'Sons of Anarchy' School Shooting Premiere Defended by Show Creator
Last night's season premiere of popular FX show "Sons of Anarchy" was controversial. The episode depicted a school shooting. It followed a young boy throughout his day, and then showed him entering his private school and opening fire.
In a recent interview with TV Guide, "Sons of Anarchy" creator Kurt Sutter explained his decision making process on the season premiere.
"When the shootings [at Sandy Hook] recently happened ... I thought, 'Am I just going to be swinging in the breeze if I tell this story?'" Sutter told TVGuide.com. "But then I also felt like, 'I'm not going to not tell this story because I'm afraid that I'm going to get some blowback.' The best thing I could do as a storyteller was try to do it in the most organic way."
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Sutter went on to explain how he attempted to show a school shooting in an organic way.
"What I tried to do, in a non-preachy way, is layer in my point of view, which is that it isn't one thing. I put it in a Catholic school because I didn't want to make a statement about the public school system. I believe that it's about mental illness, which is why I layered that in. I believe it's about parent neglect, which is why I layered that in. I believe it's about the gun laws and illegal guns on the street. All those things contribute to that perfect storm. If I am making any kind of social statement here, it is the fact that it takes a village to heal a kid and it takes a village to [expletive] kill a kid."
"Sons of Anarchy" airs on FX Tuesday nights at 10 p.m.
