This Video About Gun Violence Doesn't Understand That Actors Are Not the Characters They Play

By Laura Beck  |  January 4, 2013 | 3:30am
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This popular YouTube video is trying to make the point that the celebrities speaking out about gun violence in the “Demand a Plan” video are hypocrites. I get their point, but I think the video is pretty much bullshit.

Setting aside the fact that actors are not the same as the characters they play in films/TV — sorry to burst your bubble but Angela Lansbury doesn’t solve crimes all day and Neil Patrick Harris isn’t a boy genius* — violence in movies, and in entertainment in general, doesn’t make people violent. The people who are gonna be violent are going to be violent no matter what — I mean, if they don’t get the help they need, but even then, that’s not a guarantee — and what we should be concerned about is easy access to weapons and lax firearms laws.

I also don’t like how they led with the Jamie Foxx’s “killing all white people” joke. It made me uneasy. It felt like the video makers were preying on/targeting white people who are terrified that black men are going to sneak into their windows at night and kill them. I don’t know, did anyone else get that vibe? It just grossed me out and soured me on the whole thing.

But, perhaps most importantly, it’s a distraction from the real project at hand — stricter gun laws, better mental health care — the fights we need to focus our energy on. Honestly, anything moving that conversation forward is a benefit, and anything detracting from it is just tiring.

Plus, whomever edited this together used a scene from Freeway and I loooove that movie! Them’s some big ugly fuckin’ teeth you got, Bob.

Really, all this made me want to do was go watch some movies.

*actually, he might be.

 
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