Theatergoers were expecting to see the usual fake blood, skilled stuntmen and CGI effects when they filed into a NYC theater to watch “Gun Crazy,” touted as the latest big-budget Hollywood blockbuster. Instead, to their shock, scenes of real-life homicides, suicides and accidental shootings filled the big screen, including domestic abuse, a massacre at a city hall meeting, and a policeman overpowered by armed thugs.
Being unwittingly subjected to scenes of graphic violence is bad enough. But the audience members, who were interviewed before the movie and whose reactions were being surreptitiously taped during the film, would soon become cast members themselves in a twisted PSA produced by extreme anti-gun group States United To Prevent Gun Violence.
The “Gun Crazy” PSA’s purpose is to shame action film lovers. But the idea that these people deserve to be punished by manipulation, shaming and emotional blackmail for enjoying fictional violence—where good triumphs over evil, and justice is served in the end—is the truly crazy part.
