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The Davy Crockett Gun Craze


            In the journal article, "Be Sure You Are Right, Then Go Ahead" the author, Sarah Nilsen, takes on the challenging issue of how guns have been portrayed in the American media and the effects that it has had on the youth. Nilsen highlights several interesting components throughout the article. The author firsts elaborates on the National Rifle Association (NRA) and Walt Disney's role in pushing toy guns and "violent gunplay" to children in the 1950 's. Nilsen continues to write about Disney and what she believed his personal agenda to be. The article then goes on to spread blame for a coincidental rise in juvenile delinquency, to not only Disney, but television production as well. .
             In the mid to late 1900s, the NRA played a key role in encouraging gunplay to be accepted as typical child behavior in the average American home. The NRA used and I believe Nilsen would use the word, "manipulated" the media to support their pro gun agenda. After the Walt Disney Cooperation aligned themselves with the NRA, Nilsen states that, "The linkage of the NRA with Walt Disney signaled a radical change not only in the cultural production of the studio, but also the public perception of the relationship between childhood and gunplay." Toys and apparel such as the coonskin hat and toy pistols in holsters then began to flood the market and become the most sought after accessories of that time. .
             Nilsen goes on to firmly state what she is trying to accomplish by tying the NRA to Disney, "I will unravel some of the various cultural forces at work in the construction of this gun culture, focusing on the role of a children's television program produced by Walt Disney." It is apparent before reading on that "normalizing the gun as part of youth culture" is something that the author finds to be against. Disney began distributing news columns, television program series, and a feature length film about Davy Crockett that captivated the American population.


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