Last Updated on June 14, 2020
Looney Tune characters Elmer Fudd and Yosemite Sam no longer use guns, despite Elmer Fudd still being still featured as a hunter. Instead Fudd now carries a ‘serious-looking scythe.’
This new HBO Max Looney Tunes reboot maintains the same classic dynamic between Elmer Fudd and Bugs Bunny. However, instead of Fudd cast as a hunter with a typical shotgun, Fudd now carries a scythe.
https://twitter.com/TheQuartering/status/1270196817452507136
HBO Max is not the first in the film and television industry to take attacks against gun characters. The only shows allowed on mainstream video platforms such as Netflix where a gun is allowed are stories about school shootings or otherwise emotionally traumatic depictions such as suicide.
Other TV shows aimed at children, teenagers, or young adults have shown graphic situations involving guns used in school shootings, including 13 Reasons Why, several times on American Horror Story, and the OA.
In 13 Reasons Why, the main character Clay stops a student from committing a mass shooting at a high school dance. The program is available on competing streaming platform Netflix.
In the OA, a school shooting is seen accompanied by a pop song and choreographed dance.
https://youtu.be/X-klRc5wmE8
In American Horror Story’s Cult storyline, a political rally is targeted by a mass shooter.
In another season of American Horror Story, Again, the plot a plot surrounds the ghost of a student who dies after being shot to death by a SWAT team after he enacted a school shooting.
It should be noted that the television shows depicted above are targeted to teenagers and young adults, while the HBO program ostensibly targets young children.
School shootings while tragic are not commonplace, and using constant messages of fear in relations to guns needs to be addressed as psychological warfare against the youth in America. Legal gun owners aren’t shooting at children, and the constant bombardment of mental illness only causes depression in impressionable youth.
https://twitter.com/jackiantonovich/status/1269656513850851332
While researchers have not isolated one specific cause, the impact of both fake, televised and real school shootings comes during a nationwide spike in suicidal ideation in youth causing major depression.
According to the Center for Disease Control:
- An overall increase in suicide for 10-24 years olds was 56%
- 15-19-year-olds had a greater increase of 76%.
- The rate of the increase for 15-19-year-olds rose to 10% from 2014 to 2017. Previously it had been 3%.
- Ages 15-24 equated to 6,252 suicidal deaths in 2017. Homicides for that age bracket, in comparison, were 4,905.
- 517 children from ages 10-14 committed suicide
- According to the Youth Risk Behavioral report by the CDC.
- 2% of teenagers 14-18 seriously considered suicide
- 6% made a serious plan, and
- 4% attempted suicide at least once
- 4% attempted suicide and were injured
- 5% felt extremely sad and hopeless at least two days a week
https://twitter.com/Circushellspawn/status/1269401775817273351
The news was not received well by many, and is considered hypocritical in light of most media that is marketed for young people.
https://twitter.com/Thislady_writes/status/1270211239680114689
