In television entertainment we are starting to see more and more examples of armed citizens. That’s great, since they are showing regular citizens who are arming themselves for self defense. I do have a problem with it though. They often get it wrong. Horribly wrong. They will spout inaccurate statistics, and paint those of us who carry concealed as incompetent and dangerous. Particularly egregious is the show “The Blacklist.”
In the fist instance of this hidden propaganda agenda, the bad guy is in a filling station/convenience store when an AMBER Alert appears on the TV. A random citizen pulls out a gun and a firefight ensues. The armed citizen is shot by the bad guy and he fires. The bad guy’s preteen daughter is hit with a bullet and severely wounded. This was from the episode “The Alchemist” that aired on January 20th. And my answer to this is “Nope.” This is not the norm. This is not the standard. Could something like this happen? Of course. Is it likely? Not even remotely close. I understand that it was needed to move the plot along, but it could have been done differently, and in such a way as to not paint those of us who choose to be responsible for our own safety as incompetent. Would the man have drawn? Doubtful, there were federal agents on the scene already. It is not outside the realm of possibility that a situation like this might happen the way it played out on the episode, but it is highly unlikely. And even so, it could have been one of the police or federal agents who missed and hit the little girl also. They are not infallible. In short they didn’t need to throw a citizen who chose to be armed for self protection under the bus. Why did they show a citizen instead of an agent or officer in that scenario? Simple, they have an agenda. They want to portray us as dangerous.
In the second instance, a US Senator has his house broken into by the bad guy. He pulls a handgun from the nightstand and goes to investigate. The bad guy gets the jump on him, and takes his gun from him and then spouts a bullshit line; “… more likely to have your gun taken from you and used against you than to defend yourself with it.” This is from the episode “The Kingmaker” that aired on April 28th. The line about having your gun taken from you is patently false. This is more propaganda bullshit. This was not needed to move the plot forward at all. I’ve also noticed that in this show they have reverted to the Hollywood gun grip. (Get your fingers off of the triggers, quit sweeping your partners, learn how to clear a doorway, clear a room. Cup and saucer? You’re federal agents! Act like it!) I’m halfway surprised they don’t have the stars of the show carrying around Hi-Points, or Taurus Millenniums.
All too often in Hollywood, the only people with guns are the cops and the bad guys. It’s as though those are the only two options available. If you have a gun, and you’re not a cop, you’re then a bad guy by default. I don’t have a problem with them showing that civilians can also have guns. I does bother me when they somehow manage to squeeze in a gun control agenda and propaganda. It’s almost as if these episodes were written by Mr. Bloomberg or Mrs. Watts.
I’m not sure I’m going to watch the show “The Blacklist” any more, since it seems that the people they want to blacklist are gun owners.
(The statistic that you are more likely to have your own gun turned against you, is a blatant falsehood and I couldn’t find any documentation that supported this, even from vehemently anti-gun websites. As a statistic, is it entirely made up.)
Firing Pins 