{"id":21067,"date":"2017-10-05T17:57:21","date_gmt":"2017-10-05T21:57:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.audiofemme.com\/?p=21067"},"modified":"2018-08-09T17:05:33","modified_gmt":"2018-08-09T21:05:34","slug":"noise-dont-take-guns-town","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.audiofemme.com\/noise-dont-take-guns-town\/","title":{"rendered":"ONLY NOISE: Don’t Take Your Guns To Town"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last Saturday, while performing at New York\u2019s Hammerstein Ballroom, Marilyn Manson was crushed<\/a> by a falling stage prop. The assailing object was not a steel cage, nor a neon pentagram, but a sculpture of two massive handguns affixed to scaffolding. Manson was rushed to the hospital with undisclosed injuries.<\/p>\n

Though it was a frightening incident (and one that led him to eventually cancel<\/a> several upcoming tour dates), the knowledge that Manson was not in critical condition allowed a bit of black humor to creep into the scenario. Not 10 days prior, Manson pulled a toy gun<\/a> on The Guardian<\/em>\u2019s Alexis Petridis during an interview, and later told him that, \u201cthe Columbine era destroyed my entire career at the time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Manson was of course referring to the 1999 Columbine High School shooting at the hands of teenagers Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold. The post-Columbine news media, eager to blame the violence on anything but America\u2019s lax firearms policies and clueless approach toward disaffected youth, found a horned scapegoat in Manson<\/a>. Countless pundits and members of the religious right made reference to his devil-worshipping ways, as well as his messages of \u201chate, violence, suicide, death, drug use, and Columbine-like behavior.\u201d In the late \u201890s, Manson became an even greater pariah than he already was. If, before Columbine, his name evoked satanic orgies and platform shoes, it was now irrevocably linked with one of the most terrifying acts of gun violence in American history.<\/p>\n

Knowing all of this, it\u2019s hard to imagine Manson \u2013 whose wry and dark sense of humor infiltrates most of his interviews \u2013 didn\u2019t at least smirk at the irony of two giant handguns pummeling him onstage. I must admit that after learning Manson did not suffer any serious wounds, I smirked, too. Until Sunday, that is.<\/p>\n

The very next evening, across the nation from The Hammerstein Ballroom, a lone gunman opened fire on a country music festival in Las Vegas<\/a>, murdering at least 59 people, and injuring over 500 others. I paraphrase The New Yorker<\/em> journalist Adam Gopnik<\/a> when I say that, the word \u201cinjured\u201d is not commensurate with the scope of physical harm and psychological scars inflicted on those 500. Acknowledging the dead dozens doesn\u2019t mend the phantom limbs nursed by their families.<\/p>\n

Suddenly, one catastrophic weekend fanned the ever-burning flame of America\u2019s gun control debate, and this time, the music world felt the heat. Country artist Rosanne Cash came forward with a powerful op-ed<\/a> in the New York Times<\/em> on Tuesday, imploring musicians \u2013 especially country musicians, who are so heavily burdened with the identity of the gun-toting American \u2013 to stand up against the N.R.A. and the armed culture of this nation:<\/p>\n

\u201cI encourage more artists in country and American roots music to end your silence,\u201d Cash wrote. \u201cIt is no longer enough to separate yourself quietly. The laws the N.R.A. would pass are a threat to you, your fans, and to the concerts and festivals we enjoy.\u201d<\/p>\n

She went on, \u201cThis is a moment in American history that can\u2019t be met with silence.\u00a0According to PolitiFact<\/a>, from 2005 to 2015, some 300,000 people in the US were killed by gun violence. That\u2019s roughly the population of Pittsburgh.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fellow country guitarist Caleb Keeter<\/a>, who was playing at the Las Vegas festival that weekend, met Cash\u2019s challenge of squelching silence; the artist\u2019s opinion on the second amendment is now altered forever.<\/p>\n

\u201cA small group (or one man) laid waste to a city with dedicated, fearless police officers desperately trying to help, because of access to an insane amount of firepower,\u201d Keeter wrote. \u201cEnough is enough.\u201d In another sick twist of irony, the shooter, 64-year-old Stephen Paddock, bought most of his artillery at a shop so innocuously named, \u201cGuns & Guitars.\u201d<\/p>\n

One might think that the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history \u2013 as the Las Vegas massacre has now been classified \u2013 would move N.R.A. lobbyists and politicians to the same extent as Mr. Keeter. Instead, the N.R.A. is silent<\/a>, and President Trump claims that the gun control conversation is, \u201cnot for now.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

But the President and the gun lobbyists weren\u2019t at the Route 91 Harvest Festival. They didn\u2019t spend Sunday night dodging hundreds of rounds of ammunition fired from the 32nd<\/sup> floor of the Mandalay Bay Hotel by Paddock. They weren\u2019t there to suffer the carnage, and yet they continue to uphold laws which legalize the very implements that allowed Paddock to fire so relentlessly; namely, the easily acquired bump stock<\/a>, which makes rapid-fire rifles out of semi-automatic ones, and can be purchased for $99.<\/p>\n

Considering the coincidence that Marilyn Manson was once again in the news at the same time as a domestic mass shooting (though this time, not as a scapegoat), I couldn\u2019t help but revisit Bowling For <\/em>Columbine<\/em>, Michael Moore\u2019s 2002 documentary about America\u2019s relationship with gun violence, in which Manson is interviewed.<\/p>\n

When Bowling For <\/em>Columbine <\/em>hit theaters,\u00a0I was 13. It was the first time I\u2019d seen Marilyn Manson portrayed as a human being; sitting patiently in a chair and not writhing in fake blood or riding a potbellied pig<\/a>. I was struck by his intelligence \u2013 by how articulate and gentle this agent of Satan could be. When Manson sat down with Moore, he spoke of Columbine and the media\u2019s subsequent blame game.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe two byproducts of that whole tragedy were violence in entertainment, and gun control,\u201d he said, \u201cand how perfect that those were the two things that we were going to talk about in the upcoming election. And also, then we forgot about Monica Lewinsky, and then we forgot about: the President was shooting bombs overseas, and yet I\u2019m a bad guy because I sing some rock n\u2019 roll songs,\u201d he continued. \u201cAnd who\u2019s the bigger influence, the President? Or Marilyn Manson?\u201d<\/p>\n