My Baby Shot Me Down

I sometimes wonder if the firearm would have such a key position in American iconography if Hollywood hadn't kept it there. Sure, we've got the right to own them, but would we want them so badly if, after the settling of the last frontier/slaughter of the last rebellious Indian, John Wayne and Clint Eastwood hadn't convinced us they were an integral part of the national machismo?

The action figure, collaborators Steven Santos, Aaron Aradillas and Matt Zoller Seitz contend, turns to the gun in three stages. Their video essay "Lock & Load" explores these three stages, then ends with a bang. No dry-firing here, and no dud rounds either.