Malibu Brats Enforce Entitlement With BB Guns

I honestly don't remember the last time I sat and chilled at one of the many beaches in LA. So imagine, I'm sitting on the beach with my friend Karma who I haven't seen in a long time. We are enjoying our conversation. We watch the seagulls fly over head, people walking by with their dogs and swimmers splashing. It feels wonderful to sit on the beach and be still UNTIL these kids start target shooting with their BB guns. Although Karma and I are several yards away from the house were the kids are shooting, some of their pellets from their toy guns hit Karma. I'm dumbfounded on what kind of parents allow their kids to do such a thing. Aim/Shoot and "play" in the direction of people just sitting on the beach. The parents saw their kids shooting and just walked away down the coast. Later one of the kids brought out a larger BB gun, a rifle. The sense of entitlement, ownership, arrogance and ignorance were so vividly displayed that it made me a little shocked. While we were leaving I said to one of the kids that it wasn't very nice to shoot their guns in the direction of people on the beach. The kid replied that the beach was his property. Karma and I were like WOW! A young boy no more than 12-13 already enforces his "property" so he thinks with the threat of BB guns. People wonder where kids learn violence. I think a great deal comes from their parent's attitude. Giving kids BB guns to play with without supervision and without care of injuring others is a sure sign of poor parenting no matter how rich they are. The smugness on the kid's face was classic Spoiled Brat Racism as this is my land and you are not allowed here. I didn't know Malibu beach was only for the residents of Malibu? I didn't know their was an Apartheid wall. I thought the beach was free and anyone could use them as long as they respected the rules. There were no property signs on the sand. Shame on those kid's parents.

America's Love Affair With Guns

I did this video soon after the shooting in Connecticut. We have to be honest about America's history and love affair with guns and violence.

Time For Action: Ban Military-Style Assault Weapons

While driving on Sunset boulevard, KAT's thoughts on the recent massacre and America's love for guns and warfare.

Coen Brothers' TRUE GRIT: Number One With A Bullet

The Irony of TRUE GRIT

A few days ago, I went to a screening at the DGA of TRUE GRIT starring Jeff Bridges, Matt Damon, Josh Brolin and introducing Hailee Steinfeld. The house was filled with excited voting members of the film/TV community. At the end of the movie, a question and answer session was held by a monitor with Hailee and Jeff.

The movie was loving shot by the Coen Brothers and deftly acted by the cast. The cinematography captured the period as if an original sepia photo from the West had come to life.
But I found the conversation after the film to be more thought provoking than the movie and I will tell you why.

Jeff Bridges called TRUE GRIT “a family movie” No offense to Jeff I think he is a fine actor but I don’t see TRUE GRIT as a family movie. It is a movie filled with guns, alcoholism, violence and revenge. Fascinating side note, in Arizona it is legal to carry a concealed weapon in a bar that serves alcohol. So has America really learned much since the Wild Wild West?
Many of us prove our point with guns. Look at the War after 9/11 that is still going strong bringing back soldiers with physical and mental injuries. It is also ironic that the young women in True Grit ends up loosing her arm after seeking justice from the man that killed her father. There is a price to be paid when we seek revenge.

In 2009 there were close to 10,000 murders in the United States compared to approximately 63 in the United Kingdom, 381 in Germany and 7 in Japan.

Last week TRUE GRIT was number one at the box office.
Also last week Jared Loughner allegedly shot and killed 6 people, injured 14including Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords.
On November 16, 2010, Ronni Chasen publicist and friend of Jeff Bridges was shot to death on her way home from a movie premiere.

Gun Violence is a staple in American Cinema. I heard on KPFK.org recently that since Martin Luther King’s assassination in 1968, over 1,000,000 Americans have been murdered by guns.

Getting back to the TRUE GRIT screening and question and answer session, I kept my mouth shut and my hand down while I thought of the irony of what Jeff Bridges said about his movie.
Everyone was so busy giving warm accolades and in such a rosy mood that I didn’t want to kill the idol worship with a serious question of the irony of True Grit being the number one movie in America one week after the shooting in AZ where they have some of the most lax gun laws in the world.