In light of the March For Our Lives that took place this last weekend I chose to do a media analysis of an ad put out by the NRA. In just one minute and four seconds the NRA calls all of individuals that protest names and mocks those that don’t support them. The goal of this ad appears to be to increase support for the NRA and also demean those that do no support the NRA. In most of the video Dana Loesch refers to a mysterious “they.” This “they” is apparently full of individuals who want to provoke police officers into violence so that they can cry about it later. The spokesperson also says that this “they” is made up of the most awful type of people in this world. Apparently if you don’t support the NRA you are racist, sexist, xenophobic, and homophobic. This ad values the right to bear arms and the rights of the “law abiding citizens” that the resistance “bullies.” The lifestyles and points of view are most likely those of individuals who own guns themselves and/or support the NRA. I suspect that there are two different ways this video can be viewed. One would be a reaction like the one I had, disgust and sadness. One would be the exact opposite, joy and appreciation. There are people who this video will make smile and who will only support the NRA that much more. I mean; it is “freedoms safest place.” Who doesn’t love that? Oh well, maybe the children that have been killed in their classrooms or all of the other victims of gun violence. I doubt this video would make their families feel as if their freedom is “safe.”
I know that gun violence may not seem relevant to this class, but I would like to present my argument against this. I believe that we as every day citizens have to worry about a potential attack in the form of gun violence at any moment and that this creates a stressor in our lives that can make it harder to deal with other 21st century issues. For example, it takes away time in a high school class to discuss the protocol for an active shooting. However, this is a necessary step in the country we call home. That time could be used to discuss looming climate change issues or the poor air quality of most cities. This added stressor and time filler does not just occur in high school classrooms. It occurs on the floor of the House, the Senate, in the White House, even in local city council meetings. The powers at be spend hours on end arguing whether or not we should have stricter gun laws. This means they have less time to discuss the environmental issues we face today and will face in the future. Lastly, the NRA supports the use of lead bullets on national wildlife refugees. Lead bullets have been shown to cause high levels of animal deaths from ingestion. Although this ad does not discuss environmental issues it does discuss an entity that is doing very little to advance the sustainability of the environment or the lives of children. For this reason I felt it appropriate for this blog post.
I think you made a really good point about how worrying about gun legislation takes away precious time that could be spent reviewing environmental policy acts and other pressing issues. I think there is definitely an issue in the US government today regarding firearm policy. We are one of the only countries who has seemed to not learn this lesson each time another mass shooting occurs. We should follow the example of countries like Australia which, after a mass shooting occurred, they actually enacted strict legislation which virtually banned access to firearms throughout the country, ceasing all future mass shootings (imagine that). Of course, people may still own guns there but the guidelines are much stricter in order to keep people safe. Thanks for sharing!
Great job at exploring some of the linkages between the NRA and the environment! Perhaps there is something also to be said about the dominance mindset that comes with the use of such weaponry and exploitation of our resources. It`s true that hunters drove a lot of the conservation movement in the US, but the weapons they used were far different than the militarized ones we see today causing violence on our fellow humans.