Making a Killing: 4 Years Since Parkland• A Live Virtual Screening Event • Brave New Films (BNF) [Video]

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screenings to get started today marks the fourth anniversary of

the parkland shooting and tonight we’re once again calling for comprehensive gun legislation by

screening our documentary making a killing guns greed in the nra

warning this film contains themes that may be disturbing to some viewer discretion advised

politicians who sit in their gilded house and senate seats funded by the nra telling us nothing could have ever been

done to prevent this we call bs

we say that tough they say that tougher gun laws do not decrease gun violence we

call bs they say a good guy with a gun stops a bad guy with a gun we call b

they say guns are just tools like knives and are as dangerous as cars we call bs

no they say that no laws could have been able to prevent the hundreds of senseless tragedies that have occurred

we call bs that us kids don’t know what we’re talking about that we’re too young to

understand how the government works we call yes

if you agree register to vote contact your local congress people give them

your name is william right or do you have a nickname you go by

or you just go do you does your your family call you william they call you bill or will what do they call you

boy goofy boy all right so william how old are you

you’re four years old huh can you make me a promise liam

can you promise me that everything you tell me today is the truth can you promise me that

yeah okay so something happened tonight it’s your

house right [Music]

[Music] my brother had moved down to florida in 2001 and my

parents moved from the washington dc area i really wanted to be near my family

i like the warm weather so while we’re up here

why are we up here well we just want to figure out what happened tonight

and you’re helping us figure that out you’re a very big you’re a big brave boy

i’d been single for a couple years dated on and off you know nothing serious

a lot of people were doing online dating and other friends had been on match and said oh you know why don’t you try it i

was not really taking it seriously like i’m going to meet my future husband

you know maybe i’ll go out on a few dates and get a few dinners and

it’ll just be fun tom was actually one of

the first that i noticed i remember thinking he’s so

like he’s hot spoke well and you know was civil and polite

she went with it [Music] he just kind of swooped in and made my

life easier he offered right away to check the oil in my car and shopping sprees

we didn’t meet him right away she at the time the proverbial you know swept off her feet there was just too much

happening too fast

i got pregnant before we got married so it was

six months from the time i met him to the time we got married very very very very quick now before we go any further

i just want you to renew your mind on what the bible says love is

so we built a house about a mile from my parents love is patient

love is kind it is not self-seeking i was so excited

this is the type of love that is needed in order for your marriage to work

after they got married we started to notice that there was some sort of distance about him there was

always something off about him we could never really directly pinpoint

it my job

my job is specifically is i help kids so my job is to help kids and make sure

they’re safe and that’s the only kind of police job i do yep that’s it i’m here to protect you

make sure you’re safe

you had a very busy day getting here didn’t you when i first started dating

him tom he let it be known that he was a gun guy what’s his hair color

i can’t really tell right now but his eyebrows are blonde i mean he had a gun cabinet upstairs

god bless you he had a lot of hunting rifles several handguns and a couple of shotguns i

would call it an arsenal

we have a busy fall into the holiday season because we’ve got william’s birthday

my birthday then it goes into the holidays we got together for all of those events and

he would create some sort of drama we almost began to dread

family events and celebrations because we could expect that there’s going to be a problem what will

it be this time she was at her wit’s end she just didn’t know what to do to

prevent it because it just happened time and time again do you like living with your mommy yeah

do you like living with your daddy do you see your daddy a lot no

are you afraid of daddy yeah yeah why because he has become

[Music]

[Music]

in florida on new year’s eve a lot of people shoot off fireworks our neighbors were having a huge party

he pulled me aside and was like i went and shot my gun and i was like what

yeah when the fireworks were going off i went shot my gun i said where there’s children

and he was like between the houses i was shooting at lizards it escalated

to the point where he left the house and then began blowing up my phone with text and then taking a picture in front

of a strip club and saying oh i’m so drunk oh there’s so many hot women here two in the morning

he comes home i clearly heard i ran across the house to the front door

opened the door and i was running in the streets and calling 9-1-1

9-1-1 what is your emergency

i’m on the phone with 9-1-1 i kept saying that he has a gun our garage door opens out he walks with

william he got the baby out of the crib

and went and got in our car and had will on his lap and his gun

he had guns i was screaming help

me i come running up the street he had gotten back to the house before

the cops got there i was just staring at him and he just stared right back at me and that look in

his eyes it was like you’re dead

the police said to her in the morning she needed to go get a restraining order

we can’t take his guns tonight because we don’t have a restraining order

with the restraining order tomorrow we can come back and we can confiscate the guns he has take his guns that’s the

most volatile time that’s the most lethal time

i went with katie to the courthouse to get the restraining order we got a restraining order and they came and took

the guns the next day

even though the police now had his guns they warned us that he could go get a

gun easily from a private sale just because he was served the temporary restraining order didn’t mean that he

couldn’t go to a gun show or obtain a gun the very next

day the private vendors do not need to put the buyer through a background check

it’s not a gun show loophole people keep saying that it is an individual i decide i want to sell my gun to a friend of

mine so now you put an extraordinary burden on me to go out and conduct a background check

[Music] when i moved to barrington club i was

trying to start over with my son we were finally away from my estranged husband but

i was still afraid

we’ve had a long week haven’t we

it was a friday i had worked all day [Music]

will was at his his preschool picked him up went back to the apartment i had dinner plans that night

got ready go out to the car and the passenger side there was a huge slash in the tire

he found me he found me

phone rang katie said tom found me i think i got the call just before 8

o’clock then i drove to their apartment

and what did you see happen tonight is your house hey daddy what about your daddy

i was walking towards my car and i looked across and in the parking lot next to her car was a bmw

the dome light came on and there it was tom

i didn’t run i just walked back up and i said katie tom’s in the parking lot call 911.

[Music] please please um i need my

i have my strange husband is here and he’s trying to get into my opinion

please listen please please okay does he have a gun

and he was like was it worth it was it worth a [ __ ] [ __ ]

did you hear a lot of booms or just one boom boom the boards went through everything

i knew right away i had been shot in my left hand because this whole hand just locked

there was blood everywhere around my mom

i just dropped to the ground and was just screaming

and my hand exploding three times okay stay inside how far is the gunshot

pretty sure i heard at least three coin shots

then he shot again he shot me point blank who shot your grandpa

my daddy did you see that happen i thought my dad was dead

i thought he killed him tom said to me she’s gone

and so i thought

voices around me i can’t see or feel anything just the

pain on my hand and just screaming mommy mom it was like

i was a child again just screaming at the top of my lungs

wash down the doctor’s office i’m gonna let the other officer explain

to you okay okay okay

and i remember them the trauma unit yelling there’s nothing in there there’s nothing in there like

it’s a flesh wound it’s a flesh wound i can’t believe it if i had you know if i’d been turned any

other way i would have been gone a bullet did shatter kate mafay’s hand

another one hit her in the chest fired police say by her estranged husband

thomas mfay that woman is kate ranta she used to live in coral springs and she used to be married to a man who is here

in the broward county jail now accused of attempted murder for shooting her

you have the right to remain silent anything you say can will be used against you in a court of law give the right to the presence of an attorney

prior to or why you’re being questioned you can’t afford to hire a lawyer one

will be appointed accounting expenses to represent you before any questioning if you

wish can decide at any time to exercise these rights to any questions or make any statements

do you understand each of the rights i have explained to you

[Music] this is a story we report too often

women hurt or killed their husbands accused of the crime for the second time in less than a week a case of domestic

violence ends in gunfire police say a father killed his wife in front of their children the gunman’s ex-girlfriend shot

and killed his wife and then turned the gun on himself he left alyssa with two bullet wounds in

the head killing the mother of his child while she killed his estranged girlfriend

we need to have universal background checks how are you supposed to keep the guns

out of convicted abusers or criminals unless you have a background check

there should be background checks so that the public can be protected

we want the federal gun laws on the books right now to be enforced

against felons with guns against drug dealers with guns and when the nra stands there and proposes

that we just need to keep the guns out of you know the criminals and the mentally unstable well how can you

determine that unless you have background checks

universal checks is a dishonest premise universal background checks is not going to save one life

here’s the simple truth strict gun control laws do not work

the gun industry would be definitely against all of these proposals because it would diminish

their profits and that’s what it’s about [Music]

my estranged husband used a beretta to shoot at me and my father

[Music]

is

[Applause] [Music]

it’s all in the past [Music]

our goal is to try to raise at least a hundred thousand dollars a year every year for the nra because they’re

out they’re looking out for us in congress i think it’s important for everybody to step up and support the nra

they are our voice

i really like standing up there with wayne lapierre and handing him a big fat check the nra

gave brenda and i gold jackets because we give them a lot of money

this is a lobby for the gun manufacturers why would anyone trust the nra when the

gun companies are paying much of their salaries

so

the nra creates fear in order to sell more guns

and make more money for gun manufacturers

the fear that they create it just perpetuates this this myth that

you can protect yourself and your family

i know a lot of women that fall for the tactic women need guns to protect themselves

with domestic violence we’re talking about me pulling a gun on somebody that

i once loved the father of my child we’re talking about me pulling the trigger and taking his life

[Music] i believe we can do more to keep guns out of the hands of dangerous people

that’s why i joined with every town for gun safety they’re part of a group called every town for gun safety

he should not have had a gun something like common sense gun laws

would have prevented him from getting a gun and possibly

taking out three generations of my family that’s all i know about

the laws about guns you should always stay away from gunshots

i shouldn’t have to live in fear of my life when i go to the mall when i pick

up my grandchildren from school

my safety and the safety of my family is much more important than

greed and profits of the nra and gun companies

my life and my family’s life will never be the same because of what happened to me

i hope that i can prevent it from happening to other people

[Music]

we came over there and my friend well there were four four friends that came over we

were like best friends we would hang out every day after school we were playing around at first we’re

just hanging out playing with the dogs and they came in the house and then they started like playing around although one

of my friends was in the bathroom and then we were like talking and i met and i made them a sandwich mayonnaise

and some kind of salami meat in it then he was just kind of laughing just having a good time

my mom wasn’t home because she was working he was looking for something i came out and said hey look at this

he brought the gun out i took it why did you want to get the gun i wanted

to show it to them that was all say anything about whether the gun was real or not yes he told me it wasn’t real

okay he said it’s not right which room did it come from my parents bedroom didn’t look real he said let me do it

let me do it i’m guessing he was trying to figure out if it was actually real and he had it to me he was just kind of

laughing and pointing it did you hear one he was like messing with the trigger and stuff

[Music]

[Music]

whole ground was shaking i didn’t know what to do and what happened after you pulled the

trigger i wouldn’t have fired it if it wasn’t real are they in the house yes

was it intentional so should you

do not hang up and from there tragedy unfolded lindsay cohen joins us live from 11th

street in puyallup where the shooting took place lindsey yeah mary tonight police still believe

this was accidental and unintentional it hasn’t stopped them though from taking the alleged shooter into custody it was

little after 4 because school got out at about 3 30. and the police came to my

job i just got home around four o’clock and my brother isn’t home yet a simple

show and tell led to the gunfire it appears he didn’t believe it was real and fired the fire the shotgun some of

those questions are still things that the investigators are trying to sort through one of the guns was not locked up it was

behind our bed i don’t know why do you know which one the shotgun

is that for safety maybe possibly from my my husband’s perspective it was safe i’m not sure i

don’t know why it wasn’t locked up you didn’t you didn’t know if it was loaded or not no i i didn’t know if it was loaded or not

and they told me do you have any children i said jose and

eddie and they said well we’re here about eddie there’s been an accident

eddie was shot i said where is he they said well he’s at the hospital but

he didn’t make it and i just started screaming

i received a phone call i could hear my aunt screaming in the background she was saying they killed him they killed him i

was like who you were talking about and she was like eddie who killed eddie and then the phone just dropped so my son

came home and he sat me down he said mom something happened to eddie z and i said

what do you mean mom came home she busted through the door and she was uh

screaming and crying how does a child get shot by a friend from school what do you mean

people just leave guns around for children to shoot children

something’s got to be done this is happening too much it is my hope

that it’s speaking out today motivates just one person

to secure their gun my son eddie zeeholm’s life

would not have been taken in vain

the total number of children and teens killed by firearms is two and a half times the total u.s

military casualties for the vietnam iraq and afghanistan wars combined

that’s a problem kai klepfer is one of 15 students that the silicon valley smart tech challenges foundation is

giving a grant to he created a built-in scanner that identifies a user’s fingerprints ideally i’d love to see you

know this product in gun stores you know on the shelves available for people to purchase and you

know to be out there saving lives we need a solution like this

you’re looking at a brand new technology that prevents guns from being used against their owner and it’s from a

company called trigger smart we gotta try this trigger smart in action it may just be

the beginning of what could be a technological revolution in firearm safety you cannot stop innovation

police say this cable style gun lock could have prevented this terrible tragedy and they say it’s really easy to

use a simple cable prevents the gun from being loaded completely stops accidental shootings a simple combination

allows me to quickly gain my firearm when needed just a few easy steps that can help save

a life this is about kid safety we want to keep

kids safe with both biometrics and rfid there’s no reason a user should not keep

his gun safe technology is seeping into every corner

of our lives why not guns part of the proposal is developing smart

gun technology it has not been developed primarily because it’s been blocked

by either the nra which is are funded by gun manufacturers or other reasons in

part what we proposed was you know what we’re going to do some of the research it’s something that makes firearms safer

with pretty much no downsides and so i feel like that’s something that you know the nra should be in support of

why they aren’t doing research and investing in this baffles me

our child accident prevention programs are second to none

trigger locks do not stop gun crimes or accidental shootings it just is making

guns and self-defense and personal protection more costly

we know that the smart gun is the holy grail for the anti-gun movement why it

is a convenient vehicle to ban conventional guns while seeming like you’re doing something

uh appropriate i mean really what’s the difference especially if cars are 35 times more likely to cause an accidental

death actually in washington state last year more people were killed by guns than by

cars this is brian judy nra speaking in opposition to this bill there are many other items around the

house that cause injury illness or death to a child

got my work um just taking a break

walking had a difficult morning um

just everything everything reminds me of myself

[Music] when i went to the store

there was a man walking right in front of me and had a gun on his belt and

it just it just really startled me i it just unexpected it was like

just walked in and he was in front of me and there was kids walking around and

went to the customer service and they called the manager who said they follow washington state law and can’t do

anything about it we follow washington state law

i just really miss him

this is a 20 gauge shotgun it is a synthetic stock with realtree ap

camo just wanted to come to you today with a review of the mossberg 500 phantom

this is a youth model a youth mall everywhere else and in all other areas

of life we choose to protect our kids but not in this one area and to me it’s all about money

[Music]

and that’s just one manufacturer [Music]

an nra is in all these pockets of legislators and that is disgusting

america’s merchants of gun death are not concerned about child safety or adult

safety or anything other than getting rich

[Music]

i am at the pure olive library today there’s a sculpture of this boy

it just reminds me of my son playing in this area

so this is where we would come to play and he would read books rent movies um

go on the computer do videos and playing the park with all the kids

this is just where he grew up that’s where he grew up i just feel like i’ll be sitting with my

son okay

[Music]

you know i always think about all the things

all the things that you know i’m gonna miss

that’s a good idea

[Music] he was a hugger kiss her

every night he would come to my bed he’s like time to cuddle i hi there

i do yes that’s i miss a lot i miss that

a two-year-old is dead after finding a gun and right now this is not being considered a crime this is now the third

accidental shooting involving a child since friday he’s already missed two birthdays i’m hoping that kind of makes

it real for people they see he was 13 years old and already two

birthdays a split second that forever changes the lives of unsuspecting children who

mistake guns for toys all right we’ll see everybody at the gun show

nearly half of guns in this country are not locked away properly and guns accidentally kill kids in the u.s 10

times more often than any other developed country in the world it’s real people that it’s happening to

not just something you hear on the news year after year we see kids get killed little

kids get killed that you can’t survive but we got to do something about it

hopefully this will get a good message across i already know people that now they lock up their guns when they never

even thought about it before just such a small thing to do to save a life

kids are curious i’ve been teaching for 25 years i know the curiosities and why would we ever blame our children for

being who they are it’s our responsibility it was just unbelievable to me

that my son is gone and no one is held accountable

one day soon we’ll protect our children and uh

put our kids first bring a lock em up law here in washington

hundreds of kids under the age of 18 are being shot often by accident

clear your eyes with conviction let them be damned mothers are losing children and it’s got

to be stopped somehow it shouldn’t be that difficult of a decision to make to protect our children when it comes to

guns if they had only locked it up

my son would be here today [Music]

kaelin pryor was an indisputable rising star the 20 year old won a renowned modeling contest we talked about working

in law enforcement pendleton was an honor student a major ed at king and played on the school’s volleyball team

eleven-year-old shamaya adams loved to dance decided to go to culinary school

following senior at urban prep academy and on the basketball and viral student from prospective iii we just enrolled

that olive harvey come a young man full of promise and potential survived two tours of duty and our colleges were

scouting to begin a new job so talented lived a life of service my son tyrell was jolly he loved to tell jokes very

talented could sing his dream was to travel around the world and be this famous gospel bass player and he was on

his way [Music]

terrell was at church he took his girlfriend to church

he went early he had rehearsal with a choir that he was going to play with so when he came out to help his friend

get drunk to avocado somebody came by shooting

we was actually at home doing homework with our other two children and that’s the call we got the shooting

came just after 7 p.m outside this church on the city’s south side the goal of a parent is to save your child and

protect them you wonder did you do the right things did you do something wrong but tyrell was at a church he was on

church grounds the girl just should have been safe and he’s not here it was a summer night

she was sitting in the car with her friends they were on their way to a party on that block

and she was the only one that was shot and killed she wanted to be an attorney

she was 21 years old

i just never knew that the pain was that great

chicago’s violence problem is directly linked to the number of illegal guns the majority of which come from states with

weak gun laws 60 of guns found in chicago crime scenes are trafficked into the city from other

states over the past four years more than a thousand firearms seized in

chicago came from mississippi 695 guns found in chicago crime scenes

were originally sold in wisconsin in six years

3824 guns that were used in crimes which came from our next door neighbor indiana

chicago police said they have seized more than 6 500 illegal guns this year

130 illegal weapons each week more than 4 800 firearms one gun’s been seized

every 72 minutes most of the shootings took place in poor neighborhoods far

from downtown and tourist attractions one reason much of the city seems to be shrugging its shoulders

there’s more guns in our community than it’s books you’re sitting around the table

it’s not the same because you’re missing a person who should be at that table and a lot of times with me

i flash back to what he looked like what would he look like now you know would he be married

now would he have kids would we be grandparents then you watch the door hoping that they walk in

you know you just in your mind thinking that it’s gonna happen people don’t understand the pain of

losing a child it’s a horrible feeling and uh is you you go through depression so the first

year um the pain was so bad i tried to take my life i sat in the car and i let the

car run um trying to die from the carbon monoxide and then for some reason my guy must

have told me just stop i feel for chicago because it’s a bloodbath out here

[Music]

so

there are hundreds of gun shows that surround the city of chicago year round that are not subject to local gun laws

they are a major source of guns found at chicago crime scenes

gun shows were originally created for firearms enthusiasts sell their private collections and acquire other things for

their private collections five million people attend 5200 gun shows annually generating hundreds of

millions of dollars in sales for gun manufacturers

deontay wasn’t a really big outside person a lot of time i used to photos on him like don’t you have some friends or

something go outside sometime i was at work then about 11 o’clock

someone started calling me my phone started ringing and they were saying that deontay head got shot

i fainted a couple of times he asked me what was my son name and i

told him and then the first question he said to me was he in any gangs i’m like no he wasn’t any gangs

and why would you ask that you’re not a gang banger

in my hospital 54 kids got shot last year and they trickled through the news one at a time and then faded out of

people’s public conscience where is that outcry for these kids right it’s not happening all at once

it’s this chronic steady stream of violence in their lives and to think about those numbers in

those terms if you if you if you shift the way people think about it maybe they’ll get more mad about it

we know that since the 90s two million people have been prevented from buying firearms through federal background

checks those same two million people could very well easily have gone to the gun show in crown point indiana or some other gun

show and acquired a firearm without any trouble whatsoever

andrew holmes is a fixture at crime scenes in chicago consoling victims in times of grief

now he finds himself on the other side of a story that he knows all too well my daughter’s always calling me i really

thought that call that was coming in was her and he told me my daughter had been stopped

i worked very hard for many years as an activist to reduce gun violence

and work with so so many families and then it hits my home deep

my own daughter someone that just take my baby’s life

ain’t right

[Music]

[Music] they all know someone who was shot they

all love someone in their family who was shot or they’ve personally been shot what does that do to a community when

okay you have these 54 kids but what do their siblings think what do their parents think what do their cousins think how do they go through their lives

knowing that just getting shot is part of life he had just turned 18 in january he was

murdered in april and if i can go back you know if god would have allowed i would would have took that bullet i had

lived to be 40. so i had lived my life until it was just started

i do not believe that it does any good to extend the law to private sales

between hobbyists and collectors okay so you do not support mandatory background checks in all instances of

gun shows we do not

this is an easy hug right here because this is a highway straight to indiana you get on this highway here here

straight to indiana wherever they can have easy access to fighting guns

the city of chicago has strong gun control laws and oftentimes the nra will

point to that as an example and say see these things don’t work why is chicago dead last in enforcement

of the gun laws against gangs with guns felons with guns where they have a tremendous gun problem they have the

gangs many of them illegal immigrants by the way just to get onto guns are coming

from indiana across the border where there are much laxer laws and so folks will go to a gun show

purchase a whole bunch of firearms drive up into the south side of chicago open up

the trunk and those things are for sale they selling them without background checks not doing complete paperwork they

should be doing it shouldn’t be that easy to buy a gun i don’t need your address no background check

just showing me that you’re from omaha well that’s good about background check

because i probably couldn’t pass it i don’t care 40 of gun sales in our country don’t

require a background check it’s been trivialized by calling it the gun show loophole it’s not only the gun show loophole it’s the internet loophole it’s

the newspaper classified loophole

what is the cost to society overall right these kids have decades of life ahead of them what would they have done

if they didn’t get shot or who could they have been if they didn’t grow up in a community of violence

then of course there’s the city of chicago more people killed there last year than american troops killed in

afghanistan we’re going to take you now to chicago where this past weekend at least 52 people were shot eight of them

killed in a wave of violence across the city we are hearing about shootings it seems daily an 11 year old girl shot in

the head by a stray bullet died this morning the honorable student gunned down while walking with friends

seventeen-year-old was shot in the chest and killed last night another violent weekend

[Music]

good evening everyone at least five people have been killed by gunfire this holiday weekend 13 more wounded he had

told me that he wanted his mom to have a pendant for mother’s day because she had just been

promoted to lieutenant with the chicago fire department she had just started riding the bus

frequently after school being the only child and everything he loves school because he made so many

friends michael pace he planted his body next to this wall

and he waited for some people to get on the bus ahead of him and he got on with a 40 caliber semi-automatic firearm and he fired

several shots a breaking news story on chicago’s far south side five people are shot many of

the bus passengers were told were ducking behind the seats others were screaming for help all of the victims

are juveniles his body was still warm and i said man you know i said i just

talked to you yesterday i just talked to you 24 hours ago i always thought i put the right

protective barriers around them being an involved parent

he was a wonderful wonderful son

that’s right he was

he was a good kid [Music]

and that morning the phone rang and i’m not getting it because the kids you know they was like mom you need to get away

so i said no they keep on calling calling something ain’t right so i asked the phone my mother said

jeffrey they said he uh he’s dead i said who his dad his who they said the son the junior

and i said please tell me it’s not true this can’t be true and they say yes it is

and i just i just i find it i couldn’t deal with i just want to kill myself just take my life

because i you know i want all my kids there all of them and then said when somebody

take your child away who is them

top student his class his famous words was just about to take over the world a man waits

all his life for his son to get grown so you can have that conversation where you can talk you know speak man and man to

your son and now he’s gone it’s just snatched away i i didn’t speak i didn’t move

of anything you know it bonded like a wounded animal you don’t want to get up your heart feel like somebody just

ripping it apart it’s a terrible thing for any mother to lose their child

that’s pain that you never ever hit over no mother should ever bury a child we

our children supposed to bury us and going through it i feel for every mother

how many kids have to die african americans and latinos they don’t

manufacture they don’t make guns you know so how are they getting into

the community

follow the money to figure out whether the industry has anything to do with the

the flood of guns that hits our streets every year

says business has nearly doubled since this time last year gun stocks have been

doing amazingly this year they’ve got some of the biggest pension funds in our country

and every day you try to move forward and you turn on the tv and you see young kids the age of nine you’re back where

you started it’s just crazy in chicago right now and

in our aim they don’t care they just want to make their money

the pain is nine years for us it’ll be 10 next year the pain do not change it don’t go away you just learn how to put

your front face on and keep it moving

went to springfield um and we was talking to the representatives and we had uh todd there

from the nra and we was explaining you know our children we don’t have my babies and he was like well we need money we need jobs

we need money so i i get it that the nra they don’t care about our children’s lives they

scare americans into saying okay you better go buy your guns because you’re going to have laws that’s going to keep guns out

of your hands no that’s not true they know it’s not true

[Music]

we’ve been asking them forever to be a little more responsible a little more restrictive and how they’re selling of

guns they just ignore us because it’s a money issue it’s all about money and the villages really have left them

alone because it’s a big tax base

[Music]

[Music]

chuck’s gun shop was one of the largest tax revenues in the village of riverdale behind me over my shoulder that’s

chuck’s gun shop it is so close you can literally walk from here to the chicago border on the

south side of chicago right now in chicago you can’t have a gun store but here on the outside it’s

legal to have a gun store

a lot of our guns that’s in our city that’s killing our children is coming from this particular store

we want to hold this village accountable because you allow these guns to travel into our community so the village should

be responsible they’re making great tax revenue from these gunshots a lot of these guns are coming from the white

community into the black neighborhoods and our children lives are being taken in an effort to stop the gun violence in

their neighborhoods a chicago community group now is suing three suburbs over the sale of weapons they’re supposed to

put up a camera and videotape the people that’s making the purchases what people

do is they’re coming to a gun store and purchase a gun and knowing that they purchase it for somebody else so we need them to train

the attendants too that’s the sun the guns and identify when the straw purchase is taking place community

activists who are plaintiffs in this lawsuit accused the village of lions and two other municipalities of closing

their eyes to shady practices by gun dealers so they can benefit from revenue brought into their towns by the gun

stores the lawsuit calls for the villages to mandate employee background checks prevent straw purchases implement

anti-theft measures and maintain a log of gun sales that are later recovered from chicago crime scenes what we found

is that many people support the measures that we’re asking for the turnaround was in three months i was surprised that it

went that fast so i’m you know i’m grateful that this gun shop wants to help us to save lives in

chicago and we just wanted to commend the village of alliance for taking the first step in the lead in this mission

to reduce easy access to guns to individuals that shouldn’t have them i

believe in activism we won’t have to change things that’s the only way they shut down state street for a time

marching with a message [Music]

something has to be done they should want to change the laws i mean everything shouldn’t be about money

[Music]

[Music]

[Applause] good night

carrie was uh two months early they didn’t give him a whole lot of hope and he just blew everybody away sarah

started dancing when she was four he had a skipping phase where he just skipped everywhere he went

she also did a lot of theater i think her first role might have been an annie she was a little girl that said oh my

goodness oh my goodness harry wanted comic books they’re not comic books mom they’re graphic novels

she was in fifth or sixth grade when she expressed her real love of science and research

from that early on he was the sweetest little boy in the world i’m not saying it was perfect but he was pretty darn

close but i’m the mother

i remember hearing about him before i met him i remember noticing that he was a good looking guy

because i have eyes i didn’t actually think of dating him but we were really good friends that first year

[Music]

i remember talking to a friend of mine and saying gosh it’s you know it’s hard to meet a decent guy like and she was

like well we should just fix each other up and i was like oh you should go out with this guy i know he’s such a sweetheart and she looked at

me and she was like that would be pointless and i was like why he’s great you’re great like what’s what’s the big deal

and she was like sarah he’s already in love with you and i was like no that’s not true

um but she was right [Music]

we started hearing more and more about sarah but nobody was really serious in his life

until sarah like i think a lot of fathers i was a little skeptical at first carrie was a big flirt like it

bothered my dad when he first met him he was like i don’t know about this guy he doesn’t seem serious enough

[Music]

friends of his from high school were getting married so we were going to albuquerque i’ve never been to new mexico worst case scenario and you i see

a new state best case scenario something happens we went to the wedding and then we drove up

to taos we got up there and we hiked around and we went to dinner it was sunset

in the desert which is gorgeous he had arranged for us to stay in a teepee

and we walked up to it and it was glowing and i thought well that’s

strange he pulled back the flap to the teepee

for me and i stepped in there are rose petals and candles everywhere

and i turned around and i gasped because he was down on my knee

and he asked me to marry him and i burst into tears

and said yes and and that was how he proposed

[Music]

it ended up to be quite a long engagement she was in school and

kerry was in school we met my first year at law school law school doesn’t leave you a lot of

time for interests outside of school carrie and i would get together for geek nights as sort of stress relief during

the school year we would watch star trek buffy the vampire slayer galaxy quest we

watched that one he had an engagement ring that he wore with sarah’s birthstone in it they

clearly loved each other and they were excited to get married i want to get buried in my backyard

the caterer was going to take some recipes that my husband makes and create those for the larger group of people i

worked on the rehearsal dinner we flattened out an area for the tents sarah and i were going to go pick

flowers and get her bouquet ready sarah had picked out a couple of flavors of the cake the invitations were done by

our close friend the hardest we struggled on anything was the guest list i come from a big family carrie comes

from a big family we had over 100 people and that’s no friends none of our

friends coming to our wedding we went to the bridal shop i remember

the colors on the dress she had it was ivory

it just picked up the colors in her hair and she glowed

it was just amazing and so i saw my daughter before she saw herself

as a bride in that dress she was just so beautiful

[Music] he started having problems in his wrist

and at first i thought it was just a lot of typing and things that he was doing for law school and it was getting

progressively worse the pain that he was in was nerve pain that was unremitting and nobody could

tell him what was wrong he had to wear sweatpants he couldn’t operate a zipper he couldn’t operate a snap

he had to wear velcro shoes waiting is sometimes the hardest part

when you’re really not feeling well and you don’t know why he was just going to fly home to albuquerque because his

dad’s a doctor it was just going to be easier to get them treated i remember him talking about dancing at

the wedding and he wouldn’t be able to dance at the wedding and sarah said i’ll dance with you in a wheelchair doesn’t matter to me

there was talk of doing some treatment down in new mexico and that was part of the reason for going there during the

summer we were over at his apartment loading up the moving van with all his possessions he

mentioned that we might meet up for dinner and have you know last

meal and then he’d fly off and he called his dad for father’s day

he wished me happy father’s day and most of the conversation was about

planning to pick him up at the airport so i was looking forward to getting them at the airport

sarah either called or texted and asked if i had heard from carrie because

he hadn’t arrived on his flight [Music]

it was a little strange that he wouldn’t call me before leaving but i thought well maybe he figures

he’ll just call me from albuquerque and that would be you know that was going to be fine

darcy called me and said that kerry missed his flight and nobody had heard from him since the night before

[Music] i called sarah and i said you’ve been

able to reach carrie i couldn’t get in contact with him one of his friends was like sarah you should call the hospitals

and i called the airport instead because i didn’t want to call the hospital

because i wanted him to be at the airport

you know maybe he woke up late and had to run off to the airport and didn’t get a chance to call people

so i told jordan i was on my way over to carrie’s place and jordan said that he would meet me over there

we were knocking on carrie’s door not getting any answer then we

kind of walked around the apartment looked in the window you couldn’t really see over into the

bedroom we circled around the other side and were looking in the living room

the blinds were cracked open a little bit and i could see carrie laying on the floor

i heard jordan yell i can see him and i came around the living room side

and you could see carrie’s feet and legs so we

ran over to the apartment managers to have somebody let us into the apartment

the manager went in and jordan went in behind him jordan told me not to go in

the look on jordan’s face he was white is the sheet

[Music]

i called sarah he said sarah we found him but

and he just stopped you know he just stopped talking i said you have you have to say it

and he said he’s dead i think i said thank you

and then i just started screaming no

over and over until i go ahead and sorry until i couldn’t anymore

my phone rang and it was sarah and she was hysterical

she said mommy’s gone he’s gone she said carrie’s gone

and she was so far away and i couldn’t be there

i was down here working

i’ll never forget it and uh

she said carrie’s dead

then i heard gary’s mom screaming the background

i knew that he was supposed to come in town that day and so when she called i expected it to be he’s here let’s do

this i remember driving to my parents house on the way to talk to them and i knew at that point that something had

happened to my brother but i didn’t know what it was she just said carrie’s dead

that was june 24th and that’s

a little less than a month before carrie’s excuse me his 28th birthday

and about a month and a half um

before we were supposed to get married

wonder griefy had some accident or somebody had broken into his apartment and was he’d been murdered i expected a

car crash or a plane crash or something i figured maybe he was sick

you know i don’t think it was until the police told me that he’d shot himself that i would have ever believed it i remember saying like are we sure

are we sure that’s what happened like maybe somebody broke into his house and made it look that way but it can’t

be this it didn’t make sense it didn’t fit it wasn’t gary

i couldn’t believe it never in a million years would i have seen carrie doing something like that

my parents told me he killed himself i remember crumpling to the floor my mom’s kitchen

and disbelief [Music]

nobody saw it coming i remember another one of carrie’s friends telling

me that it was uh that was a gun how did he get a gun

and then i realized that’s a really stupid question anybody can get a gun

he didn’t do anything illegal to get it nobody broke any laws there was no

reason legally why carrie shouldn’t have a gun except for that he was in extreme emotional and physical

distress i grew up in a rural community i grew up with people

where hunting is a way of life where you know kids get their first

gun at a young age and every responsible gun owner i know

will tell you that not everybody should have a gun

i was so angry at how easy it is to get a gun

you have to get a license for your dog you have to get a title to have a house

certainly something that could kill somebody in a split second there should be some kind

of regulation if lettuce makes you sick you can sue the lettuce companies if

your car doesn’t work the way it should be you can you can sue car companies if

if you or a loved one is harmed by a gun you have no legal recourse

because that’s the way they want it just the same

as if there were a disease guns should be a public health issue

if i could help to prevent anybody else

from doing this i wanted to do what i could

this is a medical issue it’s a public health issue the public isn’t safe

it’s not just us it’s not just cary it’s

it’s an epidemic really a man legally buys a gun in a pawn shop in oklahoma

city monday morning moments later he used that very same gun to kill himself billings police are investigating a

shooting at the billings west end walmart matt warren committed suicide police believe he shot and killed

himself took his own life in 2000

every year gun suicides consistently outnumber gun homicides by about 50

percent suicide is an impulse

it’s a decision taken in a really dire circumstance that

almost always resolves

if there had been a waiting period of two days three days

all those people who were missing him when they couldn’t get in touch with him would have found him

local officials are contemplating a new law that will require a 24-hour waiting period to force people to quote unquote

think before they ink if he had waited three days

he’d be here

he’d be here starting today the arizona motor vehicle division will extend the waiting period

between driver’s license test retakes in an effort to keep things safe on arizona streets the division has changed the

one-day wait time to a full week there was a receipt for the gun

and it looked like he probably had bought it like maybe over before he did it

and i kept it if you just had a moment just you wouldn’t have done this

waiting periods only inconvenience people like me that when i go shopping i don’t want to be inconvenienced i want

what i want and i like it now your circumstances change you get help

and giving people the chance to get help makes a huge difference

[Music] gun companies benefit by people being able to go in and buy a gun whenever they want it

rather than having to wait several days i have opposed waiting periods for gun

purchases profit is the driving issue in anything

and if there became profit and gun legislation i’m sure that politics would get right behind that one

gun companies want to sell guns that’s that’s what they’re in business to do and they profit enormously from this

whole this whole business [Music]

i think a parent’s worst nightmare is the death of their child

and unfortunately guns are the means of that death all too

often

haven’t been able to go back to my office i can’t walk in

i had to retire i tried

you know these are deadly weapons they’re they’re inherently unsafe this is the hardest thing i’ve ever had

to do most people i know don’t even know about my son killing

himself i’ve never been able to talk about it

but i don’t want anyone else to have to suffer like this i just think people need to stand up and

speak out and let their lawmakers know how they feel about it

if i had been the one who died he wouldn’t have stopped

he would have he would have screamed himself hoarse he wouldn’t have have

let things continue as they are and so

even though i’m the shyer one i’m the one who doesn’t like to put herself out there

something carrie taught me is is that when something’s wrong say it’s wrong and if you can do something to make it

better you do and it doesn’t matter how hard it is you should still do it

[Music]

[Music]

in the store did you have any difficulty with people really follow you no because i didn’t care

how much ammunition did you buy at the time um

was that ever a problem

[Music]

i could buy all that stuff and nobody would notice that it’s dangerous

that’s a long time [Music]

[Music]

an asylum or something to be tournamental you’ll get more and more with

the weapons kind of [Music] fulfilling the mission on their own

depressed situation where i transfer my feelings from suicidal thoughts and make

them go away by having homicidal thoughts

[Music] i usually work like the ten to four shift the opening of the restaurant so

i’m the first server on to get everything ready being nine months pregnant it was exhausting but i pushed

through especially knowing we were going to a midnight showing i just needed to make money i worked for

legacy traffic management we were temporary traffic control i was working that day i went to get pizza for everybody for

helping us move into the house aj went to my brother’s to mow his yard

to make money so he could go to the movie i’ve been a police officer

for over 32 years i come home he said hey thanks for mowing the yard

she says well you can thank your nephew aj he came over and mowed him i said well how much did you pay him she says

40. i said 40 bucks i’ll mow it for 40 dollars for gosh takes [Music]

that night at hula it was the first time we were gonna dance fire poi i’d message him come over and watch this it’s so

cool and he said he was gonna go watch hula before they went to the movie

so i said all right you know i love you and then he left

it was like we were going to the super bowl we were so so excited to see this movie

i was going there to meet my friends from red robin and i was bringing

my i brought my two children with me i picked up my friend ryan from there we drove to the movie theater

oh well it’s somewhat dangerous because i put tension windows

like a film tinted window film on my windows so that i could gear up inside the car

but it doesn’t let much light in so it’s hard to drive in the park

it was just packed there was hardly any place to park myself and my children we arrived fairly early my mom actually

dropped my sister and i off our friends had already told us like we’re already in line there’s already a line for me so

like make your way over here as soon as you can and you can tell a lot of them were like comic-con like regulars so it

was really exciting

right across from the theater night emergency exit

then i need to put the stuff on and get all the weapons

we bought the big platform and then we got a soda and we always got cherries we had all of our snacks we were

i guess you could say prepared vegan at the time but i decided to have some fun so i had some nachos hot dogs

for movie tickets from the dashboard oh people were super pumped clapping like super screaming throwing popcorn there’s

a lot of turning there’s a lot of excitement the house lights go down and it’s starting to get dark

so [Music]

[Applause]

it finally starts and i actually remember having to slow my breathing

because i was really pumped up and excited for what was to come

it’s really going to happen i heard the hissing

burning my chest and my throat just completely closed up

and like you couldn’t even swallow there was smoke everywhere there was tear gas

[Applause]

[Music]

received [Applause]

oh my god

i had only 100 to 200 rounds maybe like

once i couldn’t fix it pops down the air 15.

[Music]

[Music]

i need to bring aurora on the phone okay do not hang up [Music]

[Applause]

there were ambulance from different counties there’s police officers get us some damn gas masks for figure 9 we

can’t get in it christine i got seven down

[Music] [Applause]

so much

to update you on the situation if you’re just now joining us at least 14 dead 50

injured a lot of those injuries are severe

[Music]

i was sleeping of course and then i heard somebody knocking on the door

and i opened it up and it was aj’s friend and he said you need to turn on the tv

i was sleeping uh phone rang about 2 30.

and it’s teresa she’s screaming on the phone

she said i don’t know where he is i said who what are you talking about she said hey

jay i said he’s at the movies she says no no no i don’t know where he is i don’t know where he is she says i i

can’t i don’t know where he is i can’t get a hold of him so what are you talking about

she said turn the tv on

we just pulled up straight to the emergency doors

they saw my face all bloody and me being pregnant and bryson saying there was a shooting at the theater

we need help she’s pregnant

we went into the gymnasium and hundreds of people in there waiting

so we go to the high school and i um you know we wait and i saw an officer

walk by with a little kid in his arms

la samoa which is aj’s girlfriend she uh she still had aj’s blood on her

when we saw her

we go to the cafeteria and we slowly start watching people leave

so we waited and we waited and waited and waited

they started whittling this crowd down to where there were only a few people

left in the gymnasium

and so we stayed there the whole 18 hours and my mom and dad

my brothers and sisters and my sister-in-laws

they all came down there 18 and a half hours later is when they

finally told us

i started screaming and i sat down in the middle of the floor and i just screamed

she collapsed at that point i had to carry her pretty much back to

back just take care of her it was heartbreaking

[Music] i’ve never heard a woman cry because the lies of a child

horrible it’s awful

when it’s your sister

it makes it worse

nobody needs to very child in this way

the horrific and devastating effects on our family

and continue to be and we’ll always be part of our family [Music]

i don’t understand why someone would need a high powered rifle like that

he could put out 100 rounds of ammunition in a very short amount of time do you need that many rounds

i guess you do if you’re gonna go kill a lot of people they’re not used for anything but killing massive amounts of people in the

smallest amount of time [Music]

if they had something in place where a red flag would go off when you buy x amount of bullets or x amount of guns

then maybe we could have saved more people nobody should go through this

nobody should go through this i wouldn’t wish this on anyone and unfortunately it’s becoming all too

common in the wake of the colorado shootings aurora residents came together to pray

to weep to remember and then they went and bought guns

gun sales rise after mass shootings it happens after the shooting rampage in aurora colorado gun sales are rising

across the country and so is the stock price of america’s biggest gun makers the numbers are driven by a basic

emotion fear fair sells the fear that’s sold in our communities

i use firearms in my daily job and i can tell you this these guys are making a

lot of money every time one of these incidents happens and to preserve all of our freedoms we

must get larger we must get stronger greater in financial resources

these individuals from the nra are very good about giving away money to these individuals if they’ll fight their fight

for them the proposed assault weapons ban is a singularly ineffective piece of

legislation

the issue of assault weapons is a phony it’s purely emotional and designed to do

nothing but frighten the american people

[Music] there was a big hubbub about assault style rifles and and actually what it

was was just the cosmetic look of those guns

you don’t hunt with a an ak-47 you don’t go hunting with an ar-15 unless you’re hunting humans

my nephew had the right to live to grow and to be a beautiful young man and he was

but he had the right to get a job and to have a family and have children and that was taken away

i from you

she went to a theater to see a movie and was killed people go to their churches and they get

slaughtered that’s not what we should be standing for

columbine didn’t need to happen virginia tech didn’t need to happen aurora didn’t need to happen

colorado started the universal background checks almost 700 people that have been denied access to firearms

think of how many individuals that we have prevented from doing something stupid this legislation is saving lives

if anybody can be prevented from getting that phone call that i got from my sister

it’s worth it [Music]

we’ve had so many issues over the years so many killings and for us just to say we’re not going to do anything it’s

unacceptable we’re going to stop

we can’t do this alone we all have to work towards this common goal of stopping the madness

today is the day now is the time [Music]

but you know

[Music]

[Music]

me dreams

guns kill over 33 000 people in america every year while the gun industry made

over 11 billion why don’t you join me join me join me and brave new films in stopping the nra

and the gun lobby from making a killing

[Music]

now for this part

[Music]

streams [Music]

the overwhelming majority of americans agree with common sense reforms but too

many members of congress remain in the pocket of the gun lobby and that has got to change

[Applause] [Music]

is [Music]

this

if we use the resources that we have and if we use the investments that we make in other problems hey we can do

something about this of course we could what about the freedom for all of us to live in an america that’s not under the

threat of gun violence every single day we cannot wait for another tragedy before we act we need people to stand up

to talk to your friends to build an army of activists that sends the message across our country we can do it together

this is our movement this is our time

[Music]

carries lost souls

[Music]

[Music]

[Music]

[Music]

[Music]

[Music]

you

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