What is the moral of the smash hit movie American Sniper? According to an editorial in Thursday's edition of the New York Times, our country's “gun-friendly culture” leads to “insane behavior” that not only threatens the lives of gun owners and their families, but also makes a case for stronger gun-control legislation.
“You know the movie, right?” sarcastically asked Gail Collins, who covers American politics and culture for the Times. “It has not only been nominated for the Best Picture Oscar; it could wind up selling more tickets than the other seven nominees combined.”
The blockbuster film “tells the story of Chris Kyle, a real-life Iraq war veteran and sharpshooter" who was portrayed by actor Bradley Cooper, Collins stated. “The film is certainly powerful, and it celebrates our Iraq veterans. But it also eulogizes the killing of Iraq insurgents, including children, and critics feel it ought to be put in the context of an invasion that didn’t need to happen in the first place.”
“There’s been less conversation about the final scene in the movie, which shows the hero walking through his family home, where the kids are romping,” she continued before noting:
He’s carrying a handgun, which he points at his wife Taya, playfully telling her to “drop them drawers.” Taya says she can see he’s finally getting over his war traumas and back to his old fun-loving self.
This is, by virtually any standard, insane behavior.
“Kyle did enjoy walking around the house, twirling a pistol,” Collins stated, adding that “he would playfully point a gun at the television and pretend to shoot down the bad guys.”
“American Sniper is on one, supremely obvious level, a celebration of gun culture. But it’s also a cautionary tale,” Collins asserted.
“Kyle was shot to death while the script was being written,” she said. “He had volunteered to help a troubled veteran, Eddie Ray Routh, who had a history of violent behavior and was an apparent victim of post-traumatic stress.”
Collins added that “Kyle felt the best way to get him to relax was to take him to a shooting range. While they were there, Routh turned his gun on Kyle and one of Kyle’s friends, killing them both.”
She then quoted Chris Murphy, a senator from Connecticut whom she didn't identify as a Democrat, as saying: “Yeah, but if you want to complain about the casual treatment of guns in movies, you don’t have to look very hard on any Friday night.”
Even though Collins admitted that the senator “hasn't seen the movie,” she said “he’s one of Congress’s leading advocates of gun-control regulation.”
“It’s not the world’s most rewarding job,” she asserted. “In recent years, his colleagues have not only refused to pass an extremely modest bill on background checks, they’ve failed to ban the sale of guns to people on the terrorism watch list.”
She then focused on a situation in the Lone Star State: “Texas, where Kyle’s alleged murderer is going on trial next week, has always had a gun-friendly culture.”
Next, Collins referred to Open Carry Tarrant County as “one particularly bouncy group” that “flooded the office of Representative Poncho Nevárez, a non-supportive Democrat. A video of the ensuing scene showed Nevárez, looking extremely wary, asking the demonstrators to leave his office.”
“When it was all over,” she added, “some legislators in both parties wore 'I’m Poncho' badges in solidarity with Nevárez, who was assigned a security detail after he and his family received threats.”
“Meanwhile, in the Texas Capitol, enthusiasm for watering down the gun laws seems to be dwindling. That could qualify as a happy ending,” she concluded.
But in an article on the Breitbart.com website, columnist AWR Hawkins responded: “Question -- what does this have to do with American Sniper? Answer -- absolutely nothing.”
He also noted:
But citing the antics of Open Carry Tarrant County at the end of the article allowed the [Times] to leave readers with the impression that all pro-Second Amendment advocates are a little scary, Chris Kyle included.
In turn, that allowed the [Times] to diminish the most important message of all -- Kyle’s expert use of a gun for the safety and protection of our country, his family, and his fellow troops.
“This is the same way the left reported on our Vietnam War vets, praising their service on one hand only to erase that praise by labeling them baby killers on the other,” Hawkins stated.
“In neither circumstance -- the Iraq War or the Vietnam War -- did they bother to mention that the enemy armed children to attack our troops,” he noted.
Nevertheless, Sniper has so far taken in more than $250 million, a sure sign that many people don't share the liberals' disdain for “our country's gun-friendly culture.”
