That's how long I've bounced between the theatrical, film, and firearm communities.
I corrected typos on the second (or third, I've forgotten) TFS ever administered when I was still kicking Helmund province sand out of my idiot bag.
And all I have ever wanted in that time is to help people stay safe and informed.
I've gone out of my way to address the theater community as respected professionals, purposefully avoiding the arrogance that pervades so many of the high-level experts in the shooting community. I have dug as deeply as I know how to into laws, statistics, and history, and examined just about every mass shooting (or active shooter incident, however you care to speak of them) since the Aurora theater.
I've taken a world of shit from the same community in that same time frame. The bodies hadn't reached room temperature in Aurora before I reached a theater conference that morning and overheard sneering from the faculty (other fight choreographers, mind), of the notion that "a good man with a gun" could have done anything.
If only they knew who they were standing in the same room with.
It has only gotten worse from there. It's cool when it's all tactical and sleek and adrenaline-rushed. And then a real-life shooting happens and everyone runs screaming from the blood. How dare you approach it?
Over and over again, I've seen the theatrical community either not want my knowledge in the first place, or be embarrassed to be seen wanting to. Academia attached to theaters, even worse.
As I've said more than once, it's like being good enough to suck dick in the backseat Saturday night, but not good enough to make eye contact with in church on Sunday morning.
And I am fucking done with it.
I am fucking done being the boogeyman for every hoplophobic dipshit who can't be arsed to read up, load up, or shut up.
The theatrical world I am leaving entirely for the foreseeable future.
I have sold my entire stock of theatrical firearms and I am surrendering my Theatrical Firearms Safety Instructor Certificate.
(There's no listed way to do that in the Policies and Procedures, but fuck it, I have a lighter around here somewhere.)
That said,
I am, however, remaining in the film world. I am continuing to act, teach, and work on other projects, including a return to Atlanta of my Handguns on Film workshop in late March.
Film may treat me like an embarrassing whore on occasion, but it doesn't sneer quite as much and I'm paid handsomely for my trouble.
At some point in the next few months, I'm going to collate my various essays. They cover every single argument, every single gun control proposal, and every reason why they would fail. I will collect them in a note here and in my blog at Jaythebarbarian dot com, and then I do not know when or if I will speak on the subject again.
If you've been around long enough to read such things and you're still screaming when the alerts hit? Unfollowed. I'm not your fucking babysitter.
(Oh, and be the fucking one to DARE suggest that my experiences have been "encountering other points of view," instead of YEARS of unfounded, willfully ignorant abuse. I don't give a fuck what that dumbass NYT article claimed. I have an IQ in the 160's, a liberal arts degree, most of a second, two combat action ribbons, and a set of bloodstripes; and you think I can't tell the difference between alternate POV and abuse?
Fuck. you.
Be the motherfucker to gaslight me on that and I will roast you so hard your name will be left on my block list in scorch marks.)
Did I mention I was done?
I corrected typos on the second (or third, I've forgotten) TFS ever administered when I was still kicking Helmund province sand out of my idiot bag.
And all I have ever wanted in that time is to help people stay safe and informed.
I've gone out of my way to address the theater community as respected professionals, purposefully avoiding the arrogance that pervades so many of the high-level experts in the shooting community. I have dug as deeply as I know how to into laws, statistics, and history, and examined just about every mass shooting (or active shooter incident, however you care to speak of them) since the Aurora theater.
I've taken a world of shit from the same community in that same time frame. The bodies hadn't reached room temperature in Aurora before I reached a theater conference that morning and overheard sneering from the faculty (other fight choreographers, mind), of the notion that "a good man with a gun" could have done anything.
If only they knew who they were standing in the same room with.
It has only gotten worse from there. It's cool when it's all tactical and sleek and adrenaline-rushed. And then a real-life shooting happens and everyone runs screaming from the blood. How dare you approach it?
Over and over again, I've seen the theatrical community either not want my knowledge in the first place, or be embarrassed to be seen wanting to. Academia attached to theaters, even worse.
As I've said more than once, it's like being good enough to suck dick in the backseat Saturday night, but not good enough to make eye contact with in church on Sunday morning.
And I am fucking done with it.
I am fucking done being the boogeyman for every hoplophobic dipshit who can't be arsed to read up, load up, or shut up.
The theatrical world I am leaving entirely for the foreseeable future.
I have sold my entire stock of theatrical firearms and I am surrendering my Theatrical Firearms Safety Instructor Certificate.
(There's no listed way to do that in the Policies and Procedures, but fuck it, I have a lighter around here somewhere.)
That said,
I am, however, remaining in the film world. I am continuing to act, teach, and work on other projects, including a return to Atlanta of my Handguns on Film workshop in late March.
Film may treat me like an embarrassing whore on occasion, but it doesn't sneer quite as much and I'm paid handsomely for my trouble.
At some point in the next few months, I'm going to collate my various essays. They cover every single argument, every single gun control proposal, and every reason why they would fail. I will collect them in a note here and in my blog at Jaythebarbarian dot com, and then I do not know when or if I will speak on the subject again.
If you've been around long enough to read such things and you're still screaming when the alerts hit? Unfollowed. I'm not your fucking babysitter.
(Oh, and be the fucking one to DARE suggest that my experiences have been "encountering other points of view," instead of YEARS of unfounded, willfully ignorant abuse. I don't give a fuck what that dumbass NYT article claimed. I have an IQ in the 160's, a liberal arts degree, most of a second, two combat action ribbons, and a set of bloodstripes; and you think I can't tell the difference between alternate POV and abuse?
Fuck. you.
Be the motherfucker to gaslight me on that and I will roast you so hard your name will be left on my block list in scorch marks.)
Did I mention I was done?
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