The NRA's latest ad features a border agent who refuses to get vaccinated warning "every state will become a border state with illegal immigrants committing violent crimes" if the border isn't secured.
It also features his wife who claims to have scared off 4 illegal immigrants who broke into their home. She says she used a samurai sword and a chihuahua. Afterwards, she bought a gun.
This is an ad primarily about opposition to vaccine mandates and support for stiffer border policy. It is tangentially related to guns in that the anti-vax agent and his wife own guns because of a home invasion.
This ad will likely appeal to many Republican base voters and conservatives since they likely support gun-rights and stiff border policies in addition to opposing vaccine mandates. Of course, it's likely to turn off anyone else.
The NRA marketing itself as a general interest conservative group has been the approach for a while now. You've seen the same thing at other single-issue groups, like the ACLU, for a while now.
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
Starting a new publication is exciting and terrifying all at once and all the time.
If you make this jump, there are a dozen different ways to look at your metrics that can make you feel great or terrible. You will manage to feel both ways simultaneously pretty much constantly. It's pretty stressful, to be honest.
That's why you'd better believe in what you're doing or it's not worth it. That's especially true when the interest waines a bit as you get further from launch and you hit the winter slow season. You have to be confident in order to make it through the hard points.
When I teach a gun-safety course I tell my students that everyone is responsible for gun safety and they should speak up if they witness anyone doing anything unsafe, even me. There's no reason a set shouldn't operate the exact same way.
I can understand why an armorer wouldn't want an actor to mess with the loadout of a gun set up in a specific way for a scene, but Baldwin himself provides a reasonable alternative in his ABC interview: have the armorer show everyone the gun is safe. thereload.com/analysis-compl…
The scene setup itself was also dangerous and everyone watching should've noticed that. Guns being pointed at anyone should be avoided as much as possible even on a set. I don't see why it was necessary in this scene. thereload.com/analysis-compl…
It's weird that Fox is making this horror movie into a competition cooking show, right?
I mean, what the hell is going on here?
This reminds me of the time Sony made a Jessie Eisenberg comedy out of a true story where criminals strapped a bomb to a pizza delivery guy and forced him to rob a bank before killing him.
Baldwin's full explanation is that he pulled the hammer back and when he released it, the gun went off. That's very difficult to explain without the trigger being depressed. thereload.com/analysis-yes-a…
"I cock the gun. I go, ‘Can you see that? Can you see that? Can you see that?’” Baldwin told ABC. “And then I let go of the hammer of the gun, and the gun goes off."
He also claims he didn't pull the trigger.
There are two scenarios I can think of where that could happen, but both seem improbable. The first is is the hammer being pulled back far enough to set off a round but not far enough to catch a sear. That's a real hard sell.
Most claims that a gun "went off" on its own can be dismissed out of hand. In Alec Baldwin's case, it's not quite that easy. thereload.com/analysis-yes-a…
Modern firearms, including many antique reproductions, include safety mechanisms that prevent a shot from being fired without the trigger being pulled. They make it so a gun can't go off on its own without some kind of defect in the gun.
However, not all replicas have these.
Police say Baldwin was using a modern replica of single-action revolver. Those are sold with or without a safety known as a transfer bar. Many prefer the traditional design without the safety, and it can be safe if handled properly. It's not clear which model Baldwin used.