By ELIZABETH VALENTIN
It is not unlike Marilyn Manson to create controversy, but his most recent actions at a concert in San Bernardino were taken negatively. During a concert in this city, Manson pointed a fake gun at the audience.
The actions taken by Manson on stage in San Bernardino came two years after there was a mass shooting in the city and only hours after the most recent mass shooting in Texas.
Manson released a statement regarding his decision to make this move on stage, which said: “In an era where mass shootings have become a nearly daily occurrence, this was an act of theater in an attempt to make a statement about how easily accessible semi-automatic weapons are and how seeing them has become normalized.”
The statement went on to explain that his music and performances have always been a reaction to pop culture and that his goal has always been to make people think about the atrocities that happen in the world. He explained that he did not mean to disrespect anyone by this and sent out empathy to those affected by a “real guns.” He also explained that he did receive permission from police officers to use the fake gun on stage.
This is not the first time that Manson has been brought into the conversation surrounding mass shootings. When the Columbine school shooting took place, he was involuntarily brought into the conversation when people began to make connections between his music and the shootings. He was accused of influencing these shooters through his violent music.
In “Bowling for Columbine,” a documentary by Michael Moore, Manson spoke about the blame that he and his music were being given. “I definitely can see why they picked me, because it’s easy to throw my face on a TV because I’m, in the end, a poster boy for fear.”
In this documentary he also talked about the fact that after the Columbine shooting, there were two topics of conversation, which were gun control and entertainment. He didn’t find it surprising that entertainment would be the focal point following the shooting because no one wanted to talk about gun control.
While he was unwillingly brought into the conversation after the Columbine shooting, he willingly entered the conversation through his actions on stage in San Bernardino.
While most people have shown negative reactions to Manson’s most recent performance, there is also an argument made that people have become more outraged by this performance that the growing number of mass shootings and acts gun violence.
This may yet again be an example of the way in which people are more outraged and willing to demonize entertainers than they are to talk about gun control, which was pointed out by Manson in the 1990s.
