When I first read about this, I thought that it had to be some kind of weird spoof. But it's not.
Over the course of almost two excruciatingly tedious minutes complete with ominous piano-dominated background music, a recently created video intended to become a public service announcement (PSA) shows a teenage boy taking a gun out of a drawer in his parents' bedroom and bringing it to school. At the end of a class period, he puts it on the desk of his shocked teacher and asks her, "Can you take this away? I don’t feel safe with a gun in my house."
The video then shows the following words (in caps): "OUR CHILDREN DESERVE A SAFE WORLD," followed by a frame demanding: "STOP GUN VIOLENCE NOW."
Several commentators have noted the commission of at least five and as many as seven crimes during the course of the video. On Monday, the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms identified them as follows (bolds are mine throughout this post):
“The series of crimes depicted in this video is simply astonishing,” said CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb. "We’re talking about felony theft of a firearm, illegal possession of a handgun by a minor, having a gun in a school, illegal concealed carry by a minor, brandishing and maybe one or two other crimes, depending upon the jurisdiction."... “This video isn’t a public service announcement,” he said, “but a public dis-service and the producers ought to be ashamed.”
Rejina Productions, the entity which made the video, is clearly in damage-control mode over the ad, which it identifies as a "PSA" at its "Projects" page.
Rejina's home-page narrative has recently been shortened. Here's how it now reads:
Rejina Sincic is an Indian film director and screenwriter based in San Francisco. Her production company is Rejina Productions and is also the Co-Founder of Sleeper13 Productions. She completed her bachelors in Film Studies from University of Utah in 2006. She often works with Roy Wanguhu whom she met while working on “Forest of Eden”. She has worked on a variety of projects including TV, short films, commercials, corporate videos and feature films. Rejina has a great passion for filmmaking and is always looking to collaborate with creative people who have the same drive.
The following sentence was present in the home-page narrative in January, but is no longer there:
Most recently worked on independent films "Story of Eva", "Forest of Eden", a trailer for “I Killed the Devil”, American Idol, Family Feud and corporate videos for Twitter and Cisco.
Rejina Sincic appears to be concerned that her more mainstream clients might find out about her unhinged "PSA."
Though a Vimeo version of the video is still present at Rejina Productions "Reel" age, the original YouTube video has had its settings changed to "private" (HT Hot Air):
Too late, ma'am. Several people have captured it. Here is one of them:
One would think that Rejina's anti-gun client or clients must have previewed and signed off on the video before allowing its posting. If true, imagine the number of people — ignorant, defiant, or both — who were perfectly okay with encouraging kids to comment serious crimes.
I'd be especially curious to learn what the Ad Council knew of this project, and if they might even have been among those approving it. If so, do they really believe that any TV station in their right minds would have aired this "PSA" more than once?
Finally, here's an exit question for the video's teenager: How safe are you going to feel without a gun in your house if intruders break in?
Cross-posted at BizzyBlog.com.
