NSSF: Disarming Elmer Fudd Shows Folly of Hollywood

The following is a perspective from the National Shooting Sports Foundation.

The streaming service HBO Max is launching a reboot of the classic children’s cartoon Looney Tunes. In doing so they’ve caved to antigun cancel culture with two of the cartoon’s lovable losers.

When the perpetually-failing hunter Elmer Fudd heads out to hunt Bugs Bunny, he’ll no longer carry his trusty shotgun. Instead, show writers decided he’ll need to bump off Bugs with a Grim Reaper-style scythe. Gunslinger Yosemite Sam’s two revolvers were also axed.

Gun Logic Lacking

Rather than using Fudd and Sam to weave in early firearm safety education for kids, the cartoon’s gun ban logic itself is a caricature. Executive Producer Peter Browngardt attempted to explain the decision, stating, “We’re not doing guns. But we can do cartoony violence – TNT, the Acme stuff. All that was kind of grandfathered in.” Apparently, explosions and the occasional anvil drop are just fine.

This news must tickle the likes of billionaire Michael Bloomberg, 2020 Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden and antigun groups like Everytown for Gun Safety and Brady Campaign. While firearm ownership is increasing, they’re able to control the cartoon guns. After all, Fudd chasing Bugs with a scythe reinforces their narrative to squeeze out modern sporting rifles from hunting when they falsely claim they’ve no hunting application. Maybe U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar’s (D-Minn.) Uncle Dick can finally find some success in the deer stand with the scythe instead of his rifle.Warner Bros. would not say whether antigun pressure led to the change, but Looney Tunes cartoon animator Michael Ruocco all but confirmed it to be the case.

“Also, think about context about what’s going on in the world…Right on the heels of a record number of mass shootings, particularly the horrific one in Las Vegas. NOBODY wanted to touch guns working in media,” Ruocco tweeted.

Cartoonish Hypocrisy

The antigun crowd is missing the proverbial forest for the trees. Sure, Fudd’s favored pastime is hunting, but let’s be honest. He’s not very good at it. He’s kept the cartoon gun and ammunition makers busy making sure he’s outfitted. In the real world, those manufacturers are sustaining wildlife through the Pittman-Robertson fund, to the tune of $13 billion since 1937. That fund helps pay for conservation and wildlife management projects across the country, benefitting everyone, even those of us not living in cartoon fantasies.

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If real-life characters in Hollywood and entertainment executives at HBO Max want to show they are serious about not showing criminal violence, they should cancel most of their show line up. The hypocrisy of these silver screen elites is that their lives and livelihoods in high-rise lofts and red-carpet galas are protected by private security guards, carrying scythes – no wait… just kidding, it’s guns.

While they dawdle over cartoons, scenes from Seattle, Washington’s Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone look like they were written for a movie. Criminal warlords illegally give away semiautomatic rifles out of the trunk of Teslas while groups of rioters break in and burn down the businesses of lawful hardworking Americans. Two were killed and another wounded in Seattle’s police no-go zone that’s supposedly being kept safe by what can only be described as a rogue element. Residents are literally begging for help.

NSSF, the firearm and ammunition trade association, has focused on Real Solutions® to curb criminal and negligent firearm misuse. These efforts have paid off as the number of unintentional firearm fatalities in America fell to record low levels in more than one hundred years since data was tracked.

That’s real. Those are Real Solutions. It’s a stark contrast to the concocted drama of canceling childhood comedic cartoon characters’ guns and gloating over a hollow victory.

National Shooting Sports Foundation aims to promote, protect and preserve hunting and the shooting sports. Formed in 1961, NSSF has a membership of thousands of manufacturers, distributors, firearms retailers, shooting ranges, sportsmen’s organizations and publishers nationwide.