The scene where Deakins and Kelly shoot down the chopper with a pair of 9mm firearms (a Beretta pistol and an MP5) helps feed into that false perception, especially as gun-grabbers follow the advice of Josh Sugarmann, who in a 1988 “report” noted, “The weapons’ menacing looks, coupled with the public’s confusion over fully automatic machine guns versus semi-automatic assault weapons—anything that looks like a machine gun is assumed to be a machine gun—can only increase the chance of public support for restrictions on these weapons.”
These portrayals of firearms in Hollywood don’t just affect people’s perceptions of gun control. Those same 16 million Americans are also potential jury members. Think about the recent video showing cops firing 33 rounds at a person who was openly carrying a gun in Los Angeles County. Now imagine, some of those people, whose only experience with firearms is what they’ve seen on movie screens, could be on that panel that is deciding your fate after you used a firearm to defend yourself.
This is why it is important to take apart Hollywood’s portrayal of firearms, and note what they got wrong. Your freedom could depend on it.