Ammunation

In the popular game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas there is a gun shop chain named Ammunation.  Within the game there are various radio commercials for the Ammunation store that are simultaneously humorous, ridiculous, scary, yet not removed enough from reality.  The Ammunation store and its customers are a composite of right wing NRA who believe the Second Amendment should allow the sale of any type of weapon and explosive to combat the Communist threat of a previous decade, liberalism, and of course to defend yourself and your home.

De-contextualizing these commercials from the game space and re-contextualizing them within the context of the 2008 presidential election aims to enable these satirical commercials to be more potent.  Due to the fact that they are no longer confined within the game space that is typically associated with the imaginary.  Rather it is addressing the world directly with its critique and is no longer hampered by the constraints and stereotypes of the game space.  These commercials can now directly address issues regarding gun control, the military industrial complex, and the outmoded tactics currently being used in the war on terrorism.  In turn the performance can be used to undermine the positions of the extreme right elements of the Republican Party by agreeing with them to the point of excess and thus showing the flawed logic and insanity that are embedded within their various positions.  You can download a copy of Ammunation Script here.

On November 4th, 2008, Jason Kunke performed my script entitled Ammunation Script, as part of the Exchange Rate: 2008 performance exchange.  This coincided with the 2008 U.S. presidential election as well as the massive surge in firearm sales that resulted primarily due to the potential of a democrat as president.  Here are some images from his performance as well as a few choice quotes from Kevin Bohn’s CNN article, “Gun sales surge after Obama’s election,” (11/11/08).

Documentation of Jason Kunke Performing Ammunation Script at the Exchange Rate: 2008 Los Angeles Event -  11/04/08

“‘I have been in business for 12 years, and I was here for Y2K,
September 11, Katrina,’ Conatser said, as a steady stream of customers
browsed what remained of his stock. ‘And all of those were big events,
and we did notice a spike in business, but nothing on the order of
what we are seeing right now.’”

“According to FBI figures for the week of November 3 to 9, the bureau
received more than 374,000 requests for background checks on gun
purchasers — a nearly 49 percent increase over the same period in
2007. Conatser said his store, Virginia Arms Company, has run out of
some models — such as the AR-15 rifle, the civilian version of the
military’s M-16 — and is running low on others.”

“But Peter Hamm, a spokesman for the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun
Violence, called the buying spree ‘goofy.’ He said widespread talk of
banning guns is a “sales pitch.”