Fake anti-gun groups

From Thirdpower, I’ve got a link to UnGun.org, an anti-gun group which has pretty much the stupidest idea I’ve ever seen.

UnGun.org has been collecting guns for over 3 years in order to build one of the most unique structures in the world: Peace and Love Tower. Peace and Love will be located in downtown Manhattan and its main structure will be supported by 5,000,000 guns that have been donated to the cause.

For some reason, my gut instinct is that they’re a fake group.  I think the big red flag for me is that their website refers to themselves as “anti-gun”, which even the VPC doesn’t do; normally it’s “crime prevention” or “against firearms violence” or something a bit more PC.  Plus, when you try to click on their “Donate money” or “Donate Guns” button, it redirects you a “Page not found” under the master domain “www.onlinepranksters.com”.

That’s pretty much solid enough for me to conclude that they’re a fake, which leads me to my real point today, the danger of parody.  You’ve probably seen the “VPC” blog, which, as parody goes is pretty damn funny.  I love the “Ronnie Barrett, time traveler” bit, as well as how a .50 BMG can kill Superman.

I love parody, I really do.  Nothing gets me laughing like a good satirical jab at either side of the argument, because if it’s funny – it’s funny.  But the danger comes in our ability to distinguish parody from reality.  I brushed up against that myself with my Gun Control – Circa 1782 piece, and I’ve already seen it with the VPC Blog, where well intentioned people don’t see the satire and think that it’s a serious piece.

I’m not saying that satire is bad, as I said, I love a good satire piece.  Imagine if a satirical website were set up by an anti-gunner, specifically to lure pro-gunners into decrying satire and making us look dumb; that’s what I’m trying to avoid.  Not only do we have to be more courteous and more tactful than our opponents, but we have to be smarter as well; in the court of public opinion pro-gun advocates are playing with two strikes against us from the get-go, so it’s important that we only swing at good pitches.

Don’t stop with the parodies though, because I need a good laugh.

9 Comments

  1. Judging by the blog post (or whatever you call them) concerning Mr. Browning it was enough to fool Mr. Riley (unless it were someone using his name) into thinking it was a legit gun control blog.

  2. the last line at the very bottom of the site says: [quote]This Satire Site is by Online Pranksters[/quote]

  3. Well, if that doesn’t close this up, I don’t know what does.

    Frankly, I didn’t even scroll all the way to the bottom of the page.

  4. That’s it! I’m going to start a “anti-gun” movement. Get people all over the world to donate their “evil guns” to me, so I can build a big collection of guns in my gun safe! Especially collector grade Garands! Oh, and Les Baer 1911’s.

    Do it for the children!

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