Proceeds from new prints to fund gun control advocates
Steve Watson
Infowars.com
March 29, 2013
Shepard Fairey, the graphic artist synonymous with the Obama “CHANGE” and “HOPE” images has taken aim at the Second Amendment by releasing new works that equate gun owners with Satan.
Fairey has released a new print titled “God Saves & Satan Invests” which depicts an AR15 rifle with the words “America – The Land Where God Saves & Satan Invests In Assault Weapons And High Capacity Magazines”.
The print also includes an image of a white Dove in the heavens, with a target emblazoned on it, with the now familiar “Obey” tag written above it – Fairey’s attempt to associate all gun owners with organised religion – specifically Christianity.
Stating that the print was “inspired by the multiple school and mass shootings that have occurred in recent months,” Fairey adds on his blog “I’m not a big fan of the absurd abundance of guns in the U.S…. I’m also perplexed by the claim of much of the nation to have ‘Christian values.’ If god tells us to love our neighbor and not to take another human life, where do the assault weapons and piles of ammo fit into these ‘Christian values’?”
“I’m not religious, and the text in this print is designed more to illustrate the hypocrisy and contrast between ‘values’ and actions in this country than to make a religious statement,” Fairey writes.
“Anyway, if you claim to dig god, lay off of satan’s tools… if you don’t believe in god, lay off of satan’s tools! We live in statistically the safest time in human history, so the idea one would need an assault weapon for self defense is ridiculous.” he adds.
“I get the 2nd Amendment, but the right to bear arms should NOT BE UNCONDITIONAL.” Fairey states, claiming that it was never the intention of the Founding Fathers to have an armed population, and saying that the Founders could not have predicted technology to fire dozens of rounds in seconds.
The graphic designer also makes the argument that guns are for hunting, not tools of defense.
“I grew up in South Carolina hunting with my dad and we always had shotguns in the house,” he writes. “I was taught to honor and value human life. Also, the shotguns used for hunting were required by law for duck hunting, to only hold three shells at a time. The idea was that it was excessive to shoot more than three times at a bird. No one needs a gun that shoots 10, 20, 50 rounds.”
Fairey plans to sell the prints for $150 a piece, with some of the profits going to “a, yet to be determined, common sense gun law advocacy group.”
Critics have pointed out that with the federal government arming to the teeth, it cannot be conceived as evil for Americans to also engage in such activity, as this was precisely the reasoning behind the Second Amendment.
One commenter writes “So does that Satan investing in assault weapons and high capacity magazines count for the Department of Homeland Security and their recent order for 1.625 billion rounds of rifle and handgun ammo, 2,700 MRAP vehicles, 7,000 “personal defense rifles” (assault rifles for the regular citizenry, and their order of “no hesitation targets”?”
Another states “God also gave you a brain to think, and eyes to see what is around you. FREEWILL is given to us and men choose bad everyday.”
While another commenter on the image notes that “The image is all wrong, combining an AR-15 front site with an AK-47 magazine.Typical of the ignorance and false data that is being passed off as gospel these days.”
Fairey previously took aim at the Second Amendment with a print entitled “2nd Amendment Solutions”, which he claimed was an attempt to educate on the premise that handguns for self defense is a fallacy.
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Steve Watson is the London based writer and editor for Alex Jones’ Infowars.com, and Prisonplanet.com. He has a Masters Degree in International Relations from the School of Politics at The University of Nottingham, and a Bachelor Of Arts Degree in Literature and Creative Writing from Nottingham Trent University.