In practically all the fiction books I read....

[fadedrose]

there are detectives, cops, PI's, doctors, nurses, and just regular folks like Agatha Raisin (England) who are looking for a place to have a cigarette and can't find anywhere to smoke legally. This is the case in EVERY dam country the stories take place in - the characters are suffering a real loss.

These same people can carry guns, shoot the wrong people, etc., but they can keep their guns.

Authors have helped the no-smoking ban by writing about it in fiction books in one form or another, complaining about it but NOT opposing it or suggesting it be revoked. If they didn't fear the NRA, their fiction could go along way in doing some good in changing gun control laws....

[krispos42]

1. Social stigma?

It could work in reducing gun ownership levels, perhaps. The problem is that huge quantities of fiction are exciting and interesting and read precisely because they contain violence in one form or another. Detective stories, military fiction, even non-fiction has a lot of this kind of stuff in it, because it's interesting and attention-getting.

Would it sell? I don't know.

[fadedrose]

2. They'd have to think of more inventive ways to kill...

But most other ways can't kill as many people in one killing session than guns.

Forensics in books has done wonders--poisons made from so many harmless ingredients you wouldn't believe.

The only mass shootings I've seen in fiction books are in war scenes, other than cop-robber shootings. Maybe they have to do more with stories like Newtown that will make people sad and angry enough to oppose the NRA.

[Curmudgeoness]

3. I don't know that it is a fear of the NRA

that prevents authors from opposing gun control. It seems that our society is full of this false sense that guns are equal to protection. And since there are so many guns in our society, it seems the logical choice for the action packed novels. Add to that the fact that guns are part of the tools of the trade for cops and detectives, and you have a situation where it would be hard to write those books without having guns all over the place.

But you are right. Books, and movies, and TV, have the power to move public opinion by the way the deal with guns. It would be possible. I am thinking right now about one of the newer TV shows that has lots of action, but few guns---at least few times a gun is used by the good guys. That show is Person of Interest, and although I think it is a little corny, I am intrigued by the way the "hero" gets out of trouble without the use of guns all the time.....it is one of those moves in the right direction. If more books and other popular media would put guns only in the hands of the bad guys, opinion could move away from guns as tools for good. Maybe we need more people whose personal guns are used against them, or stolen instead of being their protection, or used on the wrong person, we could start to see people wake up.

Good observation.

[Little Star]

5. I never thought about POI in that way but it's great example...

of how crime drama tv can be made without having guns all over the place. Good show too.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

6. A lot of the foreign crime dramas work without recourse to guns

I just watched an episode of the British series Trial and Retribution in which the mystery was who sabotaged a ferris wheel, causing a young girl's death, and whether the sabotage was targeted at the victim or at the carnival, and who was responsible.

Since it is nearly impossible for a private citizen to own a gun in Japan, their mystery shows almost never show gun violence unless the perp or victim is a member of the yakuza.

[Little Star]

7. That's very interesting. Thanks Lydia.

[Little Star]

4. I think you have a good point....

Even tho most of the fiction I read has plenty of murders committed by guns, there are plenty of ways writers could have their (good guy) characters advocate for gun control. Their (bad guy) characters could even advocate against gun control because nobody rational agrees with the bad guy's thinking.

[Curmudgeoness]

8. I do believe you are on to something.

You made me laugh about bad guys being against gun control so that we will have distain for that POV. Don't take this conversation into the Gungeon, but I like your thinking.

[Little Star]

9. That place (the gungeon) is too scary for me. I don't think I ever..

stepped a toe in there. I did step into creative speculation for one conversation, never again. That's another weird place or at least it was on DU2.

[Curmudgeoness]

10. LOL, I have never been there either

so I suppose that I am only taking the word of others. No first hand experience here. Now creative speculation sounds like a place to check out when I get bored in Meta. But for some reason, it doesn't sound scary.....I'll have to see why you have a "never again" attitude toward it. Personally, the place that I have been and am most afraid to venture into is Religion.

[SheilaT]

11. As someone who has never smoked,

and someone who is trying to be a writer, none of my characters smoke. It's distantly possible that I'll have a smoker or two off in the distance, but not very likely.

I also never have owned guns, and I'm not writing mysteries, so guns won't be in my stories either.

I do occasionally throw in someone who knits.

[fadedrose]

12. Oh dear

When guns are no longer available, knitting needles will be the killing instrument of choice and many techniques will be taught at police academies.

This doesn't fit here, but I should have put it in my op: In several books I've read, a cop is gunshy because he wrongly shot someone, usually a kid, and as a result, has a deady fear of using a gun again and quits the force. It is a sign of healing and the reader is made to feel happy when the cop gets out his gun again to shoot someone. It's something authors should not praise.

[SheilaT]

13. Why nothing I ever write will

have guns.

I always laugh at the suggestion that knitting needles might be used to commit mass murder. Oh, you could kill a couple of people -- more if you were in a place where you could approach individuals who would not fight back, but they simple don't have a very good design.

Those tiny sharp scissors that we like to use to cut yarn or embroidery floss, also could not inflict very much damage. But for years we could not bring knitting needles or crochet hooks or embroidery scissors on board an airplane. Pens were okay though, and a pen can be easily as lethal as a crochet hook, possibly more so.

In the end, an inventive or clever or desperate person can turn almost anything into a weapon.

[fadedrose]

14. Don't look now....knitting needles are a threat ;)

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022009873

Somebody wants to ban them