Walking Dead Producer on Violence: ‘I worry about guns on the street’

Authors Rapid Fire S.H. Blannelberry This Week

H/T Hollywood Reporter:

Executive producer Gale Anne Hurd said she is more worried about gun culture than the violence in her AMC series “The Walking Dead.”

“I worry more about the fact that we have guns on the street here,” she said Feb. 11, speaking at Loyola Marymount University’s School of Film & Television, where she took part in the ongoing Hollywood Masters interview series.

“I mean, in Australia, countries around the world where they have the same entertainment, and they don’t have the homicide rates that we do here, it’s clear that there’s another reason for it. [In] all my films, the antagonists are monsters or cyborgs, or you name it. The Walking Dead is the one [that’s] different, and I found that it’s inspired a debate about what does it mean to be human and can you justify resorting to this kind of brutality?”

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  • Ivar Ivarson January 6, 2018, 7:37 pm

    So the TWD story lines will now focus on why the remaining people need not depend on guns to take out zombies/feral humans but sit down and reason with them? Admit it, Ms. Hollyweird Producer, you glorify guns and violence (even according to your precepts) to make money.

  • AK February 25, 2015, 5:15 pm

    I don’t watch TV.

  • Elmer Fudd February 23, 2015, 6:58 pm

    I knew there was a reason that I don’t watch that crap.

  • hubbabubba February 23, 2015, 1:22 pm

    The film producers and film companies that produce the shoot’em up action movies are such hypocrites. If they are so concerned or against gun violence, then maybe they should be changing scripts to where the hero beats the bad guys with love and a bunch of flowers. Or maybe they should just get out of the action movie business then they won’t be associated with violent movies. It kills me when we watch these action movies where the hero is blasting the bad guys and then in an interview the actor says that he is for gun control. Liam Neeson for instance, is one who advocates for gun restriction, you want gun restriction I say go back home where there is want you want… Do as I say and not as I do, that’s the motto for whorelywood.

  • Russ February 23, 2015, 12:33 pm

    Would you expect anything else from a hypocritical liberal elitist from hollywood. I love the show, she should keep her draconian beliefs to herself.

  • George Williams February 23, 2015, 11:11 am

    I too am worried about guns on the streets……
    Not generally, but specifically in the hands of criminals who would prey on our innocent citizens.

    OK, take away the weapons of the innocent citizens & their protectors….
    Australia, among other misguided countries has proven that this can be accomplished….pretty easily.
    NOW, take them, and the knives, and the clubs & other weapons from the “bad guys”….aaaaah, there’s the “rub”.

    It isn’t just our right…it’s our DUTY to protect our innocents!

  • Ringo Lapua February 23, 2015, 10:29 am

    Reasons for the high private gun ownership in the USA:
    1. We are basically a “free society” which has a Constitution (2nd Amendment) and Bill of Rights which guarantees our right to defend ourselves and our homeland against inside and outside aggression. Our socialist Democrat government wants to rewrite our Constitution and if allowed would private ownership of firearms, leaving innocent law abiding people vulnerable to attacks. The harder our socialist Democrat led government pushes gun control, the more citizens run to gun stores for more guns and ammo. The public also resists sensible laws dealing with safe gun ownership in general for fear that too much information about individuals owning guns will lead to confiscation and they are correct about their fears since the socialists keep pushing this unpopular political agenda.
    2. Right or wrong, we have a large African American and growing Spanish minority which has more than it’s fair share of violent, under educated, culturally deficient people who were raised without parental guidance or values. Currently our government has made them dependent and entitled. While a large minority of Spanish and African Americans are now educated and law abiding, too many Spanish and African Americans are lost in poverty, ignorance and violence. Middle and upper class Americans of all races openly worry about the threat of violence from this large group of lost Americans.
    3. The police are under attack by the socialist Democrats as well as the Spanish and African American minorities and because of this there is a growing hands off attitude by the police when dealing with violence from these minority groups. When a law abiding citizen is attacked he or she has seconds to live all the while the police (if notified) are minutes away from aiding the victims.

    People in parts of Europe, Canada and Australia should thank God that their countries do not suffer the same population problems that the USA suffers from. Some countries such as England and France have had a taste of minority violence but it is much less a problem than in the USA.

  • Gary February 23, 2015, 10:28 am

    Typical liberal POS her show is nothing but violence, blood and gore. but she doesn’t like guns. She’s made her millions using gun violence Another rotten liberal passing her liberal justice on Americans. Why doesn’t she go live in the UK that;s her kind of people. No self defense just victims. Bet in Australia they would arrest you for shooting “The Walking Dead.”

  • Jeff February 23, 2015, 10:23 am

    The Walking Dead program is like one big positive, hour long commercial for being PRO GUN OWNERSHIP…I find it funny..Gale Anne.. You promote an environment were everyone open carries at least one firearm!! Heck the current episode even glorifies the need of full automatic gunfire… Interesting… Gale Anne..Guns bad…Suggestion… Change the show location, to Australia… where real people fight off the zombie herds armed only with VEGEMITE SANDWICHES.. short lived series I’m sure, but hey.. probably more entertaining than the last several episodes. produce better Gale

  • Dan Ratte February 23, 2015, 5:40 am

    Here in Australia we don’t have the high poverty and gang culture in our inner cities to nearly the degree that there is in the US.
    We have a better healthcare system and unemployment benefits than America , pre-1997 we had a handful of lone gunmen shootings and bikie gang shoot outs (We still have bikie gang shoots outs) , you can’t lay the blame simply at the number of firearm possession.

    Desperate , greedy and mentally ill people will turn to violence , poverty and mental illness if left as it is in the US will only cause more gun violence , not less.

    Poverty , drug addiction and mental illness , get these in check and you will see a drop in violence.

    • Joe February 23, 2015, 8:35 am

      Hardly. Low quality health care systems paid for by looting one’s neighbor does not mean “better”. Nor do poor people quickly turn to violence. Quite the opposite; LBJ’s great society destroyed our inner city culture, ripped apart families, and gave rise to gangs and violence.

      However, our #1 cause for gun violence is our idiotic drug war. End of story.

      Were your remarks true, we’d see all the socialist utopias as homicide-free zones. However, a quick look at the list of countries by homicide rate shows that they dominate the top of the chart.

      I suppose it sucks seeing your country, once known for its independent spirit and tough pioneers become the poster child for the nanny state, with knives banned and everything.

      • Ray February 23, 2015, 4:31 pm

        Well and truly said, Joe!

    • Larry February 23, 2015, 1:47 pm

      Your country has pretty much disarmed your population & you still have over one gun homicide per 100K subjects. We have more guns per capita than any other country in the world & our gun homicide rate is under 5 per 100K citizens & ranks #111 of all the countries in the world.

      The key point here is that we remain “citizens” who are allowed to exercise our God given right to self preservation thru the use of firearms if necessary while you guys, the Canadians, The Brits & the Kiwis have reverted back to being “subjects”.

      If it wasn’t for the big Democratically controlled city resident drug dealers & other assorted criminals, our rate would be right down there with you and, frankly, I don;t give a damn about the savages killing each other in Detroit, DC, Newark, Chicago, etc.

    • Carl Tests February 23, 2015, 6:29 pm

      We have had a consistent drop in violence and gun-related homicides for quite a few years and the drop has nothing to do with gun control in the U.S. The media here, like the gal in this interview, knows how to make money out of sensationalizing things like a few isolated gun-related incidents. They are afraid to address issues like mental illness directly, probably because it still bears a social taboo. Rationality is seldom involved in the anti-gun zealots.

    • David G. February 24, 2015, 9:14 am

      There’s no such thing as “gun violence’, only human violence, only the mentally deficient think otherwise.

  • Justin Opinion February 20, 2015, 12:52 pm

    It’s always so interesting when the concept of self-defense is referred to as “brutality” – and even more so when done by those making millions of dollars portraying it.

    • Mark February 28, 2015, 6:57 pm

      I am so sick of these producers and actors that complain about violence in America and then has the gall to blame it on our freedom to protect our self. Blame it on the guns, not my show that is the most violent show on tv. You can not turn on a tv w/o watching people killing each other. Sex and rape, But NO, its not our shows that influence violence. Its the guns that are killing everyone. Its not our shows that influence rape, etc. That’s what is making this world sick. I carry a handgun 24/7 and yet have I gone some killing spree. I just want to be sure if I and my family are in a restaurant, mall, etc and some nut comes in there and starts shooting everyone, I can at lest have a good chance to protect my Loved ones. It is sad the world has got like this, but it has.

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