She Says It All in 57 Seconds

(Mild language alert)

 

Bravo!

Of course we see it, young lady. But we are greatly encouraged that you see it, too!

Another Anti-Gun Celebrity Cashes In With Guns In Movies

Jennifer Garner

aka Hypocrite

Hollywood has had a tumultuous relationship with firearms for quite some time. On the one hand, celebrities often enjoy a financial status that allows them to take security measures the rest of us don’t have, which may cause some to forget that many of us face threats to our very lives as well. So, they make stands against guns and articulate it regularly.

On the other hand, Hollywood has always made a good bit of its money by slapping a gun in the hands of these actors and having them do every manner of crap with them, from defending themselves to engaging in criminal activities. In other words, Hollywood has a love affair with the gun, but it doesn’t want to admit it, even to itself.

The latest example of this is Jennifer Garner, who made her opinions on guns known but doesn’t seem to mind cashing in on a film where she’s carrying the very tool she’s worked to deny to the average American.

The film features the story of Riley North, a mother and wife who awakens from a coma after surviving an attack that resulted in the deaths of her beloved husband and daughter. Bereaved, Riley fights for justice through the court system. When it fails, she vows to avenge her loved ones on her own. As one might expect from the former “Alias” star, Garner becomes a one-woman force for justice through guns, explosives, knives, and more. So far, the movie hasn’t garnered many great reviews. A Forbes writer said it was “ugly, incoherent and problematic.” But it might do well with fans who like Garner’s action-flick style.

Regardless, the plot is both easy to empathize with (I guess) and confusing: Any loving mother could understand how Riley might have felt under the circumstances and how the need for vengeance would be so strong she might want to take care of the killers herself. (“Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned” and all.) But I’ll be hard-pressed to understand or empathize with actors who believe one thing in their personal lives, yet do another in their careers — especially as it relates to gun control. In 2012 Garner appeared in a video with other Hollywood stars advocating gun control, despite the fact that she and her estranged husband both appear in multiple shows and films using guns.

This is hardly unusual. Few Hollywood actors openly support the Second Amendment. Most who have vocalized an opinion on the topic tend to be anti-gun to some degree.

Time and again, Hollywood and the actors who make their living there continue to feed into the American fascination with armed heroes by creating these movies.

Don’t get me wrong, either. The trailer for Peppermint looks pretty awesome and the fact that someone called it “problematic” is probably enough to make me want to see it all on its own. I don’t want Hollywood to stop making action films where the heroes and heroines are armed to the teeth and shooting bad guys in the face.

What I’d like to see is for these stars to recognize they make money from firearms and to work to deny them to ordinary Americans while feeling no qualms about taking these roles is ridiculous. Garner isn’t unique in doing this, but she’s just the one with the new movie this week.

Author's Bio: Tom Knighton

Tom Knighton is a Navy veteran, a former newspaperman, a novelist, and a blogger and lifetime shooter. He lives with his family in Southwest Georgia. https://bearingarms.com/author/tomknighton/

School Protection Bill Dropped Because of Election Year

NC: School Protection Bill Dropped
Because of Election Year

By Dean Weingarten. June 13th, 2018
Original Source

Several North Carolina legislators have introduced a common sense solution to increase protection for schools in North Carolina, The bill, HB 1039, also known as the School Self-Defense Act, has been introduced, but has not been voted out of committee. It is in the Committee on Rules, Calender, and Operations of the House.

The premise of the bill is simple. Take responsible members of the school staff who already are permitted to carry concealed weapons in the rest of the community. Require them to obtain training in responding to an active shooter. Allow them to carry concealed in the school, to provide a discreet, immediate armed response to a deadly force situation in the school. From abc11.com:

"HB 1039, School Self-Defense Act, would have allowed this common sense, practical solution to be implemented in North Carolina," said Representative Larry Pittman (R) 82nd District, one of the bill's sponsors. "However, seeking to avoid controversy in an election year, our leadership has chosen not to allow this bill even to be heard in committee. This is a failure to act that I fear may one day cost lives that could have been saved."

House Bill 1039 authorizes some faculty or staff members to carry a handgun onto school grounds "to respond to acts of violence or an imminent threat of violence."

"I believe that there are many teachers who would want to be armed and want to be in a position to protect their children from any kind of a school shooter," said Jean Fitzsimmons, a retired teacher.

Under the bill, the person would need a valid concealed handgun permit and 16 hours of active shooter training. Plus, the school or governing body could opt out.

Polls have revealed about 20% of teachers favor having armed teachers capable of protecting the children in their schools. Many teachers have military and law enforcement experience.

People with concealed carry permits have already shown themselves to be extremely safe and responsible. Statistics on people who have concealed carry permits show that they are far less likely to commit crimes than police officers. The bill simply removes many obstacles that have been put in place to make it difficult for teachers to provide protection for their students. It does not force any teachers to be armed, but provides a mechanism for those who wish to volunteer, to do so. As the teachers are volunteers, additional expenses to the school are minimal.

Advantages of this approach are many. Students do not know who, or how many, teachers may be armed at any one time. Thus, it becomes difficult to plan a successful rampage shooting. Rampage shooters typically plan their event for months, sometimes over a year, in advance. Introducing the variable of one or more unknown armed individuals in the school makes the planning far more difficult. Knowing that the individuals are trained to deal with active shooters increases the difficulty.

There is evidence that increasing the difficulty can cause potential shooters to abandon the project or to seek other targets. The more time used, the more possibility the shooter will be discovered, discouraged, or simply mature out of a dangerous fixation on rampage shootings.

The standard response to increasing the numbers of armed defenders in schools is a simplistic slogan - "no guns in schools". The slogan makes no sense. The slogan might as well be "no guns in schools until too late!"

Requiring law enforcement to respond to an active shooter, from outside a school, has been shown to take too much time. Most active shooting incidents are over in five minutes.

Having a few volunteers who know how to use weapons, carry them concealed routinely, and who have had specialized training in reacting to active shooters, is simple, inexpensive, and effective on several levels.

The majority of teachers who do not wish to be armed would not be required to be armed. Those who have experience, the desire to protect, and the willingness to undergo some training, could do so.

Many teachers have already shown their willingness to engage active shooters when unarmed, often paying with their lives. Those teachers would have been much more effective if they had been allowed to be armed.

Having armed and known school police officers, who are unwilling to actually protect the students, was counterproductive in the Parkland shooting.

©2018 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included. Gun Watch