The media are having fun in the spirit in which our new video and website are intended. People get it that criminals are benefitting from the gun laws or lack thereof in many states. And the criminals are laughing all of the way to umm, the bank. And places like the bank.
Anyhoo.
The Guardian reported the “CrimAdvisor” story this Thursday morning under the headlines: "The Funny or Die spoof hoping to revitalise the push for gun control: In partnership with the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, comedy website produces ‘CrimAdvisor’, which hopes to breathe new life into gun control.”
They embedded this CrimAdvisor video.
Raw Story fanned the flames by running The Guardian’s piece, by Joanna Walters, who explains:
The campaign names states it wants to shame with a “Criminals Choice” award, or a place in the “Traffickers’ Top Ten”. The lineup includes Louisiana, Virginia, Kentucky, Florida, Arkansas and others, in addition to Arizona and Nevada which are singled out in the Funny or Die video.
The creator of the Funny or Die video weighed into the debate.
“I think most Americans would flip out if they knew just how ridiculously easy it is for criminals to buy and carry guns in some of these states,” said Adam McKay, the writer, director and producer who made the video in conjunction with a Funny or Die team.
The Brady Campaign scorecard ranks all 50 states on a host of gun laws including background checks, regulation of gun dealers and reporting lost or stolen guns.
Canada’s
Globe and Mail observed:
“On Thursday, the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, a Washington-based activist group, launched a media effort aimed at highlighting the states with the most lax regulations. Using a parody recommendation site called CrimAdvisor, the group – named for James Brady, the former presidential press secretary wounded in an assassination attempt on Ronald Reagan in 1981 – rated each state on its background check systems, among other metrics (it declared Arizona the most “criminal-friendly” state for the ease with which guns may be obtained there).
“This whole thing would be really funny if it weren’t so tragically true,” Brady Campaign president Dan Gross said. “Several states make it so outrageously easy to get and carry guns without background checks that they have become prime destinations for criminals.”
Media outlets in states who received “2015 Criminals’ Choice Awards” for their loose gun laws then weighed in.
Nevada’s 6 o’clock news speculates that CrimAdvisor could be bad for tourism. (Bummer!)
The 6 o’clock news in Florida’s capital, Tallahassee, states: "Gun control group uses comedy to get its message across."
Alabama’s statewide news site, AL.com, sounds off: “Visit Alabama! They let criminals have guns! Funny or Die takes on state's lack of regulations.”
The Arizona Republic scratches its head and wonders: “Bad news or good? AZ No. 1 to buy, carry, traffic guns.”
Southern Maryland News Net reports: "Maryland ranks seventh among the states for laws that help keep guns out of the hands of criminals, according to the Brady Campaign."
Breitbart can’t resist embedding the CrimAdvisor video while not getting the humor, and simultaneously scolding those behind the obvious parody: “Funny or Die PSA: Comedians Try to Act Gangsta, Mock Pro-Gun States.”
Guns.com marvels at some juicy CrimAdvisor “peer reviews” from assorted “criminals” and creeps:
Among the tongue-in-cheek criminal reviews listed are one from “Mrs.FutureZimmerman91,” who writes, “REPEAT CUSTOMER! Florida is my JAM!!! They have all these hunky bad boys-its like the old west down here! You can be from ANYWHERE and carry almost ANYTHING- the cops don’t control the gun permits, the Department of Agriculture does! HAHAHAHA. And they suck at it! I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.”
Florida was given the “2015 Criminal’s Choice Award” as being one of the top 15 states recognized by the group, “with the loosest gun laws in the nation making them the best locations for criminals and other dangerous people to easily get guns.”
…
Gun rights advocates aren’t laughing.
Well, at least one admits he is amused, even while trying to ignore or dismiss CrimAdvisor. Guns.com quotes Brandon Combs, president of the Firearms Policy Coalition and executive director of the Calguns Foundation: "CrimAdvisor is a nonstarter... CrimAdvisor is nothing but an attention-seeking gadget by an organization that desperately seeks relevance."
Combs predicts, without offering any evidence, that most of CrimAdvisor's traffic will come from "amused gun owners."
(C'mon, Combs, you just admitted that, like plenty of gun owners, you're tickled. That shows how humor can be an effective way to share relevant insights and engage people. Pretty good way for a "nonstarter" like CrimAdvisor to start dialogue. Pretty good way for an "attention-seeking gadget" to win attention from the likes of, well, you!)
On the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence Facebook page, one hapless critic commented:
Omg how dumb are you people. There is no State in the union that a person with a criminal record can carry a gun or cross state lines with it. I am at a loss for words.
Right, because everyone knows that it’s illegal for a person with a criminal record to carry a gun, and therefore, a person with a criminal record would never commit a crime like that, see?
Right-wing news outlet Washington Free Beacon channels this same “logic”:
Despite the fact that it is illegal in every state for a felon to buy, sell, and possess a firearm, the ad features a pair of criminals explaining how CrimAdvisor helps “felons and fugitives” figure out which states are easiest for them to “buy, carry, and even traffic guns.”
Right again, a felon would never break the law, because that would be illeeeeegal, and felons would never, ever doing anything illeeeeegal, much less felonious. Felons are too smart for that.
Of course, plenty of gun owners get the joke, and the insight that comes with it. Mike "The Gun Guy," in his News and Notes About Guns, writes:
I just watched one of the best YouTube videos on guns that I have ever seen. It is posted by the Brady Campaign and you can view it directly on YouTube or pull it down from the new Brady website called CrimAdvisor.com. The website, like the video, is a tongue-in-cheek riff on a campaign the Brady folks have been running for years which correlates rates of gun violence with state gun laws, the idea being that states with stricter gun controls experience less gun violence. Brady’s new effort to sell this idea is a website that spoofs TripAdvisor and a remarkably original video that sets a new standard for the gun debate on both sides.
Clearly, the reasonable course of action is to watch and share the CrimAdvisor video and see what the fuss is all about on
CrimAdvisor.com. Find out if your state is helping criminals get the firepower they need to do what they do -- and
take action to do something about it.
Disclosure: I am Chief Communications Officer of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence. And I'm tweeting: "Woah! Who knew #Arizona is a top travel destination for criminals like these? http://bit.ly/... #CriminalsWelcome #gunsense"
>Click here< to tweet that!