Bowling for Columbine

The National Rifle Association

has produced a film

which you are sure to find of great interest.

Let's look at it.

It was the morning of April 20th 1999,

and it was pretty much

like any other morning in America.

The farmer did his chores.

The milkman made his deliveries.

The President bombed another country

whose name we couldn't pronounce.

Out in Fargo, North Dakota,

Kerry McWilliams went on his morning walk.

Back in Michigan, Mrs Hughes welcomed

her students for another day of school.

And out in a little town in Colorado,

two boys went bowling at six in the morning.

Yes, it was a typical day

in the United States of America.

May I help you?

Yeah, I'm here to open up an account.

- OK, what type of account would you like?

- Um...

- I want the account where I get the free gun.

- OK.

I'd spotted an ad in the local Michigan paper

that said if you opened an account

at North Country Bank,

the bank would give you a gun.

You do a CD and we'll hand you a gun.

We have a whole brochure here

that you can look at.

Once we do the background check

and everything, it's yours to go.

OK. Right, well,

that's the account I'd like to open.

We have a vault in which, at all times,

we keep at least 500 firearms.

- 500 of these you have in your vault?

- In our vault.

- We have to do a background check.

- At the bank here?

- At the bank, which is a licensed firearm dealer.

- You're a bank and a licensed firearm dealer?

What do I put for race?

White, or Caucasian, or...?

- Caucasian.

- Caucasian.

I knew you were gonna make me spell that.

- Cau... ca... sian. Is that right?

- Yes.

Thank you.

I don't think that's the part

they're gonna be worried about.

"Have you ever been adjudicated

mentally defective

or been committed to a mental institution?"

I've never been committed.

What does that mean, have I ever been

adjudicated mentally defective?

- It would be something involved with a crime.

- Oh, OK.

So if I'm just normally mentally defective,

but not criminal...

- There you go, Mike.

- OK, thank you very much. Wow!

I have one personally.

- That's a nice action.

- It is, and it's a straight shooter, let me tell you.

Wow! Sweet!

Do you think it's a little dangerous

handing out guns in a bank?

Some people say

that bowling alleys got big lanes

Got big lanes, got big lanes

Some people say

that bowling alleys all look the same

Look the same

Look the same

Everybody's coming home

for lunch these days

Last night there were skinheads on my lawn

Take the skinheads bowling

Take them bowling

Take the skinheads bowling

Take them...

Guns ho!

Each gun makes lots of battle sounds.

Just press the trigger and listen.

That sounds like a gun battle.

Is it real?

Looks like real.

And it sounds like real.

Right. The Sound-O-Power

Military and Western rifles by Marx.

This was my first gun.

I couldn't wait to go outside

and shoot up the neighborhood.

Those were the days.

I was born in Michigan

And I wish and wish again

That I was back in the town where I was born

By the time I was a teenager,

I was such a good shot,

I won the National Rifle Association's

marksman award.

You see, I grew up in Michigan,

a gun-lover's paradise.

And so did this man,

Oscar-winning actor

and president of the National Rifle Association,

Mr Charlton Heston.

We come from a state

where everyone loves to go hunting.

Even the dogs.

There were actually

two of the hunters at camp.

They thought

they'd get a few pictures of the dog

dressed up as a hunter,

to kinda just have some fun around camp.

And one of the guys had the idea,

'Why don't we sting a rifle on the dog's back

to make the pictures a little more interesting?'

The victim was kneeling down

in front of the dog when the weapon slipped.

The one round went through the victim's shin -

the right pan of his shin -

and came out through the back of his calf.

Was the dog held at all

for any period of time by the police?

No, it wasn't. No. Um...

In Michigan, law basically states

that people can commit crimes,

that animals aren't some form of... you know,

whatever that could commit a crime.

An animal cannot commit a crime

or be charged with a crime in this state?

Is it possible that the dog, you know,

knew what it was doing?

That I don't know.

I wouldn't be able to tell you that.

The dog was cute dressed up as a hunter,

there's no doubt about it.

It was a funny picture.

To look at, it was kinda neat.

Yep, this was the kinda place I was from.

A box of 270s.

Comin' up.

- There you go.

- Perfect.

Whoa, whoa, whoa!

- Sorry about that. Sorry.

- It's all right. It didn't discharge.

You don't need no gun control.

You know what you need?

We need some bullet control.

We need to control the bullets. That's right.

I think all bullets should cost $5,000.

$5,000 for a bullet. You know why?

Cos if a bullet costs $5,000,

there'd be no more innocent bystanders.

Every time somebody gets shot, people'd be

like, "Damn, he must have did something."

"Sh*t, they put $50,000-worth of bullets

in his ass."

And people will think before they kill somebody

if a bullet costs $5,000.

Man, I would blow your f***ing head off

if I could afford it.

I'm gonna get me another job.

I'm gonna start saving some money.

And you're a dead man.

You'd better hope

I can't get no bullets on layaway.

Not far from where

Charlton Heston and I grew up

is a training ground for the Michigan Militia.

Why do you use bowling pins?

From a self-defense or tactical standpoint,

it's a small target

that closely represents the vitals on a human,

should you ever have to shoot at one.

The Michigan Militia

became known around the world

when on April 19th 1995, two guys living

in Michigan who had attended militia meetings,

Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols,

blew up the federal building in Oklahoma City,

killing 168 people.

The Michigan Militia

wanted everyone to know

that they were nothing like

McVeigh and Nichols.

This is an American tradition.

It's an American responsibility to be armed.

If you're not armed, you're not responsible.

Who's gonna defend your kids?

The cops? The federal government?

- No, none of them.

- It's your job to defend you and yours.

If you don't do it, you're in dereliction of duty...

as an American. Period.

We're just here to let them know

we're here to help.

We're not the bogeymen we're made out to be.

We're here to defend people.

I'm sure people like

to have you guys as their neighbor.

If somebody's in need, you're there to help.

We're all normal people.

We all have regular jobs,

and this is what we do on our own time.

- What's your job?

- I'm a draftsman.

- How about you?

- Unemployed right now.

- Frank, what do you do for a living?

- I drive a truck for a heat-treating company.

- How about you?

- I'm a real-estate negotiator.

Real-estate negotiator

White-collar all the way.

You don't bring that with you, though, do you,

when you're negotiating the real estate?

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