Septre of the Gun..Why it Didn't Work

 When I wrote my review last night, I wrote that I didn't care for it, but I didn't share why.  I need time for the episode to gel in my mind. That's the way I work, and perhaps that's why I may not be the best reviewer. You, the reader will have to be the judge of that. I just write what my first thoughts, let them sit, and then write.  I don't always have time on my side.

I understand that Marc Guggenheim wanted this episode to make a statement. I also understand the he is probably a progressive who wants gun control and thinks that having more gun control will make the country safer. I get that.  He has every right under the first amendment to do that.  I also think he did want to try and portray both sides, which I am glad he did, because not all viewers are progressives, some are conservatives.  If he had't at least tried to show both sides, it would have been like saying conservatives shouldn't be viewers.   However what I am wondering is why on earth Arrow, a show whose main character, killed people to cross names off a list, is the right venue for that message.  Especially when the Arrow used a gun in this episode to try and find the perpetrator. Aren't arrows just as deadly as bullets?  Could we  not say that defeating violence with violence is oxymoronic?  We could but sometimes there is no other choice, and didn't Oliver learn that when he killed the count, because the Count was going to kill Felicity?      

I liked Rene's backstory.  It helps to understand his character, but why was Rene for the right to bear arms when shooting the man who had invaded his home had caused that man's "death bullet," to kill his wife? Is that ultimately lead Rene, who was pro-second amendment, to work with Oliver to find a bill that somehow limited guns yet still kept the right to bear arms?  That never seemed clear to me.

In full disclosure, I am pro second amendment.  I believe the framers put it in the constitution for a reason, I am a strict consitutuionalist.   I am also for the first amendment right of free speech.  Marc had every right to bring out a story that he believes in.  For me, Arrow didn't seem the right platform for the message.  That's why it didn't work for me.  Somehow we lost the story for a  lesson on gun control.

Next week back to Arrow.