Charles C. W. Cooke:
This is almost certainly the worst anti-gun commercial in the history of the United States:
[youtube]http://youtu.be/VFOhBAH3zPA[/youtube]
One can only imagine that the spot’s producers consider their set up to be inordinately clever. “Hey,” you can almost hear them say, “we’ll make it look as if there’s going to be a school shooting, and then he’ll hand it over to his teacher and all will be well!” In fact, it is difficult to imagine a more irresponsible storyline. We’re talking about children here, remember – impressionable, easily led, ignorant children. (Adults are an entirelyseparate question.) As a rule, we teach our kids that they if they see a firearm they should refrain from touching it, and go and tell an adult. In the commercial, however, the child is shown doing the exact opposite. “If you see a gun,” the ad suggests, “pick it up, put it in a bag, and then jostle it around in front of other children.” One can only wonder at how many kids will now need to be told that they must not, under any circumstances, do this.
Moreover, in the course of his little ploy, the kid breaks pretty much every law on the books. He takes a gun out of his house (not only is this felony burglary, but he’s not old enough to carry a firearm in public); he then takes that gun into a school (that’s against federal and state law); and, finally, he transfers it to a teacher without a background check, thereby breaking the very rule that progressives tell us is necessary to keep us all safe from gun violence.