Last week, I wrote an article about Jenna Fischer, an actress who has decided to act as a mouthpiece for the Brady Campaign.
In slamming Ms. Fischer for her thoughtlessness, lack of research on gun-related violence and willingness to swallow the Brady anti-gun script hook, line, and sinker, I wrote this:
All things considered, acting is a great way to make a living. It’s a rather easy job. People hand you scripts, you memorize the pages, parrot the lines in front of a camera, and then collect a paycheck. Easy peasy. As an actor, you don’t have to think much. Just memorize and recite. Memorize and recite.
I think that’s why actors make such great gun-control activists. They can regurgitate anti-gun platitudes without ever questioning their veracity. They can spout half-truths with a straight face because they aren’t compelled to think critically about what it is they are actually saying.
Well, that overly-broad indictment of Hollywood professionals didn’t sit too well with one of our readers. Nope. SAMMY! (that’s how he signed his name), the actor from Los Angeles, reached out to take me to task on my sweeping generalization of thespians. After explaining to him my brushes with Hollywood, I lived there for almost a decade, and my whole immediate family still lives there, including my sister, an aspiring actress, SAMMY! responded thusly:
Thank you for writing back about your article. While I understand your perspective about the antigun stigma of Hollywood, I need you to understand this stigma is particular to California politics and not to people. There are over 100 FFL’s in the Los Angeles area and people who live in California are not antigun. We have commonly known firearm restrictions including a separate government under the 10th Amendment which include a ban on assault-weapons by name and features which in turn pioneered the 1994 Federal Assault Weapons Ban. However, consider 10% of the United States lives in California and many high profile shootings including the 1989 Cleveland Elementary School, 1993 101 California Street, and 1997 North Hollywood occurred in California. This does not advocate any of the firearm restrictions, however, this does need to give an outsider an understanding of the society we live in.
The Hollywood perspective of “parrots” is what offended me in your article. Antigun representatives of Hollywood represent themselves and not Hollywood as a whole. For example, Rebel Wilson’s remark about the United States needing to adopt Australia’s firearm laws is complete bullshit and my response to her is “This is America, we like firearms, if you do not like our laws, go back to Australia.” There are several other actors like Bruce Willis or Samuel L Jackson who are outspoken about being progun. We have celebrity shoots where actors come out and shoot firearms with the community and we have firearm manufacturers who sponsor our work for product placement. Hollywood is the “government” that manages the Los Angeles area – just like Microsoft and Boeing are the “governments” that manage the Seattle area, Apple, HP, Facebook manage the Bay Area, USMIL manage the San Diego area, USGOV manages the DC area, and firearm manufacturers like Colt, Mossberg, or Ruger governing Connecticut. Even DC and Connecticut have restricted firearm statuses. The only difference between any of these careers is the master they serve and the entire country watching Hollywood’s work. As an individual who has worked in both the firearm industry and Hollywood for nearly two decades, I can tell you that our job is no less difficult than any other industry. I request that you please retract your statement we are “parrots.” Thank you.
Thank you,
SAMMY!
I can respect SAMMY!’s opinion, which is why I republished it as a Letter to the Editor. Moving forward, this is something I think we’ll do more of, e.g. spotlight the voices of our readers. Yes, you can always express yourself in the comment section below, and we encourage you to do so, but sometimes it’s nice to receive a more formal missive that is structured as a Letter to the Editor, which we can then share with everyone.
So, if you ever feel compelled to write a Letter to the Editor on anything we’ve published, feel free to submit it to this address: LetterToTheEditor@gunsamerica.com
Now, there’s no guarantee that we will publish the letter, but we’ll at least take a look. Thanks in advance!
