Who's Grooming Whom?

The Groomers with their Guns, the murderers their Sons.

Some, probably most of you are now aware of the allegations being made by the extremists in the Republican Party in the US (and in the UK it happens too, Miriam Cates MP being on a mission to cleanse the schoolrooms of the land, see the last of the links below).

The allegation is summed up in a word, 'Grooming' and it applies to Drag Queens and pretty much anyone else who identifies either as part of the LGBTQ+ multiverse, or who supports it, eg 'the Media' or the 'Liberal Media', Democrats, and as Trump would doubtless put it, Marxists, Communists, etc etc.

Now shift your focus to the staggering number of deaths by gun in the US, and ask how has this evolved over the years? The Second Amendment has been around for the best part of 200 years, but the kind of mass violence associated with Sandy Hook, Parkland, Uvalde, seems new.

So turn on your tv, or go to the movies and you find your answer: generations groomed by film and tv to believe that Guns are as natural as bread and butter, as essential parts of your dress as the shirt or skirt: and Crucially: Guns are the Solution. How do you deal with a bad guy with a gun? A good guy with a gun. No further debate necessary.

The link look at the relationship between film, tv and gun ownership, and the use of guns in everyday life. I don't know that it is conclusive, but I find it persuasive, and here's the thing: reading a story about a panda to a six year old is not going to inspire an act of violence: showing, every day, people using guns to intimidate, to injure and to kill normalizes violence with potentially horrific consequences.

Any chance of a public campaign against the Groomers of Gun Violence? Nah, didn't think so.

Calling drag queens 'groomers' and 'pedophiles' is the latest in a long history of weaponising those terms against the LGBTIQA community (theconversation.com)

What TV gets wrong about guns | Salon.com

The association between the rise of gun violence in popular US primetime television dramas and homicides attributable to firearms, 2000–2018 - PMC (nih.gov)

The Gun Industry's Lucrative Relationship With Hollywood (hollywoodreporter.com)

The Tories Want You to Panic About Sex Education | Novara Media