Hollywood stars including Amy Schumer, Julianne Moore and Mark Ruffalo released an open letter on Monday demanding that movies and TV shows lead by example when it comes to guns. This open letter was written in response to the massacre of 19 children and two female teachers at a Texas elementary school in late May and a previous deadly shooting in Buffalo. She’s also signed by famous producers like JJ Abrams (Lost), Shonda Rhimes (Bridgerton), and Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy.”Cultural behaviors regarding smoking, drinking and driving, wearing seatbelts and equality in marriage have all evolved in part through the influence of movies and television. It’s time to start with the dangers of guns,” says the letter released by the Brady Campaign, an organization calling for a tighter gun regulations in the United States.”We’re not asking everyone to stop showing guns on screen. We’re asking screenwriters, directors and producers to watch out for gun violence shown on the screen and to promote safety in the handling of these weapons”, continue the signatories. The films could, for example, show the characters in the process of locking the safety catch of their weapon. Teams could also try to find an alternative to guns in certain scenes without “damaging the integrity of the narrative.” , the open letter asks industry professionals to “limit scenes that feature both children and weapons.” A total of 4,368 American children and teenagers under the age of twenty were killed by firearms in 2020, according to official statistics. More than 200 Hollywood celebrities, including Jimmy Kimmel, Judd Apatow or Adam McKay have signed the letter. They point out that while guns are ubiquitous in shows and movies around the world, “only America has such an epidemic of violence.” “The blame lies with lax gun laws, backed by politicians who are more concerned with staying in power than saving lives,” they write. “We didn’t create the problem but we want to help solve it.”
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