by
David Higginbotham
Guns.com

Recently
by David Higginbotham: LaserLyte
Laser Training System: Does It Really Work?

Finally. A
voice we can trust. Sylvester
Stallone, most notable for his roles Toymaker in Spy
Kids 3-D: Game Over, and Weaver (voice only) from Antz,
has finally used his celebrity to help make the world a better place.

The 66 year
old icon of peace and morality shared his views on guns recently
in an interview with the Associated
Press.

“I know
people get (upset) and go, `They’re going to take away the
assault weapon.’ Who … needs an assault weapon? Like
really, unless you’re carrying out an assault. … You
can’t hunt with it. … Who’s going to attack your
house, a (expletive) army?”

Yes. People
are upset. They’re going to take away the assault weapon.
I guess, if there’s only one, it should be taken away.

It’s
about time

I’m glad
Sly has decided to weigh in on the debate. As an industry insider
who understands the practical applications of modern sporting rifles,
I often look to ex-porn stars and half-assed screen writers for
guidance. It helps if they’re licensed gun owners (in California,
no less) who lend their unassailable credibility to the support
of the Brady
Bill, while building their own fortunes on a foundation of globally
disseminated bullshit meta-violence that, in many parts of the planet,
reduces the American G.I. to a grotesque
caricature.

There’s
more to the AP story. Stallone, ever vigilant in his efforts to
help right the wrongs in American society, continues. “It’s
unbelievably horrible, what’s happened,” Stallone Said.
“I think the biggest problem, seriously, is not so much guns.
It’s that every one of these people that have done these things
in the past 30 years are friggin’ crazy. Really crazy!”

Right. The
massacres that happened 40 or 50 years ago, though – like
Charles
Whitman (who killed 14 and wounded 32 at the University of Texas
in 1966) – those upstanding citizens must not have
had mental health issues. Thanks for clearing that up, Sly.

But he isn’t
finished! “And that’s where we’ve dropped the
ball: mental health,” Stallone said. “That to me is
our biggest problem in the future, is insanity coupled with isolation.”

So rest assured.
Not even Stallone thinks the problem is the guns. And he can see
the future. It is the mental health. Friggin’ insanity. Why
didn’t anyone else think of that? And couple the friggin’
insanity with the friggin’ isolation and you have an epidemic.

Quick. Someone
get this whiz-bang some funding. He’s onto something.

But seriously

Stallone’s
opinion on guns is nothing more than pissing into the wind. Yet
it’s getting ink. Why do we, as a culture, place so much stock
in our celebrities? Is it a fundamental need to worship something?
Is it the notable absence of royalty in American society? Is it
rooted in our desire to build someone up so we can watch them fall,
hard? Or, as Stallone demonstrates, do we like watching the underdog
claw their way to the very top?

It is a topic
for a doctoral dissertation, and not editorial.

This is useful
for us

Stallone is
a gift. When some celebrities use their celebrity to endorse or
oppose things they know nothing about, Americans pay attention.
It doesn’t make any sense, but it happens.

CNN ran an
opinion
piece yesterday that detailed celebrities that are voicing opposition
to the National Rifle Association. And some people will, undoubtedly,
listen.

When
Stallone says he is in support of a “tak[ing] away the assault
weapon,” no one will take him seriously. How can you?

Anyone who
attempts to use Stallone will be easily discredited. He’s
not going to be the poster-boy for civilian disarmament. Even if
he wants to be.

There are too
many who associate Stallone’s millions (estimated
at $275 million) with gratuitous violence. And Stallone is just
an exaggerated example of countless celebrities that speak out against
guns (when they’re not on set dramatizing acts of gun violence).

Read
the rest of the article

February
9, 2013

Copyright
© 2013 Guns.com