Hollywood’s Petition to Itself to Stop with the Guns Already

The Ankler reports that a new petition is being circulated to reign in the extreme gun violence in movies:

The Ankler can report a groundbreaking petition, led by Hollywood activists Christy Callahan, co-chair of of the Brady United Against Gun Violence organization’s Regional Leadership Council, and Robert Bowers Disney, is circulating, with a first round of signatures to be revealed when the petition goes public later today.

What is unique about the call to action is that it’s not aimed at people in Washington. The “Open Letter to Our Colleagues in the Creative Community” calls for Hollywood to examine its own role in perpetuating gun violence. Among other things, the petition calls for studios to model responsible gun safety practices in their productions and to limit the use of guns in scenes involving children.

Included in the first round of signatures: Judd Apatow, Debbie Allen, Marty Bowen, R.J. Cutler, Dana Fox, Dede Gardner, Todd Garner, John Glickman, Wyck Godfrey, Grant Heslov, Jimmy Kimmel, Simon Kinberg, Damon Lindelof, Adam McKay, Hannah Minghella, Julianne Moore, Sue Naegle, Marti Noxon, Billy Ray, Shonda Rhimes, Gary Ross, Eli Roth, Mark Ruffalo, Amy Schumer, Veena Sud, Irwin Winkler and Nicole Sorkin.

Here is the full text:

An Open Letter to Our Colleagues in the Creative Community

Like most of America, we are enraged by the recent mass shootings in Buffalo and Uvalde. Considering there have been over 250 other mass shootings so far this year, it’s an almost incomprehensible tragedy. Something needs to be done.

Guns are prominently featured in TV and movies in every corner of the globe, but only America has a gun violence epidemic. The responsibility lies with lax gun laws supported by those politicians more afraid of losing power than saving lives. We didn’t cause the problem, but we want to help fix it.

As America’s storytellers, our goal is primarily to entertain, but we also acknowledge that stories have the power to effect change. Cultural attitudes toward smoking, drunk driving, seatbelts and marriage equality have all evolved due in large part to movies’ and TV’s influence. It’s time to take on gun safety.

We are not asking anyone to stop showing guns on screen. We are asking writers, directors and producers to be mindful of on-screen gun violence and model gun safety best practices. Let’s use our collective power for good. Whenever possible, we will:

Use our creativity to model responsible gun ownership and show consequences for reckless gun use. We will make a conscious effort to show characters locking their guns safely and making them inaccessible to children.

Have at least one conversation during pre-production regarding the way guns will be portrayed on screen and consider alternatives that could be employed without sacrificing narrative integrity.

Limit scenes including children and guns, bearing in mind that guns are now the leading cause of death for children and adolescents.

We are under no illusions that these actions are a substitute for common sense gun legislation. Furthermore, this list does not incorporate every nuance of guns on screen. However, these are small things that we can do as a community to try and end this national nightmare. If you are a writer, director or producer, join us by signing here.

There are a couple of problems with this at the outset. The first is the most obvious. We are living in an extremely polarized country and honestly, the people buying guns and shooting probably aren’t watching what Hollywood puts out, not lately. I mean, no offense but this is just the reality. For this, the fix is easy. Start reaching out and trying to make content more broadly appealing. I’m not saying all of the shooters are on the right – in fact, many are on the left but they aren’t exactly sitting around watching Nomadland.

The second is that video games have easily surpassed movies when it comes to where young people are watching violence.  First-person shooters give them a dopamine rush every time they hit a target. I’m not saying video games are to blame for mass shootings – I am saying that they are played a lot more than movies are watched now. Also anyone inclined to shoot up a school can’t tell the difference between fantasy and reality. Only a tiny percentage of people are going to be suicidal and homicidal enough that they’ll do something that horrific.

I don’t have a kid in school anymore but if I did I would be demanding the tightest security imaginable. If no security I would literally stand outside the school myself every single day to make sure no shooters made it onto school grounds and trust me when I say there is no chance they’re getting past that front door. We’ll just leave it at that.

I don’t think making filmmakers believe they are “responsible” for gun violence in this country sounds even remotely sane. Violent movies exist in every country, way more violent than they are here. True, American film has fetishized the gun the same way it once fetishized the cigarette.

There is no longer smoking in movies very much. Smoking has been banned from public spaces. Do people still smoke? Of course, they do. But it’s less common and it’s not been romanticized. The idea here is that they can do for shootings the way they did for smoking. But I don’t think these things are in any way the same. For one thing, there are too many guns in circulation already. If someone wants one, they can get one. We should make it harder to be able to stockpile weaponry in a short period of time. The Aurora shooter, for instance, was buying an insane amount of ammo without being tracked. Surely someone could have knocked on the door and paid him a visit just based on those purchases.

With each of the shooters, with the possible exception of the Columbine guys, there were warning signs. How do you stop a guy like the Newtown shooter, though? He was not someone who could be reached, and certainly not someone who was sitting around watching No Country for Old Men. He was playing first-person shooters but he was also insane. The only way to have stopped that shooting was to have made the school shooter-proof, which is what it should have been and what all elementary schools should have been after that day. No matter what it takes.

Hollywood is attempting to address the problem of gun violence like they addressed the problem of racism and sex. They’re going to continue down the road of making “correct” movies for “correct” thinkers so as never to be blamed for causing bad things to happen. But all that seems to be doing is turning film into some kind of dogmatic propaganda for true believers. Most are starting to tune out because the last thing they want is to be lectured by Hollywood. These are simply the facts.

One thing we should all be talking about, but of course, we can’t talk about because the media won’t talk about it because the Democrats control the media is what exactly happened after the defund the police movement of 2020 and the results of the lockdown. These two things seemed to have created a perfect storm for gun violence and violence overall. Shootings in Chicago and New York have been on the rise (can’t talk about that), and isolation and alienation seemed to have driven up the numbers for suicides, not to mention radicalizing people like the Buffalo shooter.  We have always had a mental health crisis in this country but it seems to have gotten much worse post-COVID.

These are things we should be talking about if we lived in a healthy society but we don’t. We live in a tribal one. To my friends on the left, guns are the problem. Pass gun laws and the problem stops. The more they push on this, the harder the Right digs in. On the right, they don’t think gun laws would help stop shooting and they want to focus only on mental health. Because of that they won’t budge on gun laws and the left won’t focus on mental health. It’s utter madness. We should be able to find a better way to talk to each other and work together.

Seven-year stats from Gunviolence.org:

Now let’s add 2021:

Here is more from Pew on suicides vs. murders where guns are concerned:

Look at that number for suicides. Surely this is something we should be talking about and yet we can’t get past our locked horns in a tribal country. The 2020 uprisings led to cops being taken off the streets, which led to a direct uptick in crime in cities – yet this is not discussed at all except on the right. Either they were eliminated due to lack of funding or they resigned. Also many were so afraid of being called racists that they haven’t been policing violent crime much at all. Again, not discussed because the media pretty much drives the narrative the Democrats want them to.

Sheriff Alex Villanueva will discuss the continued defunding of the Sheriff’s Department and its effects on public safety. Los Angeles County residents are experiencing crime like never before and funding of law enforcement is imperative:

The singular focus on mass shootings is convenient, perhaps, but does it tell the whole story about guns and violent crime in our country? No, it does not. This is a bigger problem than either political party can solve on their own.

Is it much easier to blame Hollywood? Of course.

Bill Maher’s monologue on the hypocrisy of Hollywood was a point well taken but the point of it wasn’t to censor films so much as it was to point out the hypocrisy of people who put the blame on the other side because they don’t agree with gun control, while also making movies that focus on the hero using a gun to save the day:

I look at a film like No Country for Old Men which is not only one of the greatest films ever made but it features a lot of gun violence:

But if you’re now going to tell me that there will be some committee brought in, or a yet another morality jury to judge that film based on the violence in it then I will tell you the movie will be less good. But are there movies that fetishize gun violence? Yes, without a doubt. Will scrubbing them clean of violence stop mass shootings? No.

I love Kathryn Bigelow’s movie Blue Steel because it puts a gun at the center of the plot. It is about a guy who fixates on a cop because he sees her shoot someone in cold blood. It is incredibly violent but it is also something valuable, I think, in terms of storytelling.

Recently, Uvalde’s own Matthew McConaughey gave a speech that I think represents a much better approach than the ones I’ve seen on either of the tribal sides.

I wish the answers to this were easy. They’re not. We are in crisis and we don’t have proper leadership or guidance. If your entire platform is about blaming the other side then you have no platform and we’ll continue to get nowhere. I have been listening to Democrats push for gun control my entire life. The argument never changes. All it seems to have done is drive up sales for guns and ammo.

But neither does the Right seem to be getting anywhere with their arguments that there is nothing we can do to stop gun violence except a good guy with a gun. That, to me, is a last resort in a lawless town. Why is the last resort preferable to potential solutions? Are we all going to just walk around with guns in our purses and backpacks?

At the moment, though, Hollywood has to look out for its own image. They have returned to where they were back in the 1940s in the days of the Hays Code when Hollywood believed it was a beacon of morality.  Unless you live in a Communist country like China, however, you can’t really control what people think about entertainment. I guess it’s worth a shot, though. So to speak.