Gunowners depicted in Law and Order

[SolaScriptura139]

Does anyone else here get irritated by how Law and Order depicts gunowners? My wife and I were watching Law and Order: Special Victims Unit, and of course, they ran into a lead where the murder weapon was bought at Gun Ho! (what a name), a gun store. And of course, as the detectives illegally (as normal) went downstairs and discovered that the gun store owners were Neo-Nazis. Every episode of Law and Order I see with gun store owners or people who own a lot of guns, they are depicted as maniacal morons, or fascist racists. I'm sorry, but I love guns, and I'm not insane or racist. As you can tell, I'm ranting just a little. :banghead:

 

[Dave P]

Besides their depiction of the gun owners, I am always amazed at how they always know about guns in the house. "Sir, our files show that you have a Raven 44 Mag - where is it now?"

Almost like they have registered and logged every (legal) gun in the city, eh?? What a place to live!

How do they track down the illegal ones?

Dave

 

[usp9]

L&O has always been a liberal...

showcase. My favorite is the "Ken Starr" two part puke-athon. However there is one gun they have selected for praise! In one episode a particular firearm is is described as "NICE". Can any of you name that gun?

 

[yojimbo]

You mean we're not all Neo-Nazis? No wonder no one answered my post, "What gun for the coming race war?"

 

[WT]

I like "Law and Order". It is fantasy, not real life.

 

[Just_a_dude_with_a_gun]

"The nice gun?" I think a guy had a gun that was stolen, and was used in a murder...


I think it was an HK Mk23, or Expert....

 

[hillbilly]

Hey, here's an easy fix for this.

Don't Watch Any Law and Order shows.

It really is that simple.

I haven't seen a single episode since about 1998.

I can't even tell you which networks or cable stations still run the show.

Is it still currently made, or just a collection of dust-gathering reruns now?

hillbilly

 

[1911Tuner]

Law and Order

I like Law and Order too...and I understand that...like anything else coming out of the entertainment industry...accuracy is rare.

BUT...It's pretty obvious that the writers and producers have a penchant for putting a certain spin on the gun issues. That part I don't like. It's an example of what Hitler's own spin doctor Joseph Goebbels said:

"If you repeat a lie often enough, it becomes truth."

Brainwashing is often a subtle exercise, implanted by a thousand tiny little lies, deceptions, and innacuracies...all aimed at instilling the desired mindset
within the masses, so that when the axe falls, most people will (hopefully) be in agreement with the executioner.

 

[Lou629]

What do you expect?

The show is based & filmed in NYC, so were you expecting maybe they'd be less than honest about how guns and gun owners are really treated in that Peoples' Republic?

 

[usp9]

NAME THAT GUN

Dude, sorry no.
One character mentions the gun, then another character says "ooh, nice gun", or something to that effect.

Just realized that I don't see a QUOTE key anywhere. How do you quote on THR?

 

[Stiletto Null]

[ quote=AUTHOR ]STUFF

1
2
3[ /quote ]

Remove the extra spaces in the QUOTE tags, and it looks like this:

STUFF

1
2
3

 

[GunnySkox]

I remember once episode of SVU where a guy and his wife wake up to crazy sounds in their apartment, and the guy actually clears his apartment (with Wife w/ Baseball bat in tow) with a Glock of some description. He doesn't shoot anyone (the "intruder" was a confused elderly woman), he doesn't shout racial epithets, he doesn't even use any harsh language, he just gets it done. I really like that episode.

~GnSx

 

[RaggedClaws]

Fun exercise (works with CSI too): whenever a person of interest early on in the show is shown to be a gun owner, either the gun owner will be the perpetrator of the crime in question, or the gun will have been used in the crime in question.

A civilian, law-abiding, legal gun owner is never depicted in these shows. 1911Tuner, you are right on the mark.

The other day I overheard a young woman on the train, and I almost gagged. The man sitting next to her was reading the paper, and there was a story about a particularly gruesome crime. He comments on the headline to the woman and the woman in all seriousness says, "wow, that's terrible... did you see the Law and Order last night, that was pretty unbelievable too". I just couldn't believe how the line between fiction and reality was blurred for this woman. And I know that she's not the only one out there who believes L&O is the real thing, or at least an acceptable proxy for the real world.

GnSx, I never saw that episode and I thought I saw them all, was the person a civilian? Probably an off-duty cop or some such.

 

[CoachVince]

the woman in all seriousness says, "wow, that's terrible... did you see the Law and Order last night, that was pretty unbelievable too". I just couldn't believe how the line between fiction and reality was blurred for this woman. And I know that she's not the only one out there who believes L&O is the real thing, or at least an acceptable proxy for the real world.

Part of the problem is that L&O continues to use stories "ripped from today's headlines"; although that's not always as apparent when the viewer is watching the all re-run channels. The stories "ring true" because they're often based on one or more stories that are in the news at the time of their writing, so people have heard some connecting details already.
One prime example is the celebrity child molester story, clearly based on Michael Jackson's case. There are many others, that I think more avid fans could point out. I'm not a fan, but my mother-in-law is, and so it's on 3 or 4 hours a night I think.
They'll also pick re-runs, it seems, to match some recent stories.

 

[Thain]

The vast majority of gun-owners depicted in CSI (I don't watch the spin-offs, but follow the main one each week) have actually been lawful folks. Even the amature bomb-building 'nutjob' (and I use the term lovingly) was shown to be operating in a legal way, and was treated like a hero by the cast after he died.

In one episode, when a kid suspected of shooting the bully at school was found with gunshot residue on his hands and sleeves, his excuse of "I was at the range this morning." didn't elicit any shock from the investigating detective and CSI staffer... Just a healthy dose of "Yeah, right..."

Law & Order (although moreso its two spin-offs) is a bit more openly anti-gun, although one could argue that as a show set in New York that tries to be dramatically accurate in representing its characters as "real" NYC detectives and assisstant district attorneys an anti-gun attitude from them is realistic. Jack McCoy has always been written as a liberal, and as anti-gun; the ling-running police characters (Briscoe, Logan, Greene) seem to have the typical cop attitude towards handguns... They're used to kill folk, you owe it illegally, why shouldn't I think you used your illegal gun to illegally kill someone?

I'd say the L&O franchise is moderatly anitgun, but CSI seems to be moderatly pro-self defense. With all of the actors being pretty darn good in their weapons handling, in one episode Catherine Willows (Marg Helgenberger) has to pull her gun on a stalker/rapist at point-blank range and does a beautiful strong-arm push, close-in draw. Looked like she'd spent a good week in a CCW course for that one.

 

[1911JMB]

As with all cop shows, Law and Order couldn't have less to do with reality. If you take it seriously, you may want to consider getting another hobby.

 

[GunnySkox]

RaggedClaws,

IIRC, they don't ever really say anything else about the guy's pistol, in that episode. He's only around for a few minutes as the homeowner, and I dunno if they ever said what his occupation was.

~GnSx

 

[Gun Cleric]

I do believe the gun you reference to the cast as saying is nice was a Sig Sauer, in the episode where the judge was killed with his own gun. I am a LAO SUV junky, despite the apparent gun bias. My favorite line was when the lady at the indoor range tells Benson her .50 Desert Eagle has a 15 round mag.

 

[john1911]

Y'all sound surprised gunowners are portrayed in a negative manner in tv. The large majority of people who have anything to do with providing entertainment(TV, movies etc.) are liberal, gun-hating nuts. They hate guns, they know what's best for everyone, so there should be no private gun ownership.
I would expect honest news reporting from CBS before I would expect a positive portrayal of gunowners on TV.
John

 

[V4Vendetta]

This is why I never watch L&O. I watch "The Andy Griffith show" complete 1'st season on DVD that I bought yesterday. Funny & pro-gun. I just saw a episode where Andy was trying to fix up a married couples bickering by making them say something nice to each other. The husband is having a lot of dificulty saying something when Barney pulls his revolver & asks Andy if he should put it to his head & see if he said it then. I didn't stop laughing for a good 4 minutes.*


Barney was just kidding though.

 

[phonesysphonesys]

Law and Order always has a political agenda.

phonephonesys

 

[antsi]

---quote----------
I like "Law and Order". It is fantasy, not real life.
-------------------

Sure, it's fiction, but it is promoting a very negative stereotype that has long-term implications for firearms rights. The creators of the show have a definite anti-gunowner agenda and they are using their public forum to spread propaganda to further their message.

Of course, they have every right to their opinion and every right to try to convince others of their opinion.

And I have the right to think they're a bunch of idiots spreading defamatory propaganda, the right to choose not to watch it, and the right to try to convince others of my opinion.

 

[antsi]

--------quote------------
As with all cop shows, Law and Order couldn't have less to do with reality. If you take it seriously, you may want to consider getting another hobby.
--------------------------

I don't take the content of the show seriously. I do take seriously the fact that this kind of propaganda influences people, and that can have an impact on my firearm rights.

Consider an analogy to what you're saying: Let's say it's the late 1930's and the Nazis are spreading their propaganda about Jews. You say, "It's all fictional, these people are crazy, don't take it seriously." Well, even if something is fictional, it can have the power to influence people and have real effects in the real world.

 

[usp9]

Name that gun

I'm refering to the original show when a Seecamp is discovered and the Lady LT. VanBuran(sp?) says Ooh, nice gun. It is the only time I remember a positive gun comment in the scripts they use. Maybe there are others, the show has been on a long time with how many spin-offs.

 

[ABTOMAT]

I enjoy watching L&O and spinoffs because it's mildly entertaining, even though it is anti-gun. Hey, at least I'm not paying for it.

The thing that really drives me crazy is how little they actually get right about guns. Guys getting shot with 45mm pistols, they find a corpse with some holes in it and it's "looks like a .38 special", how they always manage to match fired casings to particular guns, and the ever-growing trend of "ballistics says the bullet was fired from (insert brand here) revolver".