‘Guns don’t kill people. Batman costumes kill people’

Jerry Thackray ‏@everetttrue
Batman costumes now banned in US. Guns, ammunition still not. Because (all together now) Guns don’t kill people. Batman costumes kill people

The last couple of days has made me realise how utterly meaningless Twitter can be.

The above Tweet, posted two days ago, was an off-hand remark, a slightly caustic joke, there as comment, sure, and maybe to provoke a little discussion in the wake of the horrendous ‘Batman killings’, but clearly not supposed to be taken too seriously. Sigh. Obviously, it was playing hard with the rules of précis and Twitter, and the rules of grammar, to emphasise a point. (Batman costumes haven’t been banned across the whole of the USA, just at a certain movie chain. To a degree, one can understand why. Folk need to be seen to be doing something. And doubtless the same movie chain wouldn’t take too kindly to the presence of someone showing up at a film waving real guns and live ammunition around. Even so, it seems like a knee-jerk reaction targeting entirely the wrong target.) Certainly the Tweet wasn’t really intended to provoke thousands of semi-literate fumigators to try and argue back over the space of 140 barely-formed characters, “forks kill ppl too”, and “Some movie chains have thought that men running around in masks incenstive right now” were two of the better-formulated ‘arguments’ thrown my way written by folk who don’t have the remotest clue who I am (in which case, why are they even bothering to record my opinion?) and who I will never encounter again in my life. And I certainly wasn’t expecting the Tweet to be reposted up to 30,000 times (recorded) and probably easily double that, unrecorded.

Media pundits weighed in – of course they did – and started having ‘proper’ (uh, proper in the context of 140-character sentences) conversations around my 140-character Tweet.

Chris Patil ‏@DoNotGoGently
@everetttrue @kejames JT’s tweet blurs distinction between agents of action. Theaters can’t ban guns throughout the whole country.

 Karen James ‏@kejames
@DoNotGoGently @everetttrue I saw the tweet as an illustration of the blinders we have on concerning the escalation of our gun culture.

 Chris Patil ‏@DoNotGoGently
@kejames @everetttrue Hard to argue with that. Still, I disliked the misleading framing, incommensurate agents, & implication of a tradeoff

What good does the whole re-Tweeting business do anyone? The original Tweet was intended as a reminder that perhaps some countries are looking the wrong way (deliberately?) when it comes to finding scapegoats. So tens of thousands of people agree with me. And…? The USA still has the most heavily-armed civilian population in the world (90 guns per 100 people, according to Reuters). It’s a drop in an ocean.

P.S. I’m not convinced the whole “spoons make people fat so should we ban them as well?” argument that NRA supporters use works by the way. Think about it, for half a second.

P.P.S. It seems like a link to this New Statesman article re-Tweeted 60,000+ times and discussed in public by professional pundits would have done everyone a lot more good.

P.P.P.S. Aurora theater shooting: Gun sales up in Colorado since tragedy

if u were there I bet u wud feel differently bout guns.then again u might be 1 of the soft 1s who wait for sum1 to save you.

I thought red meat, caffeine, sunlight, breathing, and just about anything else killed people.

it’s like someone who bans babies to limit acts of pedophilia.

by Everett True

My name is Everett True. I am a music critic. This is what I do. I criticise music. The clue is in my job description – music critic. I do not consider myself a journalist, as I do not research or report hard news. I do not consider myself a commentator as I believe that everyone should be a participant. I criticise people and in return I am not surprised if other people criticise me. It is part of the whole deal of being in the public arena. I am Everett True. Believe in me and I have power like a God. Quit believing in me and I no longer exist.