Guns – We’re Here to Stay

Guns – We’re Here to Stay October 12, 2015

Screen Shot 2015-10-12 at 3.04.43 PM

Saturday Night Live was just so good the other night, mainly because Amy Schumer is just so good. The sketches were well written, and they were acted and executed even better, again, because Schumer.

And, to top it all off there were even some great “commercials.”

Especially that one about guns.

There must have been at least some debate in the writers’ room about whether or not to run this spot this week, especially in lieu of the two college campus shootings that occurred last Friday in Arizona and Texas (with another potential shooting in Kentucky). And I admit, my stomach turned a little as the commercial rolled, because those events were still fresh in my mind.

And maybe that’s why it was so effective. In light of the reality of these events, the parody of America’s romanticization of guns exposed gun culture as both absurd and offensive. It highlighted the moment we inhabit as one in which the insanity of uncontrolled gun proliferation somehow reigns as logic and law – with an ideology that arrogantly asserts “guns are here to stay.” 

But if that’s true, we are dead – and not just figuratively speaking. We are dead, and our kids are dead, and our schools and movie theaters will remain shooting ranges with soft, warm human targets.

Which makes the faux softness and warmth of the scenarios imagined in a comedy show parody all the more ironic – and damning.

Watch the commercial here and let me know what you think:


Browse Our Archives