Bowling for Columbine Page #14

of the NRA,

and showed him my membership card.

Good for you. Well done.

- I assume you have guns in the house.

- Indeed I do.

Bad guys, take notice.

So you have them for protection?

- Yeah, sure.

- Have you ever been a victim of crime?

No.

- Never been assaulted or...?

- No.

No violence toward you,

but you have guns in the house.

- Loaded.

- They're loaded?

Well... if you really need a weapon

for self-defense, you need it loaded.

- OK, but why do you need it for self-defense?

- I don't.

You've never been a victim of crime,

you haven't been assaulted.

- That's true.

- Why would you...

So why not... Why don't you unload the gun?

Because er... the Second Amendment

gives me the right to have it loaded.

Oh, I agree. I totally agree with that.

But I'm just saying, you know...

the Second Amendment gives me...

Let's say it's the comfort factor, you know.

It gives you comfort

to know there's a loaded gun?

- Yeah.

- Comfort meaning...

- it allows you to relax and feel safe...

- Not worry about it.

- Not worry, not be afraid.

- And I'm not really, but...

I'm exercising one of the rights

passed on down to me

from those wise old dead white guys

that invented this country.

If it was good enough for them,

it's good enough for me.

But you could still exercise the right just by

having the gun unloaded and locked away.

I choose to have it.

What sort of strikes me as interesting

is that in other countries,

where they don't have the murder rate,

the gun murder rate we have...

You know, many people say that's because

they don't have guns around,

that it's hard to get a gun in Britain or Germany

or whatever.

But we went to Canada,

and there's 7 million guns in 10 million homes.

There won't be very long.

But hear me out, though.

Canada is a nation of hunters.

Millions of guns.

And yet they had just a few murders last year.

That's it, of a country of 30 million people.

Here's my question. Why is it that...

that they've got all these guns laying around,

yet they don't kill each other

at the level that we kill each other?

I think American history is er...

...has a lot of blood on its hands.

And German history doesn't? Or British history?

I don't think as much.

Oh... Germans don't have

as much blood on their hands?

Ah, they do, yes.

The Brits? They ruled the world for 300 years

at the barrel of a gun.

They're all violent people.

They have bad guys, they have crime.

- They have lots of guns in the past...

- Well, it's an interesting point,

which can be explored...

and you're good to explore it at great length.

But I think that's about all I have to say on it.

You don't have any opinion, though,

as to why that is?

We are the unique country,

the only country that does this,

that kills each other on this level with guns.

Well, we have probably a more mixed ethnicity

than other countries, some other countries.

You think it's an ethnic thing?

No, I don't, it's...

I wouldn't go so far as to say that.

We had enough problems

with civil rights in the beginning.

But... I have no... no answer to that.

But what do you mean, you think it's

a mixed ethnicity? I don't understand.

- You said, "How is it...

- That we're unique?

...that so many Americans um... kill each other?"

I don't know that that's true. But...

No, you know that. You know we have

the highest murder rate with guns.

It's way higher than any other country.

The only answer I can give you

is the one I already gave you.

- Which is?

- Which is that we have...

- Historically...

- ..a history of violence.

Perhaps more than most countries.

Not more than Russia,

not more than Japan or China.

- Not more than Germany.

- Not more than Germany.

Certainly more than Canada.

I come from Flint, Michigan.

Last year a little six-year-old boy

took a gun into a classroom

and shot and killed a six-year-old girl.

It was really a tragic thing.

- This was kids, though?

- Six-year-old... Did you hear about this?

- A six-year-old shooting a six-year-old.

- Yeah.

Here's my question.

After that happened,

you came to Flint and held a big rally.

Mm-hm.

You know, I just...

So did the Vice President.

Yeah, but did you feel

it was being at all insensitive to the fact

that this community had just gone through...

Actually, I wasn't aware of that

at the time we came.

We came and did an early morning... rally,

and went on to wherever we were going.

You didn't know at the time you were there

that this killing had happened?

- Had you known, would you have not...

- Would I have canceled the...

I don't... It's hard to say.

It wasn't like it was already planned.

The choice to come there was made

after this horrible killing took place.

Had you known that, would you have come?

I don't know. I've no idea.

Maybe not.

- Maybe not.

- Thank you.

Do you think you'd like to maybe apologize to

people in Flint for coming and doing that then?

You want me to...

me to apologize to the people in Flint?

Yeah. Or the people in Columbine

for coming after their horrible tragedy.

Why do you go to the places

after they have these horrible tragedies?

I'm a member of your group, here.

Well, I'm afraid we don't agree on... on that.

You think it's OK to just come

and show up at these events?

No.

You don't think it's OK?

Mr Heston? Just one more thing.

This is who she is...

or was. This is her.

Mr Heston, please don't leave.

Mr Heston, please.

Take a look at her.

This is the girl.

I left the Heston estate atop Beverly Hills

and walked back into the real world,

an America living and breathing in fear.

In your mind, you imagine

somebody who might break into your house

to harm you or your family.

What does that person look like?

- You... her... him...

- Me? Really?

...the camera guy, anybody.

There could be a gun in the camera.

Where gun sales were now at an all-time high...

You can shoot as fast as with a semi-automatic.

...and where, in the end,

it all comes back to bowling for Columbine.

Three bowling alley employees

shot to death Sunday night

at the AMF Broadway Lanes.

There's nothing I really know.

I really don't know anything.

Just that three people died? In Littleton.

In a bowling alley.

- I'm sorry.

- You have a nice day.

Yes, it was a glorious time to be an American.

I see trees of green

Red roses too

I see them bloom

For me and you

And I say to myself

What a wonderful world

I see skies of blue

And clouds of white

Bright sunny days

Dark sacred nights

And I think to myself

What a wonderful world

The colours of the rainbow

Are so pretty in the skies

Are also on the faces

Of people walking by

I see friends shaking hands

Saying how do you do

They're really saying

I love you

I see babies cry

I watch them grow

They'll learn much more

Than I'll ever know

And I think to myself

What a wonderful world

Yes, I think to myself

What a wonderful world

And I say to myself

What a wonderful...

Rate this script:5.0 / 1 vote