Terminator series treats guns right

toreskha

Titles are un-American.
I don't know if anyone has seen the Sarah Connor series put out by Fox over the last two years. It's a lot different from the movies, primarily taking a somewhat "darker" tone. One of the consistent themes that I've noticed is that it treats firearms more as tools and less as an excuse for an action scene. Now obviously it has its share of firefights...but generally speaking, I'd say they're more responsible than 90% of entertainment media out there.

Most of the characters are shown consistently carrying the same handgun. In one particular episode, interstate concealed carry license laws are mentioned. In another, John Connor demonstrates safety procedures for clearing a jam in an AR-15 - although later on, he accidentally fires a hole in his ceiling while cleaning a handgun and not making sure it's unloaded. Although the cyborgs are mostly impervious to gunfire, the humans are shown experiencing the gruesome consequences of getting shot "superficially". Sarah Connor kills an attacker who later turns out to be a devoted family man. She attends his funeral, meets his family and is overwhelmed with guilt. The sanctity of human life and our concepts of faith and God (and the robots' confusion over it) is explored in some detail.

Anyway while it's just a TV show...it's also more representative of reality than much of the crap that portray firearms as toys and violence as something easily shrugged off. Maybe if more TV, news and movies took that attitude, we wouldn't see the confusion and hoplophobia that seems to pervade our culture.

The series makes no sense unless watched in chronological order. Recent episodes are available at Fox.com, but mysteriously none before that. All are available at other sites online, which I won't mention here because some people will have a problem with it. You can probably find the entire series on DVD somewhere.
 
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