“The Final Destination” Movie Perpetuates Myth about NRA Racism

Saturday night, my fiancé and I decided to go see a movie.  There wasn’t anything playing that we really wanted to see, but I noticed that The Final Destination was being shown in 3D. Since neither of us had yet seen a modern 3D movie in theaters, we settled on The Final Destination.  The movie wasn’t that great, as we sort of expected.  The 3D system wasn’t that great either, and left us both with mild headaches and eye strain.  But what we really found annoying was the way that The Final Destination’s creators decided to perpetuate the myth that NRA members are racists:

As a relatively minor part of The Final Destination’s storyline, a racist individual holds a grudge against an African American.  That racist individual makes racist statements then later drives drunk to the home of the African American.  After chugging a few more beers, the racist individual prepares to burn a cross on the African American’s front yard.  This racist meets an untimely death during the commission of his hate crime, and this death makes the news in The Final Destination.  The news reporter states that the dead racist is an NRA member.

I find it disappointing that the creators of this movie decided to connect their fictional racist character with the NRA, thereby perpetuating the idea that the NRA is a racist organization.  Doing so did not advance the story line or otherwise help improve this (rather lackluster) movie.  I can think of a few reasons why the writers decided to connect this fictional racist character with the NRA: It could just be laziness on the part of the writers, who felt it easier to use the “racist NRA member” stereotype than to actually develop the character themselves.  Or, perhaps the writers themselves  are ignorant to the truth, and honestly believe the myth that the NRA is some racist group.  Another possibility is that the writers are anti gun rights individuals who are using their ability to reach millions of moviegoers to intentionally reinforce this myth.  Regardless of whether laziness, ignorance, or intentional misleading is the underlying cause, I remain disappointed.

As I’ve said before, the NRA is not a racist organization; otherwise I and many other African American gun owners would not be members.  Instead, the NRA is our nation’s oldest and largest civil rights organization.  The NRA fights tirelessly for gun rights, including the rights of minorities living in public housing to have a gun suitable for self defense.  As just one recent example, the NRA successfully sued to abolish the ban on gun ownership in San Fransisco’s public housing, restoring the gun rights of the law abiding public housing residents.  Now, the law abiding people in public housing are able to have a gun for self defense against the criminals who prey upon them.  Note that nearly 90% of the public housing residents in question were minorities.  The NAACP and other organizations didn’t step up to protect their rights, but the NRA did. On an individual level, I can say that I’ve interacted with many NRA members in multiple states.  I’ve met them in gun stores, on gun ranges, at the office, and other locations. During those many interactions, I have experienced racism from these NRA members exactly 0 times.

Gun control is racist – the NRA is not.