A few weeks ago I reported about an anti-rights propaganda film called “Gun Fight” being shown on HBO this month.
The film, which claims to be a balanced documentary showing both sides of the gun rights issue, is actually a “tingle up the thigh” commercial for the Brady Bunch, and their young rising star Colin Goddard.
While the film did include clips of rights advocates making statements and pronouncements, these were invariably taken out of context, and never did the film present a pro-Second Amendment spokesman calmly and rationally explaining our side of the argument. Instead they present very reasonable-seeming anti-rights advocates in comfortable conversation and very radical-seeming rights advocates ranting and railing. They achieved this by sitting down and talking with proponents of gun control to get their side and cobbling together snippets of rights advocates from rallies, protests and hallway ambushes to get ours. They did have reporters sit down with and talk with rights advocates, myself included, but they chose not to use any of that footage.
This week I received some “fan mail” from an HBO viewer named John who wanted to let me know what he thought of my contribution to the film. His note confirmed for me the effectiveness of the HBO propaganda and the gullibility of the public.
I enjoyed John’s insightful comments so much I thought others might find them equally entertaining and edifying so I decided to reprint his note and my reply.
So here’s the note from John:
Jeff, I see lots of stupid people every day. But you are the dumbest of the dumb. I saw your ridiculous speech to the gunowners’ group on HBO, and the meanness factor gives you the dumbness victory over the rest of the pack.
“Whatever’s in front of you dies”? Really, it never makes sense to shoot to disarm or disable, like cops do? No one needs instruction about not carrying the weapon when they’ll be drinking … stuff like that?
A five year old knows enough? What’s going on with the many little kids we hear about – killing each other while playing with guns? Maybe they don’t know everything they need to know.
You really are a fool. Look, you’ve probably got a small d— … and no amount of over-compensation with all this cowboy gun talk and shooting will change that. Grow up.
And my reply:
Dear John,
Thank you for your insightful note. It’s amazing how much you were able to discern about me with such a short video clip. I have indeed been a cowboy, both working ranches and riding rodeo, and I have guest hosted a radio program called GunTalk. And yes, I did do a lot of shooting when I was growing up, and I still do as often as I can. There were a few other points where you missed the mark though.
First, you did not see my speech on HBO. You saw a small, carefully edited segment of my speech. Second, I did not say, “Whatever’s in front of you dies.” I said that whatever is in front of the muzzle of the gun when it is fired dies (or is killed, or is destroyed). I wasn’t talking about tactics, I was talking about firearms’ function. If a person knows that touching the trigger makes the gun fire, and a person knows that whatever is in front of the gun when it is fired is going to be destroyed, or killed, that is all the information that a person with two brain cells to rub together needs to know to be safe with a gun. Anyone who understood those two simple facts and ever allowed a gun to point at anything or anyone they were not willing to kill or destroy, or ever allowed their finger to touch the trigger when they were not on target and ready to shoot, is an absolute idiot. And every 5-year old knows those basic facts about guns. That is not to say that a 5-year old can safely handle a gun, but rather that any responsible adult who knows what every 5-year old knows has no excuse for mishandling a gun. It is that basic knowledge, not government edict, which compels responsible adults to seek out and adhere to advanced firearms training.
Which brings me to my third point, that evidence compiled over decades of experience in states which do mandate special training before issuance of a concealed carry permit – such as Florida – and those states which do not require any training – such as Washington – clearly shows that mandatory training is a waste of time and money. There is no greater incidence of accidents, mistakes, criminal activity or stupidity among Washington permit holders than among Florida permit holders. This holds true in any comparison of states with and without mandatory training requirements. It should also be noted that such incidents are incredibly rare among permit holders everywhere.
These points might have come through in the HBO film had the director not taken only my opening “attention-getter” comments and left out the meat of my speech. But that wasn’t what she was looking for. She wanted to make me and others who believe in individual rights and responsibilities look mean and stupid while making gun prohibitionists look compassionate and wise.
I was sure that American audiences were too savvy to fall for such obvious bias and distortions, but you’ve proven me wrong, John, and, as Benjamin Franklin put it, “Any fool can criticize, condemn and complain, and most fools do.”
Yours for the Second Amendment,
Jeff Knox, Director, The Firearms CoalitionP.S. You can stay up to date on the real issues of the gun fight by reading my regular
column at www.WND.com or visiting www.FirearmsCoalition.org.
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