My Years With Guns - HBO Documentary Gun Fight

[RamboLiberal]

A crime novelist I know once claimed that through the issue of guns you could understand the whole history of the United States. After nearly three years producing the feature documentary Gun Fight with Academy Award winner Barbara Kopple (to be broadcast on HBO in mid-April), I certainly do see guns as much more than steel and caliber. The gun “issue” is woven with the strands of American history. It is also made from politics, culture, identity, passion, power, and, of course, fear.

It was daunting to begin such a project with the mandate that we make a documentary film “about guns.” It is like, as my novelist friend inferred, making a film as vast and complicated as our great and troubled country. And that is, essentially, what we did.

We spent time with hardcore gun activists of all stripes, including many who work tirelessly to protect what they view as their most important right. We interviewed the heads of gun companies and fired weapons with police chiefs in the middle of nowhere. We followed a young man who was shot four times in his French class at Virginia Tech as he turned his horrid experience into something positive. In a Sacramento emergency room, I watched a man screaming in pain as he was rushed into to the Trauma Unit, bones shattered from a bullet. We talked to a paralyzed teenager, a .22 caliber round lodged in his spine, and travelled many days with an individual who was once a leading lobbyist for the NRA. And we spent time with young people in inner city Philadelphia who get sucked into the vortex of gun violence.

Certain truths come out of these experiences, the kind that anyone who even superficially follows the politics of guns, or American politics, knows: the NRA is supremely powerful, intimidates politicians, and simplifies the issue to its advantage; guns and gun rights approximate with the Red State/Blue State divide; and populations in inner cities and those in rural settings often have stereotypes about each other—and different urban populations also hold stereotypes of each other. Guns are a fundamental element of American Life, be it in our popular media culture or in our everyday reality.

http://www.brooklynrail.org/2011/03/express/my-years-with-guns

http://www.hbo.com/documentaries/gun-fight/index.html

[barbtries]

1. i'm watching it

at the Durham documentary film festival later this month. keen to see it.

[GreenStormCloud]

2. Prediction: The film will advocate more gun control. N/T

[cleanhippie]

3. As well as ignoring that facts of the matter.

It will probably focus on the emotional, anecdotal side.

[rl6214]

4. Exactly what i was going to say based upon this statement:

"We followed a young man who was shot four times in his French class at Virginia Tech as he turned his horrid experience into something positive"

I seriously doubt they are going to document how he bought a gun, learned how to shoot it and got a CCL.

[Euromutt]

6. Of course not; they mean that twat Colin Goddard

Who is now on the payroll of the Brady Campaign, making tendentious videos where he "shows" how easy it is to buy guns at gun shows, "no questions asked." At least, no questions that you get to see being asked because as I pointed out in late 2009 (http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=118&topic_id=270522&mesg_id=270947), Colin's videos display a remarkable tendency to have cuts right around the time you'd expect the seller to say "can you show me some ID?" I'm sure that's just a coincidence, though (!)

And then there's the flawed underlying premise, namely that gun shows had jack shit to do with the Virginia Tech shooting in the first place. Cho bought his guns from FFLs, filling out ATF form 4473s, undergoing NICS checks, and waiting a month between purchases of handguns (which shows how effective Virginia's "one handgun a month" law was in preventing mass shootings).

Frankly, I thought a good move to prevent recurrences of Virginia Tech would be to prohibit purchases of firearms using credit cards. Cho put both his guns on his credit card, and died without in effect having paid for them.

[Starboard Tack]

9. "prohibit purchases of firearms using credit cards"

Did you come up with that brilliant idea on your own? You should be on the telly, comin' up with stuff like that. Do you think all people who get shot and don't like it are "twats" because they don't run out and buy a gun to take to school?
Chu!

[friendly_iconoclast]

11. Actually, there *are* people here in the Guns Forum that have been shot.

Should they get the same pass on cooking evidence that Colin Goddard has gotten?

[Starboard Tack]

12. Cite to evidence please

Who has been shot? How and why? Were they armed at the time?
What evidence has Goddard cooked?

[friendly_iconoclast]

15. That's a fair question- I will search for it. Goddard's edits were described in detail here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=118&topic_id=270522&mesg_id=270947

AFAIK, the raw videos have never been released.

[friendly_iconoclast]

16. Found it: "In 1986 I was shot by an armed felon while I was unarmed"

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=118&topic_id=386824#386846

guitar man (1000+ posts) Thu Mar-03-11 01:49 PM
Response to Original message
7. yes
In 1986 I was shot by an armed felon while I was unarmed. To this day, when I think I might need my pistol, I carry it.

As long as we're looking up posts- Did you ever find any to back up your claim here?:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=118&topic_id=396724#397644

"Some here think CCW permits should be available to 18 year olds for on campus carry."


I guess it slipped your mind. Or something like that.....

[friendly_iconoclast]

14. Using the same methods as James O'Keefe deserves some harsh language.

I'm sure O'Keefe thought he was doing the right thing by selectively editing his videos.

[Starboard Tack]

29. They're his videos. Why shouldn't he edit them?

Everyone edits and often to suit their agenda. 1A. Happens a lot in this forum where there appears to be a dominant pro NRA agenda.

[Euromutt]

28. I thought I'd adequately explained what I have against Goddard

But I'm happy to expound.

It's that he seeks to capitalize on his status as a shooting victim to lend authority to his arguments, despite such authority being undeserved because a) gun shows had absolutely nothing to do with the circumstances of his getting shot, and b) because he lends his name to apparently doctored "evidence" (see link in my previous post).

I'd go so far, actually, to say that the condition of being a victim doesn't give anyone additional authority on matters of public policy. Kanan Makiya made an important point in his book Republic of Fear, by pointing out that it is an all too common mistake "to believe that there is something morally redeeming in the quality of victimhood itself," adding later that "victimhood is not a quality; it is a condition."

When a criminal defendant is convicted, we don't let his victims decide his sentence. There's a reason for that.

[Katya Mullethov]

19. Coulda been Garrett Evans

Quite the eloquent spokesman !
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3Wq5Zsvfww
Remember this kid , you're looking at a future press secretary right there .

[rl6214]

20. Garrett sure had the talking points down but that was about it

For him everything was about anger and being unstable, Scott was the one that knew his subject matter and spoke well about it.

[Katya Mullethov]

25. Aww , give the kid a break

He's just a child !

And besides , the criminal mind is so much more advanced than that of a collegiate . Well , that particular collegiate at least . Pure gold that one !

[Starboard Tack]

7. No he's going to say how enjoyable it was being shot and can't wait

for it to happen again.
Do you really think that shooting someone turns them into a moron?

[rl6214]

13. Most normal people would want to find a way to defend themselves

Not this dipshit, he wants to find a way to prevent everyone else from defending themselves.

Stupid statement:"No he's going to say how enjoyable it was being shot"

[Starboard Tack]

17. All I see him doing is speaking out to close a loophole

You don't believe background checks are justifiable?

[rl6214]

18. Individual sellers don't have to do background checks

that's not a loophole unique to gun shows, that's the law for any individual seller regardless of where they are.

Second thing is the VA Tech shooting had NOTHING to do with gun shows so how does his stunts make his opinion any better that anyone elses.

[Starboard Tack]

21. He's just showing what a charade background checks are.

Gun shows are government sanctioned venues where private sellers don't need to comply. The VA Tech shooting showed that the system is flawed. He's not claiming it happened because gun shows exist. This guy is not anti gun. He just wants existing laws to be effective. Don't you?

[rl6214]

22. Check your local newspapers want ads

Mine has half a dozen ads for guns for sale. Why isn't he out there visiting all of those sellers to see if they are going to do a background check on him?None of those have to do background checks.

"The VA Tech shooting showed that the system is flawed"

How is that, none of Cho's weapons came from a gun show. He purchased both of them from licensed dealers a month apart which is what the law states AND he passed both background checks. If this exposes the failure of the medical community to get the information out to hep make the appropriate detemination if a buyer is qualified to buy a gun.

"He just wants existing laws to be effective. Don't you?"

The 'gunshow loophole' is not the part of the law that is not effective in this case, the mental health industry is.

[Starboard Tack]

23. You're right and I guess that's the key.

Mental health assessments for all license holders. MMPI should do the trick.

[rl6214]

24. That would be descriminatory against license holders

would never pass the legal objections. You would have to do it to everyone to avoid that.

[Starboard Tack]

27. OK everyone, with periodic re-testing. Good idea.

[rl6214]

30. My concealed carry license is good for 5 years

after 5 years I have to retake my class and requalify on the range if I want to keep my license current.

[Starboard Tack]

8. Noooooooooo!!! Say it ain't so!!!

:nopity:

[PavePusher]

5. Holy Fuck.

No pre-conceived agenda in this one...

:sarcasm: ...if I must.

[Starboard Tack]

10. Now now it's ok. Everything's gonna be just fine.

You can always watch FAUX news instead

[Katya Mullethov]

26. FOX instead ? Are you kidding ?

These hard hitting and carefully researched documentaries which touch on the effects of illegalcrimegun violence are gold mines of cunningly crafted prose .

Witness fledgling prohibitionist and authoritarian spittle licker Garret "I got shot" Evans just up the page there . Marvel as he adamantly proclaims that criminals are smarter than college kids . And quite frankly , he sold that one pretty good . Getting all indignant 'nshit . lol