In TDF 25, I discuss the difficulty of addressing worst-case or seemingly inevitable bad outcomes without sounding like one is supporting or at least resigned to them. Nonetheless, some people of a more... simple mind will overplay my talk. And to be fair, a proper and balanced expression does usually cut both ways (especially with my style, frankly).
Thus, I fulfill here the need for a caveat in this series: By discussing 'fudd' approaches to RKBA, I in no way wish to assert that the full intent of 2A--or even, necessarily, the baseline Blackstone defense function of RKBA--can readily be or should have to be accomplished by these baseline approaches. In TDF 10, I set out an originalist argument that STRENGTHENS both substantively and politico-judicially the defense of "assault weapons" as 2A-protected. Semi-auto long guns with pistol grips and hicap magazines are indeed the proper present-day manifestations of the American RKBA.
With this in mind, I will discuss the 2018 "Halloween" movie with Jamie Lee Curtis. It has been exalted by some pro-gunners (and anti-gunners) as heavily pro-gun, with Curtis' character having accumulated a sizeable firearms armory to fend off perennial attacker Michael Myers. But most articles miss one big thing: Her civilian armory includes ZERO semi-autos (Halloween (2018) - Internet Movie Firearms Database - Guns in Movies, TV and Video Games (imfdb.org) http://www.imfdb.org/wiki/Halloween_(2018) Not even semi-auto handguns, which even many anti-gunners don't target apart from their manual-action cousins. It's all bolts, levers, pumps, and revolvers. The message, you ask? Not that people unfortunately may/will have to adapt to a tightening RKBA, and then how to do so (the message of TDF). Rather, it is that those semi-autos as a class are outside the realm of necessary and proper civilian armament.
Below are excerpts from a NRA review (NRA-ILA | Halloween II https://www.nraila.org/articles/20181026/halloween-ii ):
Due to length--and my already-pushing "fair use" standards just with the image--I will urge readers to go to the article. It goes more into the RKBA messages and issues in the movie. TDF generally concurs with it.
But, in typical conservative fashion of one-level, one-dimensional analysis, many pro-gun outlets missed the anti-AW/semi-auto undercurrent, and praised the movie and/or called Curtis out only on the obvious hypocrisy. To be fair, she has made professions--genuine or not--of support of at least some--here it is--BASELINE RKBA. But few mentioned the fudd-beyond-fudd composition of the civilian arms in the movie when no legal mandates or threats thereof for such exist (the setting is rural Illinois, and it came out during the Trump Administration). They saw the surface, but largely stopped there.
So perhaps it's ironic to some that it was yours truly, on a now-banned Twitter account, who prior to the above NRA article challenged political writer and blonde hottie Erielle Davidson (@politicalelle) on a glowing review of the movie, one actually retweeted by the NRA. She not only missed the anti-semi message of the movie, but actually seemed to lack personal understanding of what a "lever-action rifle" or a "pump-action shotgun" are. Due to my efforts, the NRA actually UN-retweeted her and tweeted out a more critical review. In later years, she and I tangled a couple of times on that biased insurrectionist platform when I'd remind her of her fail and un-retweeting.
But at least she's hot:
Erielle Davidson
All that said, looking at stills and scenes from the movie, I suppose I could point to the movie as an illustration of how a fudded-down "baseline" armory can indeed offer Blackstone-type protection. After all, few pro-gunners seem to have picked up on the pattern--though yours truly did halfway through his reading the Davidson article. One can also see in it, as I wondered at the time, a certain resignation of Hollyweird liberals to at least that baseline RKBA in America, perhaps setting the stage for securing said baseline. Again, the movie's narrative did receive acolades from pro-gunners, and apparently the armory was effective. In that regard the movie I suppose could be used to illustrate a point.
I have to be careful not to push that too much, though, due to the cup-half-full/cup-half-empty factor. Sometimes the same situation can be discussed by two opposing figures, but with opposite flavors left. With regard to 2A-aspiration RKBA, I would do the half-full approach and say, "See, folks, civilian guns are good, and they'd be even better if not (having to be) so fuddish," while Curtis and the studio in the movie push it as, "See, folks, civilian guns don't have to be 'evil' like those 'assault weapons,' so let's limit it to this." That is a subtlety in dealing with issues that conservative-types often miss.
Such is the edge that exists when promoting the CORRECT answer to an issue. As I said at the beginning, a proper and balanced expression does usually cut both ways. So take this as the bottom line: Whatever the true feelings of the actress, and despite the shallow analysis of many pro-gunners who'd take umbrage at the TDF series, Halloween 2018 actually pushes an anti-RKBA agenda. Yet it contrarily sorta-offers an illustration useful in one intent of the TDF series stated in TDF 25:
To aid gunners both practically and psychologically in the face what is quite possible and likely with the current Harris/Biden insurrection.
TDF INDEX: Cats, Guns, and National Security: THE DAILY FUDD index. https://catsgunsandnationalsecurity.blogspot.com/2021/03/the-daily-fudd-index.html
