Category Archives: Politics

Cage Fights for Diplomacy

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One of the things I love about this administration’s politics is that I can absolutely never tell when they are trolling, when somebody just made up some nonsense and attributed it to them, or when they are being deadly serious.

Maximum entertainment value unlocked!

Kathy Jackson @Cornered_Cat
Posted on X June 8, 2026

The case in point Ms. Jackson was referring to:

Rubio and UFC will sign deal to use cage fights for diplomacy

Secretary of State Marco Rubio and UFC CEO Dana White have reached an agreement to use cage fights for diplomacy, the State Department said Monday — as Iran peace talks remain in flux.

While I can certainly see the humor and respect her opinion, I’m of the opinion it does contribute to more than a little political friction that isn’t really necessary. But a case can be made that it serves a useful purpose which outweighs the frictional costs.

No Accident

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Following the Freedom 250 team’s installation of temporary lighting on the National Mall, our equipment has been repeatedly targeted by vandals. The recent fuel leak was the direct result of that tampering.

Upon discovering damage to a generator fuel line, Freedom 250 and our vendors mobilized within minutes, coordinated an immediate cleanup response, and fully remediated the site in close partnership with the National Park Service. We take our responsibility as stewards of the National Mall seriously and are working closely with the appropriate law enforcement authorities regarding these acts of vandalism.

Rachel Reisner
June 1, 2026
30,000 gallons of fuel spilled on National Mall after event for America’s 250th birthday
And: 30 gallons of fuel spilled on National Mall after event for America’s 250th birthday

The first article links to and credits the second article as the source.

Please notice the first article title says 30,000 gallons and the second says 30 gallons. The body of both articles state it was 30 gallons. The second article also includes the subtitle of:

Cleanup efforts are underway as Freedom 250, a group created by the Trump administration that organized the event, blames “vandalism.”

Later in the first article it says:

One of the people familiar with the matter said the National Park Service would typically hold the permit holder liable for the environmental mitigation required after a spill of this magnitude, but it is unclear if Freedom 250 and Event Strategies Inc., which helped organize the events, are on the hook for the clean-up costs incurred by this accident.

The corresponding paragraph in the second, referenced, article says:

One of the people familiar with the matter said the National Park Service would typically hold the permit holder liable for the environmental mitigation after a spill of such magnitude, but it is unclear whether Freedom 250 and Event Strategies Inc., which helped organize the events, are on the hook for the cleanup costs.

My hypothesis is that the creators of the first article deliberately changed the title and added the word “accident” to the body because of their bias against the Trump administration. They know, or at least strongly suspect the vandals were Democrats and want to make the Trump administration to blame for a much worse situation than is actually the case. This was not an accident.

You can’t hate the legacy media liars enough.

More Bodies than Movies

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While there was occasional non-democrat leadership the Democrats have dominated Seattle politics since at least 1969 with the election of Wesley C. Uhlman as Mayor.

This is what you get:

This area of town was bad in the late 1970’s. I remember it was said that almost all the motels in the area rented rooms by the hour. If you drove up the street you could sense the decay without necessarily being able to articulate the reasons why.

A former manager of mine was a Seattle cop for many years. He lived not too far from this area. He told me a couple of decades ago a movie theater was built there. Over the years after that he visited the parking lot of the theater as a cop to deal with a body more frequently than to see a movie.

This is a political problem. These politicians are either not connected to reality and/or deliberately want to destroy our country.

Prepare and response appropriately.

My response is to build an underground bunker in Idaho.

What Part of Permanent Don’t They Understand?

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A Virginia judge reaffirmed an injunction blocking the state’s “universal background check” law Wednesday, days after pro-Second Amendment groups sought to hold state officials in contempt when they started enforcing the measure.

Democratic Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger signed HB 1525 into law on April 22 after the General Assembly concurred with her amendments that added an emergency provision directing the Virginia State Police to enforce the law blocked by a permanent injunction issued in October 2025. 

Harold Hutchison
June 4, 2026
Second Amendment groups score huge federal court win over Virginia governor

See also Virginia judge keeps gun-check injunction in place.

The legislature and the governor claim their newly passed law, essentially the same as the previous law, supersedes the court ruling. Does that mean the slaveowner of the 1860s could have gotten their “property” back by repeatedly passing a law that said the 13th Amendment was null and void?

Or how about repeatedly passing a law that said women were not allowed to vote after courts said the 19th amendment prohibited such a law?

These people are not rational. They are like someone who, after I asked, “How do you determine truth from falsity, they responded in complete seriousness with, “It depends on how I feel.”

Liberalism is a mental disorder.

Cry Me a River

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We think it is going to be the worst delivery of regression in the history of the country in terms of gun violence prevention.

Kris Brown
President of Brady: United Against Gun Violence
June 5, 2026
What’s in the Trump administration’s ‘tsunami’ of gun deregulation

Ms. Brown, cry me a river. And be sure and save some tears for when we start having high school sporting events with machine guns.

What she doesn’t say is that all those gun regulations did not make anyone but criminals and tyrants safer.

Concealed Carry Statistics

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Twenty percent of likely voters hold a concealed handgun permit (20.2%), over double the rate for adults overall (8%). Constitutional Carry states have only a slightly higher permit rate than pure Right-to-Carry states (21.38% versus 19.81%). However, our research suggests this gap will narrow over time because the share of adults with permits is declining in Constitutional Carry states while rising in pure Right-to-Carry states.

Interestingly, people in Constitutional Carry states carry handguns at much higher rates than those in pure Right-to-Carry states (34.19% versus 25.98%). In Constitutional Carry states, the share of likely voters who carry exceeds the share with permits by about 13 percentage points. In the other pure Right-to-Carry states, the share who carry exceeds the share with permits by about six percentage points. So Constitutional Carry laws result in about seven percentage points more people carrying than have a permit.

johnrlott
May 21, 2026
UPDATED: New Survey on the Rate that People Carry Concealed Handguns: Percent of Americans Carrying Increased from 24.3% in December 2024 to 29.8% in May 2026 – Crime Prevention Research Center

I was surprised at the carry rate.

There is lots of other interesting information in this post. For example, did you know that:

Very liberal and very conservative likely voters carry frequently at disproportionately high rates relative to their shares of the population. Very liberal voters account for 24.6% of frequent carriers even though they make up only 12.9% of likely voters. Similarly, very conservative voters account for 23.0% of frequent carriers while making up 18.0% of likely voters.

That high a carry rate among voters has to be making a difference in the future of gun ower rights.

See also Dave Workman’s comment on the post.

They are Compelled to Lie

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California has been a long time leader in the movement to prevent gun violence. The passage of these two bills is just another way the state has stepped up to proactively prevent gun violence before it happens. Education, training, and informed research are essential in our fight to stop gun violence at its source and improve public safety in our communities.

Kris Brown
Brady United President
May 28, 2026
Brady Celebrates Initial Passage of Two Gun Violence… | Brady United

If gun control reduced violent crime, California and Washington D.C. would be some of the safest places in the U.S. But they are not::

They would also have a response to Just One Question, but they don’t. As is usual, these gun control freaks are lying. They are compelled to lie. It is part of their culture.

My Mental Marker for “Game Over, We Won”

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Next up, two pieces of GOA-backed legislation on machineguns were introduced to the House.

First, Rep. Jimmy Patronis’ bill; the “Firearm Freedom Act” is the first-ever bill introduced in Congress that would totally repeal the Hughes Amendment.

For those unfamiliar, the Hughes Amendment is part of the 1986 Firearm Owners Protection Act, added via voice vote, which made machineguns after 1986 illegal to sell to anyone other than the federal government.

Rep. Patronis’ bill rights the wrong that was perpetrated on gun owners 40 years ago.

And, Rep. Lauren Boebert introduced the “Freedom From Taxes Act,” which removes the taxes from machineguns and destructive devices, which are currently subject to $200 tax stamps under the National Firearms Act.

Rep. Boebert’s bill removes the remaining taxes on items regulated by the NFA after the passage of the “One Big Beautiful Bill” last summer, where taxes on short barreled firearms and suppressors were reduced to $0.

Erich Pratt
May 29, 2026
Machineguns Are In, RINOs Are Out! | GOA

My guess is that these are all posturing with zero chance of becoming law (or repealing law as the case may be). But still, it is fun to think about.

While I’m not a fan of machine guns*, I really want the restrictions on them removed. When machine guns are available without paperwork, cash and carry, family pack of four at Costco, is sort of my mental marker for “game over, we won.”

* Sure, if someone is paying for the ammo, there are ways to have fun with one. I just don’t see an occasion where I would have a real use for one. Sure, they would be useful in defending against fire breathing dragons. So, if there is some serious intel Daenerys Targaryen is on the prowl in my area of operations I will reconsider.

Do You Really Want to go There?

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I think one of the things we really do need to take seriously is if these constitutional officers are not willing to enforce the law, what type of legislation can we introduce to hold them accountable for not doing their job

Del. Joshua Cole (D-Fredericksburg),
May 27, 2026
Virginia prosecutors refuse to enforce new assault weapons ban

There is also this:

I know these Republican prosecutors see this as an opportunity for tough guy posturing and amateur constitutional lawyering, but ending the sale of assault weapons in Virginia isn’t something an individual prosecutor can do anything about.

Local prosecutors don’t enforce, they prosecute – and my message to anyone thinking about breaking Virginia law is, don’t bet on Virginia law enforcement ignoring it.

Senator Saddam Azlan Salim @SalimForVA
Posted on X May 29, 2026

“Amateur constitutional lawyering”? Mark Smith, member of the United States Supreme Court bar, explains why prosecutors refusing to enforce these unconstitutional laws is entirely legal.

I would also like to remind Mr. Cole that if he wants to play that game there are already laws the DOJ could start enforcing.

I hope he gets a chance to enjoy his trial.

They Never Gave Up Their Dream

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The antigunners never gave up on their dream to ban handguns, they just realized that dream was deeply unpopular and decided to focus on “assault weapons” and ancillary restrictions like fees, wait times, etc.

The Glock Switch moral panic gave Everytown and the other groups cover to demand that their allies in California and other blue states sue Glock. Now, they are getting them to ban Glock.

By banning Glock and its clones, they ban the most popular handgun platform in the country. And they won’t stop there; they will find some pretext to declare other popular handgun models “too dangerous” and ban those too. Death by a thousand cuts.

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court has done nothing so far to stop about a dozen states from banning the most popular rifles in the country. Bruen is working out great….if you are in a pro-gun circuit. Antigun circuits like the Ninth, Second, First, etc. are treating it like a joke and have effectively re-imposed interest balancing, and are upholding pretty much all draconian gun control.

So of course antigun states are emboldened to put their toes into the handgun ban waters once again.

If the Court has any self-respect, if John Roberts cares about the legitimacy of his institution at all, they must take on a hardware case soon and make clear that bans on common firearms are unconstitutional.

And then, they must follow that up with frequent summary reversals of the inevitable antigun circuit court defiance of that ruling.

Kostas Moros @MorosKostas
Posted on X May 29, 2026

It is long past time to give the anti-gunners and the disobedient lower courts never-ending nightmares. I’d like to see it in the form of prosecutions, convictions, heavy fines, and long sentences. But that may be beyond our reach for a while. I would settle for the humiliation of being repeatedly slapped down by SCOTUS and my dream of high school machine gun sporting events.

One Side Will Win. Choose

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Gonna try to explain this to tech CEOs again: Young Americans are pissed. They feel betrayed. Half have embraced the far right & want to cut off your access to cheap foreign labor. The other half have embraced the far left & want to cut off your head. One side will win. Choose.

Roman Helmet Guy @romanhelmetguy
Posted on X May 24, 2016

There is some truth to this.

But even if you completely accept the basic assertions, I’m not sure a win by either side is guaranteed. It’s plausible that the outcome could be closer to everyone loses.

In any case, prepare appropriately.

Like Nothing Else in History

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So whenever you read about this or that Israeli outrage — and there may be truth to the complaint — place the news in context. Look whom the Israelis are fighting against. Islam is like nothing else in history.

Mike Konrad
May 31, 2014
The Greatest Murder Machine in History – American Thinker

Their treatment of women is what bothers me the most. It also baffles me when women show their support for Palestine.

It is All About Power

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Never forget that the assholes who spent decades labeling all of us nazis and cancelling us for the dumbest bullshit reasons imaginable are hypocritically running this asshole who got a literal fucking SS Totenkopf tattoo on his chest for the senate.

And here is TIME magazine hypocritically making excuses for it. No matter how slimy you think liberals are, they are worse. Their moral compass is a wind sock.

If you’re other-than-democrat, they’ll destroy your life for waving wrong, smiling awkwardly at a minority, or making the okay sign. Everything we do gets called “white supremacy” even when we’re black or brown, and then they’ll clutch thier pearls and hold a fucking witch trial to burn us at the stake for crimes that only exist in their fevered retard imagination. If anyone on the right is gullible enough to apologize to these trash, that’s just throwing blood in the water, and then they’ll attack you even more.

Then these same fucking Caring White Liberals will run this posturing scumbag for office, and the second it comes out he got a shitty nazi tat on his chest they’ll cry about how it was an innocent mistake from a poor dumb Marine who didn’t know any better (lol).

Pete Hegseth has a cross on his chest and it’s the end of the fucking world, liberal freak out about racist dog whistle, and we’ve got to see a milliong tweets and ten thousand news articles and a hundred thousand hours of news coverage, and it’s even the same exact cross Jimmy Carter had at his funeral and then suddenly it’s okay and not racist.

You put Heinrich Himmler’s hat decoration over your heart as a democrat and all you have to do is go “hur dur I didn’t know no better (wink wink)” and they’ll run you for office. Elon waves funny and democats spend the next few months attacking random people’s Teslas and burning car dealerships.

They truly don’t give a shit about anything. They have no values whatsoever. Every decision is a simple stimulus/response on whether it gets them more power. That’s it. No matter how much the dumb Rs on my side may annoy me, I fucking despise democrats.

Larry Correia @monsterhunter45
Posted on X May 21, 2026

The only minor fault with Correia’s awesome* analysis is that it isn’t just about acquiring power. They get a thrill out of exercising their power. When they let their guard down, some of them freely admit it:

it is a thrill; it’s a high… I love it; I absolutely love it.

I am inclined to believe this is a sign of a mental disorder. It is also a sign that you should never give up your guns.

That thrill, that high, will not be satiated by anything. As demonstrated in the USSR, Cambodia, and numerous other times and places. When allowed access to enough government power, tens of millions will be executed. These people will only be stopped by direct physical action.

Prepare appropriately.

* Please also note that Correia’s books are awesome. I highly recommend them.

Crime Stats

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Via John H:

Background here: https://pjmedia.com/matt-margolis/2026/05/22/the-left-tried-to-destroy-kash-patel-crime-data-just-vindicated-him-n4953137

I’ve also heard it suggested that Trump is faking the FBI data. But that would be easy for the cities to catch when FBI reports did not match what the cities reported.

Another Demonstration of Disregard for the U.S. Constitutional

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Michiganders want common-sense safeguards that protect families and support law enforcement, not reckless policies that create new loopholes for illegal guns. The last thing we should be doing is making it easier for handguns to move through the mail.

Haley Stevens
Michigan U.S. Representative
May 22, 2026
House Democrat introduces bill to block Postal Service from mailing handguns

This was in response to an opinion issued by the DOJ:

A nearly 100-year-old federal ban on mailing handguns through the U.S. Postal Service is unconstitutional and cannot be enforced, according to an opinion released Thursday by the Department of Justice (DOJ).

The 15-page opinion concluded that a 1927 law, which made it illegal to use the Postal Service to mail concealable firearms, such as pistols and revolvers, infringes on the Second Amendment.

I asked for Copilot for clarification on what this bill actually does. The short version is that it is a procedural block of implementing the proposed rule to stop enforcement of the 1927 law. I don’t think it has much chance of passing, but it is still frustrating. The only silver lining is that it is another demonstration these anti-gun politicians have zero regard for the U.S. constitution.

Lessons Learned the Hard Way

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A while ago, I watched the infamous 47-minute video documenting the atrocities of October 7th — the one not made publicly available, to protect the privacy of the victims.

The worst part of this video is not what it displays, but who is displaying it: the perpetrators themselves. Gleefully. Sadistically. Unabashedly. Most of the footage was filmed by Hamas terrorists on their GoPro bodycams, some also by ordinary Gazan civilians on their cellphones.

Even the Nazis tried to cover up their atrocities, but Hamas brags about theirs for the entire world to see. The killers are euphoric throughout the massacre, and their relentless, ecstatic cries of “Allahu Akbar” (punctuated by the occasional “Kill the Jew!”) are simply nauseating.

Some images are seared into my memory forever. I will never forget the two boys in their underwear — one with his eye socket hanging out of his face — asking his brother whether he thinks they’re going to die, while the Hamas monster who had just thrown a grenade in their saferoom helps himself to a drink from their fridge, taking a casual break from the slaughter.

…

It was premeditated and organized. The terrorists crossing into Israel carried printed Arabic-to-Hebrew phrasebooks with handy expressions like “take off your pants,” “lie down,” “spread your legs,” and “don’t make trouble.” I wonder why they expected to need those particular phrases?

I know one thing: no civilized country on earth would tolerate the existence of an organization like Hamas on its border after October 7th. Not one. This includes every self-righteous Westerner currently lecturing Israel from thousands of kilometres away, without an inch of skin in the game.

Maarten Boudry @mboudry
Posted on X May 12, 2026

See also: October 7 barbarism beyond all imagination: New report details how terrorists performed almost unimaginable horrors – which some on the Left STILL cast doubt on | Daily Mail Online

Hamas achieved glory and celebrated for a day. The magnitude of their error will be in history books for centuries.

They learned their lesson the hard way.

But it wasn’t just Hamas that should learn a lesson from October 7th. Learn from the mistakes of others. Everyone should have learned that disarmed civilians are vulnerable to such attacks. Never give up your guns. Keep saying, “NO!“ until you run out of ammo.

A Storm is Coming

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Since 2006, Bellevue has actually cut per-resident spending from $5,741 to $4,653 — a 19% decrease. Seattle? It’s ballooned from $5,997 to $8,677 — up 45%. Seattle now spends nearly twice as much per resident as Bellevue for the same basic services.

What’s that money buying? On violent crime, Seattle logs 542 incidents per 100,000 residents. Bellevue: 99. Property crime: Seattle racks up 4,100 cases; Bellevue about 2,200. Seattle residents are also earning less — median household income is $120,000 v. Bellevue’s $160,000.

But here’s the number that stops you cold. Life expectancy in Seattle’s downtown core — Belltown, First Hill — is 71.6 years. East King County, where Bellevue sits, comes in at 84.2. That’s a 13-year gap. Thirteen years of life, separated by a bridge.

Jake Skorheim
May 15, 2026
Jake: Seattle has a Bellevue problem – MyNorthwest.com

See also: Equality of Poverty and Misery is More Desirable than a Range of Prosperity and Happiness.

Seattle could start by not electing admitted socialists and communists to the city council and as mayors. But they probably won’t. They will, almost for certain, advocate for Bellevue to become more like Seattle so as to stop attracting the jobs out of Seattle. Just like in the early days of the USSR it was always the fault of the capitalists. The solution was to confiscate the property and send the capitalists to the gulag and/or a mass grave.

Even with San Fransico and Detroit as examples of their path of folly, Seattle will have to attempt learning the bad lesson for themselves. I just hope they actually do eventually learn. With the contrast of Bellevue just a few minutes away across the lake you would think they would learn quickly. But I expect they will be more successful in exporting their mistakes than importing real solutions.

Just in the last few years a homeless shelter was constructed within walking distance of our home in Bellevue. And in March of this year, Sound Transit completed a “high‑frequency light rail service” connecting Seattle to Bellevue and Redmond. That will make it easier for Seattle criminals to do business in Bellevue and Redmond.

Barb and I will enjoy Bellevue while we can. I see storm clouds in the west coming our way. I’m so glad I have an underground bunker in Idaho we can retreat to.

Sic Semper Tyrannis

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After careful review of the legislation and existing Supreme Court precedent, I find the assault weapon ban signed by the Governor on May 15, 2026 unconstitutional – and as a result, unenforceable. The United States Supreme Court has repeatedly held that the Second Amendment protects firearms commonly owned by law abiding citizens.

As Commonwealth’s Attorney, I took an oath to uphold both the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of Virginia. That oath requires more than mechanical enforcement of statutes. I must exercise prosecutorial discretion, constitutional judgment, and fidelity to the rule of law. As such, my office will not support criminal charges resulting solely from technical violations of the unconstitutional assault weapon ban.

Phillip Blevins Jr.
Smyth County Commonwealth’s Attorney, Virginia
May 17, 2026
Smyth Co. Commonwealth’s Attorney says ‘assault weapons ban’ is ‘unconstitutional’ | WJHL | Tri-Cities News & Weather

See also:

It may be noteworthy that in 2019 and 2020 many of the counties and cities in Virginia declared themselves 2nd Amendment sanctuaries. For example:

It is good to know a notable number of Virginia politicians are faithful to their state motto:

Sic semper tyrannis.

Which translates from Latin to “Thus always to tyrants.”

The Peter Principle and Socialism

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In the impersonal offices of North American education in the 1970s, a Canadian educator named Laurence J. Peter observed with clinical irony how hierarchies devoured talent. He saw systematic promotions: the excellent teacher became a mediocre principal, the competent principal a clumsy bureaucrat, the bureaucrat a disastrous civil servant. From that observation emerged the Peter Principle, published in 1969: “in a hierarchy, every employee tends to rise to their level of incompetence.” Promotion is based on prior success, not on aptitude for the new role. The result is that organizations end up filled with people who no longer master what they do, but who can no longer be demoted without breaking the system.

…

The left’s social engineers, eternal dreamers of planned paradises, respond to the disaster they themselves generate by demanding more hierarchy, more State, more positions for their faithful. When the machine clogs with incompetents, the solution is never to shrink the monster’s size; it is to inject it with more militants and more budget. The cycle is inexorable. Loyalty over competence, failure over correction, excuses over reality. And in the end, as always, the bill is paid by those at the bottom, while the red Peters keep rising, with beatific smiles, toward their next level of catastrophe.

𝗖𝘂𝗯𝗮 𝗰𝗼𝗻 𝗛 𝗱𝗲 𝗢𝗿𝘁𝗼𝗴𝗿𝗮𝗳𝗶́𝗮 @CubaOrtografia
Posted on X May 14, 2026

The original post was in Spanish, the English translation was by X.

While I’m sure the above is an important component of socialism disasters and government in general, there are other issues as well. As I have brought them up many times before (and here are but two examples) I will not dilute the current observation.

Brady United Working with Hollywood

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This was news to me:

Brady United – Full Story Initiative

What we do

Studies show that audiences adopt behaviors and attitudes of their favorite on-screen characters. That’s why our Show Gun Safety campaign empowers Hollywood to model gun safety on screen.

Global social reach 700k

1000+

writers, actors, producers, and studio executives trained on how they can responsibly portray guns on screen

150M

viewers have watched films and TV shows with firearms portrayals we helped shape and influence

That explains some things.

Perhaps it is time for the NRA and/or other gun owner rights groups to work with “writers, actors, producers, and studio executives.”