Spotlight On: Gun Violence, Safety and Injury Prevention

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Depicting Gun Violence, Safety & Injury Prevention
Re-writing the Script

A Message from EIC's President, CEO & Co-Founder, Brian Dyak

Given the nature of our domestic policy emphasis on violence and due to the unfortunate circumstances that we are all aware of, EIC is renewing and revitalizing our resource information for the creative community that addresses depictions of gun violence, firearm safety and injury prevention within storytelling. We will soon be releasing an updated edition of our publication Spotlight On Depiction: Gun Violence, Safety and Injury Prevention – a resource encyclopedia for the entertainment community. The original version is still available on our website. However the data that supports the depiction suggestions is about 10 years old.

You may have heard that research money is being allocated to better study violence within the popular culture. These studies are absolutely essential to form a better understanding of the real world effects of violence in media. While those studies are underway, I believe it is important that we become more familiar with a notion of how to deal with conflict resolution while at the same time being sensitive to depictions about mental health.

To help with the creation of future storylines this newsletter is the first in a series focusing on gun violence, safety and injury prevention. This issue asks you to consider depicting firearm safety as well as deglamorizing gunplay when it may or may not be absolutely essential to your creative vision. For more information, our First Draft experts are standing by, ready to provide technical assistance when you need it.

As an organization created to support the creative integrity and freedom of the entertainment industry and to expand the creative palette to address health and social issues, EIC's approach to this topic emphasizes the opportunity to explore other creative forms of conflict resolution. It may also be beneficial to deal with firearm safety and injury prevention in your productions as an informative service to society. After all, it is the inherent power of the creative process to form entertainment that is exciting, enlightening and insightful.

Deglamorizing
Gunplay

Avoid, where possible, portraying those who use a gun - other than police or military personnel in the line of duty or trained individuals - as being unduly rewarded for their gun use.

Consider showing a police officer, though hailed as a hero for shooting a criminal, feeling conflicted and/or demoralized for taking a life and causing grief to the victim's family.

Attempt, where appropriate, to consider the innocent bystanders being caught in the crossfire between criminals or between "good guys" and "bad guys."

Coming Soon!
GV_cover2013 copy

Spotlight On: Depiction of Health and Social Issues
Gun Violence, Safety and Injury Prevention
4th Edition

Suggestions for Depicting Firearm Safety

Including gun violence, safety and injury prevention as a part of your storylines means taking firearm safety into consideration. Keep the following suggestions in mind when you are developing new characters and storylines:

Consider incorporating pointers on gun safety into scripts by having appropriate characters, such as law enforcement and trained military personnel, cite or demonstrate them.

Whenever guns are used, try to show trigger locks or cable safety locks with them. Consider also making the point that some types of locks are much more effective than others. For different examples of gun locks visit http://www.troopers.ny.gov/firearms/Gun_Locks/.

Attempt to show friends reacting negatively to a youth who’s showing off a gun. Reactions might range from alarm, fear or outrage to disapproval or simply concern.

When a character owns a gun kept at home, consider showing it kept in a commercial gun lock-box.

EIC's FREE Technical Assistance Resource

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To set up your own FREE First Draft Consultation with one of our experts contact Ashley Jupin: ajupin@eiconline.org

or 818-861-7782

Save the Date!
The 17th Annual PRISM Awards are set to take place on April 25, 2013 at the Beverly Hills Hotel.

Dr. Drew Pinsky hosts the
16th Annual PRISM Awards Showcase!

The 16th Annual PRISM Awards Showcase will air on mtvU on January 22nd!
Click here for more airing details!
Click here for excerpts from this year's show and check out prismawards.com

for updates!

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