J.J. Abrams, Amy Schumer and Judd Apatow are just a few of the Hollywood power players who have joined a new group that has pledged to cut back on the amount of gun violence depicted in movies and on television in an initiative called #ShowYourSafety for Brady United. The initiative comes just a few weeks after the American public was outraged by yet another school shooting, this time in a Uvalde, Texas middle school.
Brady United is the campaign for gun control named for President Reagan’s spokesman who was shot in the head in 1981 when John Hinckley tried to assassinate the President.
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They were joined by Oscar winner Grant Heslov, producer Damon Lindelof, Jimmy Kimmel, Debbie Allen, Kathleen Kennedy and a veritable who’s who of the people behind the scenes who made the world of entertainment go round.
#ShowYourSafety members released an open letter saying, “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.”
Interestingly, the group behind #ShowYourSafety does not include Bill Maher, who himself recently slammed the excessive use of gun violence in movies. In a recent installment of his “Real Time” HBO talk show, Maher went on a rant against how often the heroes in movies are shown blowing people away with machine guns. Referring to what he sees as Hollywood’s hypocrisy on the matter, Maher said, “They [Hollywood] hate it when gun people say it takes a good guy with a gun to stop a bad guy with a gun, but they endlessly produce movies with that exact plot.”
And Maher went on to explain that, “According to the FBI, one of the warning signs of a potential school shooter is ‘a fascination with violence-filled entertainment’.”
Interestingly, the signatories to the #ShowYourSafety open letter went on to say that, “America’s culture-makers — artists, musicians, writers, directors, producers, actors, and studio professionals — have a deep influence in how we think of ourselves, what we value, and how we act. We can empower our nation’s artists and storytellers to model norms and visions that guide us to a safer America free of gun violence.”
This, it would seem, at least in part acknowledges what Bill Maher was trying to say. But they went on to say that the group is not calling for an end to all gun violence being depicted on screen, just that it be curtailed and when doe that it be in a more responsible manner. To that end, #ShowYourSafety asks that when guns are used by the good guys in movies then they should also make a conscious effort to show characters locking their guns safely and making them inaccessible to children.
