I love a good action movie as much as the next guy. Lots of adrenaline, people running, dodging gunfire, returning gunfire, explosions everywhere (not sure whether to tell Michael Bay or Mr. Torgue from Borderlands “Thanks!” for that), fistfights and grappling, and the bad guy gets what he deserves in the end.
But you know what makes all of that fun and not horrifying? It’s that we know that it’s not real. It’s a fantasy of sorts where we can put yourself in the story as the hero (or anti-hero, depending on the movie).
Doesn’t everyone who enjoys target shooting secretly wish that they could do what John Wick does in those movies? (Not the killing. The cool reloads and unusual and fantastic shooting displayed.)
Or, since we’re talking Keanu Reeves, helicopters in The Matrix…
It’s the coolest thing to imagine.
Real life, though? Real life violence, no matter which end you’re on, keeps many therapists in business.
Still, there are some crazy people out there who try to make real life like a movie. And it’s just crazy.
We say that happen in Australia recently. Andrew Stafford writes,
A man is alleged to have rammed a police vehicle and fired a shot at a POLAIR helicopter in a wild chase over hundreds of kilometres in which multiple vehicles were stolen.
The headline of that news story?
Police Helicopter Shot at During ‘Movie-Like’ Chase, Two Arrested
It’s like something out of a Lethal Weapon movie (remember those?).
And what makes it even more insane is that someone fired a gun at a helicopter in gun control friendly Australia!
It makes you wonder if gun control is working so well down under, doesn’t it? I mean, it sounds pretty clear that a person who had no business having a firearm had one, had several as a matter of fact.
It sounds to me like gun control is failing there. And that doesn’t surprise me… because gun control always fails.
