Pen is Mightier Than the Sword

A user posted a good comment on another site about this drawing and its depiction of violence. I'm including the user's comment and my response below:

User: nice work thus far, but not sure if this is in good taste after the recent mass killings in aurora by glamourising the use of guns.

My response: Just want to jump in quickly to comment about your point. I very much respect and understand what you are saying, I never want my work to come across as insensitive to an issue, especially to something so tragic and senseless as that shooting. I always hope that my work is taken in fun, and I hope my jokes don't hurt people. The fact is, there is senseless gun violence that has been going on for years, and while the Aurora shooting put a temporary spotlight on this issue, thousands of unecessary gun murders have been taking place for years and years, as has military violence and such, on top of it the degree to which television and movies expose us to ridiculous levels of gun violence, pretty much glamorizing guns and violence... and that kids will be exposed to hundreds of hours of this kind of "entertainment"... well, I just wanted to say that with those things in mind, drawing a crazy little rabbit shooting people is the least of the world's problems. I hope the drawing doesn't come across as pro-violence or glamorizes guns, it just incorporates violence (in an effort to be funny, which I can neither say it is or isn't) but is not meant to endorse the sort of violence it depicts.

That said, I very much appreciate your point, and I do believe you make a good point, I don't want to just be adding to the problem of trivializing violence or making it seem fun. It is an issue I always try to keep in my mind when I make these sorts of drawings... it is a very fine line and a subject I will keep thinking about as I progress in my work.