The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence is boasting of how they worked with the writing team of ABC’s Designated Survivor to help craft the gun control language used in the April 5 episode.
On November 25, 2016, Breitbart News reported that gun control groups were actively working with the directors and/or writers of various television programs and movies to push a gun control message. Michael Bloomberg-funded Everytown for Gun Safety worked with Netflix’s House of Cards to push gun control during season four of the series, and the Brady Campaign helped with an episode of The Good Wife in order to promote gun control as well.
The November 2016 movie Miss Sloane was directed by John Madden, who admitted the film was an effort to lessen opposition to gun control. He said, “As we refer to in the film, the fallacy that any form of gun regulation is a slippery slope to confiscation is an idea that seems to have extraordinary persuasive power.”
By the way, Miss Sloane bombed at the box office.
Now the Brady Campaign is taking advantage of ABC’s willingness to let Designated Survivor serve as a channel for the gun control message.
According to The Washington Free Beacon, Brady Campaign spokesman Brendan Kelly said:
Our president Dan Gross presented to members of their team a while back before the season began about representing gun violence on screen and spent time educating them on the issue. It was part of that larger effort I alluded to in [a recent email to Brady supporters] to work with content producers and creators to highlight the issue of gun violence in America and the sensible solutions at our disposal.
During the April 5 episode, the central character–played by Keifer Sutherland–said:
I believe that the American people have every right to buy and own guns by virtue of the Second Amendment. I would also like to take a moment to quash the myth that somehow gun control is equal to the Federal Government coming into your home and taking your weapons away. Nobody is advocating for that. We need to be doing everything we can to stop guns from falling into the hands of prior felons, people dealing with serious mental-health issues, people on terrorist watch lists. I mean, come on. We need to be using common sense. It’s as simple as that.
It is interesting to note that California has nearly every gun control ever pushed by Democrats in the U.S. House or Senate. California has universal background checks, an “assault weapons” ban, a 10-day waiting period on gun purchases, gun confiscation laws based on mental health, gun registration requirements, Gun Violence Restraining Orders, a ban on “high capacity” magazines, a ban on campus carry, a “good cause” requirement for concealed carry permit issuance, and a soon-to-be requirement that all law-abiding citizens undergo a background check for ammunition purchases. Despite all this, they witnessed the murder-suicide at San Bernardino’s North Park Elementary on Monday, to which gun controller Gabby Giffords reacted by suggesting California’s gun controls are insufficient.
The bottom line–gun control is not “common sense,” it is about control.
AWR Hawkins is the Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and host of “Bullets with AWR Hawkins,” a Breitbart News podcast. He is also the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.