Bowling for Columbine (2002)

1. The National Rifle Association has produced a film

2. which you are sure to find of great interest.

3. Let's look at it.

4. - It was the morning of April 20th, 1999.

5. And it was pretty much like any other morning in America.

6. The farmer did his chores,

7. the milkman made his deliveries,

8. the president bombed another country

9. whose name we couldn't pronounce.

10. Out in Fargo, North Dakota,

11. Carry McWilliams went on his morning walk.

12. Back in Michigan, Mrs. Hughes welcomed her students

13. for another day of school.

14. And out in a little town in Colorado,

15. two boys went bowling

16. at six in the morning.

17. Yes, it was a typical day in the United States

18. of America.

19. - Can I help you? - yeah,

20. I'm here to open up an account.

21. - Okay, what type of account would you like?

22. - I want the account where I can, get the free gun.

23. - Okay.

24. - I'd spotted an ad in the local Michigan paper

25. that said if you opened an account at North Country Bank,

26. the bank would give you a gun. - You do a CD

27. and we'll hand you a gun.

28. We have a whole brochure here that you can look at.

29. Once we do the background check and everything,

30. it's yours to go. - Okay. Well, all right,

31. well, that's the account I'd like to open.

32. We have a vault, which at all times we keep at least

33. 500 firearms. - Five-hundred of these,

34. you have in your vault? - In our vault.

35. - Wow.

36. - We have to do a background check.

37. - At the bank here? - At the bank,

38. which we are a licensed firearm dealer.

39. - Oh, you are? You're a bank and a licensed firearm dealer.

40. What do I put for "race"? White or Caucasian or…?

41. - Caucasian. - Caucasian.

42. - I knew you were gonna make me spell the… Cau-ca-sian.

43. Is that right? - Yes.

44. I don't think that's the part they're gonna be worried about.

45. "Have you ever been adjudicated mentally defective

46. or have you ever been committed to a mental institution?"

47. I've never been committed to a mental institution.

48. What does that mean,

49. "Have I ever been adjudicated mentally defective"?

50. - It would be something involved with a crime.

51. So if I'm just normally mentally defective but not criminal…

52. - Yeah, exactly.

53. - There you go, Mike. - Okay. Thank you very much. Wow.

54. - I had one personally— - That's a nice tension.

55. - It is and it's a straight-shooter,

56. let me tell ya.

57. - Wow. Sweet.

58. Well, here's my first question: You think

59. it's a little dangerous, handing out guns in a bank?

60. - Ten-ho!

61. - Each gun makes lots of battle sounds.

62. Just press the trigger, and listen.

63. - That sounds like a gun battle. Over there.

64. - Is it real? - Looks like real!

65. Hey, it sounds like real!

66. - Right! The Sound-O-Power military and western rifles

67. by Marx!

68. - This was my first gun.

69. I couldn't wait to go outside and shoot up the neighbourhood.

70. Those were the days. "I was born

71. "in Michigan

72. "and I wish and wish again that I was back

73. "in the town where I was born"

74. - By the time I was a teenager,

75. I was such a good shot

76. I won the National Rifle Association's

77. Markman award. You see,

78. I grew up in Michigan,

79. a gun-lover's paradise.

80. And so did this man,

81. the Oscar-winning actor and president

82. of the National Rifle Association,

83. Mr. Charlton Heston.

84. We come from a state where everyone

85. loves to go hunting.

86. - Hah. - Even the dogs.

87. - There were actually two of the hunters at camp.

88. They thought they'd get a few pictures

89. of the dog dressed up as a hunter

90. to kind of just have some fun around camp.

91. And one of the guys had the idea that,

92. "Why don't we sling a rifle on the dog's back

93. to make the pictures a little more interesting.

94. The victim was kneeling down in front of the dog

95. when the weapon slipped.

96. The one round went through the victim's shin,

97. the right part of his shin,

98. and came out through the back of his calf.

99. - Was the dog hauled off for any period of time by the police?

100. - No, it wasn't. No.

101. in Michigan, the law basically states

102. that people can commit crimes that animals

103. aren't some… form of, you know,

104. whatever that can commit a crime.

105. - An animal cannot commit a crime

106. or be charged with a crime in this state.

107. - Exactly. - Is it possible that the dog

108. knew what it was doing? - That, I don't know.

109. I really wouldn't be able to tell you that.

110. The dog was cute dressed up as a hunter,

111. there's no doubt about it. I mean, it was a funny picture,

112. you know, to look at.

113. It was… it was kind of neat.

114. - Yup, this was the kind of place I was from.

115. A box

116. of 270s. - Coming up.

117. There you go. - Perfect.

118. Oh, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

119. Sorry about that, sorry.

120. - So I've been discharged.

121. - You don't need no gun control. You know what you need?

122. We need some bullet control.

123. We need to control the bullets, that's right.

124. I think all bullets should cost $5,000.

125. $5,000 for a bullet. You know why?

126. 'Cause if a bullet cost $5,000,

127. there'd be no more innocent bystanders.

128. Every time

129. somebody get shot, people are,

130. "Damn, he must've did something."

131. See, they put $50,000's worth of bullets in his ass!"

132. And people'd think before they killed somebody

133. for a bullet that cost $5,000!

134. "Man, I would blow your fucking head off —

135. if I could afford it."

136. I'm gonna get me another job,

137. I'm gonna start saving some money, and you a dead man.

138. You better hope I can't get no bullets on layaway.

139. - Not far from where Charlton Heston and I grew up

140. is a training ground for the Michigan Militia.

141. Why do you use the bowling pins?

142. - From a self-defence or whatever tactical standpoint,

143. it's a small target, which also represents

144. the vitals on a… on a human being,

145. if you ever had to shoot at one.

146. - The Michigan Militia became known around the world

147. when, on April 19th, 1995, two guys living in Michigan

148. who had attended Militia meetings,

149. Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols,

150. blew up the federal building

151. in Oklahoma City,

152. killing 168 people.

153. The Michigan Militia wanted everyone to know

154. that they were nothing like McVeigh and Nichols.

155. - This is an American tradition.

156. It's an American responsibility to be armed.

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

158. Who's gonna defend your kids, the cops?

159. The federal government? No, none of them.

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

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

162. as an American. Period.

163. - We're here to let them know we're here to help.

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

165. We're here to help and defend the people of this country.

166. - I'm sure you guys are the kind of people

167. that people would like to have as their neighbour.

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

169. - Pretty much. We're all normal people. We all have regular jobs

170. and this is what we do on our time.

171. - What kind of a job do you have? - I'm a draftsman.

172. - How about you? - Unemployed right now.

173. - Frank, what do you do for a living?

174. - I work for a heat trading company.

175. I drive a truck for 'em. - Okay. How about you?

176. - I'm a real-estate negotiator - Real-estate negotiator!

177. - White collar all the way.

178. - You don't bring that with you, though, do you,

179. when you're negotiating the real estate?

180. - No.

181. - Where do you live, in suburban—

182. - Westland. - So what do you have

183. in your home? - Smith & Wesson 9-millimetre.

184. - Nine-millimetre? - Yeah.

185. - And how about you? - With hollow points.

186. - Twelve gage.

187. - Twelve gage at home? - Yeah.

188. - How about you? - M-16.

189. - At home? - Yeah.

190. At the ready. - I don't agree with that,

191. 'cause you gotta worry about where your arms are going.

192. - I know where they're gonna go when I aim and shoot.

193. - Whose idea was the calendar?

194. - That'd probably be Christian.

195. - A picture's worth 1,000 words. A) it demonstrates a level

196. of sophistication that you wouldn't expect out of Militia;

197. B) you know,

198. we're people too. - Right.

199. - And we have a lot of fun with it.

200. - Right. - There was a fundraiser.

201. It showed, that we're not so serious, you know.

202. We're not these conspiracy nuts who wouldn't want our pictures

203. to get out. The idea… it was a fundraiser, you know…

204. - I've had guns…

205. pretty much since I was old enough to…

206. to have them. And I learned how to use them…

207. You're silly!

208. because being a female, number one,

209. I felt it was important to be able to protect myself

210. with the best means possible.

211. And one of those means is having a gun.

212. When a criminal breaks into your house,

213. who's the first person you're gonna call?

214. Most people will call the police because they have guns.

215. Cut out the middleman. Take care of your own family yourself.

216. If you're not going to protect your family, who is?

217. - We're not racist, we're not extremist,

218. we're not fundamentalist, we're not terrorists or militants

219. or other such nonsense. - We're citizens.

220. - We're just concerned citizens. We have a desire

221. to fulfil our responsibilities and duties as Americans,

222. and armed citizenry is part of that.

223. - What do you grow here? - Right now, there's tofu beans,

224. soy beans. Tofu-soy beans.

225. - You're a tofu farmer. - Yeah. Yeah, food farmer.

226. I'm a food farmer. - Food.

227. - I grow food for people to eat.

228. No herbicides, no pesticides on that stuff.

229. - Right. All natural. - Right.

230. - Yeah. Better. - Certified organic.

231. - Healthier. - Yeah.

232. Basically, yeah.

233. This is James Nichols, the brother of Terry Nichols.

234. James graduated from high school the same year I did,

235. in the district next to mine.

236. On this farm in Decker, Michigan,

237. McVeigh and the Nichols brothers made practice bombs

238. before Oklahoma City.

239. Terry and James were both arrested in connection

240. to the bombing. U.S. attorneys

241. formally linked the Nichols brothers of Michigan

242. with Oklahoma bomb suspect Timothy McVeigh.

243. Officials charged James, who was at the hearing,

244. and Terry, who was not, with conspiring

245. to make and possess small bombs.

246. - Terry Nichols was convicted and received a life sentence.

247. Timothy McVeigh was executed. But the feds

248. didn't have the goods on James,

249. so the charges were dropped. - I'm just glad

250. to be out and free, so I can get on with my life.

251. - Did Timothy McVeigh ever stay here?

252. - Yes. Yes. He stayed here several times.

253. For the longest period, about three months or so, I dunno.

254. But, he was a nice guy.

255. - Decent guy? - Oh, yeah.

256. - They didn't find anything on this farm.

257. - As to what,

258. bomb-making material? - Any kind of explosives.

259. - yeah, I had blasting caps, dynamite blasting caps,

260. dynamite fuse, black powder, you know?

261. For muzzle loaders and… Sure.

262. Diesel fuel, fertilizer, but, that is normal farm stuff

263. that is no way connected any way whatsoever to,

264. the Oklahoma City bombing or bomb making.

265. Them people - law enforcement, if you wanna call 'em that -

266. were here and they were shaking in their shoes.

267. They were physically shaking. Scared to death.

268. - Of?

269. - Because they thought this was gonna be another Waco.

270. Because certain people…

271. namely my ex-wife and other people,

272. said I'm a radical, I'm a wild man,

273. I got a gun under every arm, down every leg and every shoe,

274. every corner of the house.

275. You say anything to me, I'll shoot ya.

276. If the people find out how they've been ripped off

277. and… and enslaved in this country by the government,

278. by the powers-to-be…

279. they will revolt, with anger,

280. with merciless anger.

281. There'll be blood running in the streets.

282. When a government turns tyrannical,

283. it is your duty to overthrow it.

284. - Well, why not use Gandhi's way?

285. He didn't have any guns,

286. and he beat the British empire.

287. - I'm not familiar with that.

288. - Oscoda has a bad habit of raising psychos.

289. Bad habit of it.

290. - This is Brent.

291. And this is his buddy DJ.

292. They live in Oscoda, Michigan,

293. across the bay from the Nichols farm.

294. Eric Harris,

295. who would later go on to commit the massacre

296. at Columbine High School in Colorado,

297. spent part of his childhood here.

298. Eric lived on the air-force base in Oscoda,

299. where his dad flew planes during the Gulf War.

300. Twenty percent of all the bombs dropped in that war

301. were from planes that took off from Oscoda.

302. I asked Brent if he remembered anything about Eric.

303. - I never knew him, but I knew of him.

304. He left here before I got here. I've only lived here seven years

305. off and on. - He was about the same age

306. as you, so you must have people in your class—

307. - A friend of mine knows him, he was in class with him.

308. He's lived here all his life.

309. - I went to school with him and it shocked me to hear it

310. on the news.

311. That especially a kid from here would be doing that.

312. - I didn't last too long in high school.

313. I got kicked out, I got expelled.

314. - Why was that? - I had a run-in with a kid

315. one time and I pulled a weapon on him, I pulled a gun on him.

316. - What kind of gun? - Nine-millimetre.

317. I could've made a mess out of that situation.

318. - Could've been worse. - Could've been a lot worse.

319. - Could've been Eric Harris. - It could've been.

320. - So they kicked you out? - Yeah, they kicked me out

321. for 380 days or 165 days, whatever a full school year is.

322. - For the longest time, that's what my plan was, to move out

323. to Colorado. - Colorado?

324. - 'Cause I've got family out there.

325. Matter of fact, one of my uncles is a janitor

326. for Columbine School.

327. - Really? - Yeah.

328. - After Columbine, what was it like here in Oscoda?

329. - My name was second-highest on the bomb list,

330. because of the reputation you get in this town.

331. - Why? You mean they did a list of—

332. - Of suspects. - Of students who potentially—

333. - Yeah. - …would call in a bomb threat

334. after Columbine? - Yes.

335. - And you were number two on the list?

336. - I was second or third on the list, yeah.

337. - Why is that? - Because the whole fact is,

338. like I said, this town really gets people down.

339. - Yeah, but why did they single you out?

340. - Because I was a troubled kid. - You were in trouble in school?

341. - Oh, yeah. Why did they put you

342. number two on their list, after Columbine,

343. of the students that could be a threat?

344. Come on, there must be a reason. - Well, okay. The thing is,

345. I have a thing, it's called the "Anarchist Cookbook."

346. It shows you how to make bombs and stuff like that.

347. If there's anything that went wrong,

348. they're gonna come to me first.

349. And I don't need that. - Just 'cause you owned a copy

350. of the book? - Just because I own a copy—

351. - Never made a bomb yourself? - No. Oh, I've made 'em.

352. It was nothing big; it wasn't even as big as a pipe bomb.

353. It was just… some make it like a little tennis-ball bomb

354. or something like that.

355. Out of the "Anarchist Cookbook," the latest thing I built…

356. I think, would have to be… I think I made it, like,

357. about a good five-gallon drum of napalm.

358. You know, homemade napalm.

359. - Kids knew that you were doing this?

360. - Yeah. - So you were number two, then,

361. on the list. - Right.

362. - Who was number one? - I don't know.

363. They never told me that name. Which kind of made me mad.

364. 'Cause I didn't make it to number one.

365. I know it's kind of silly, but I guess

366. it'd been kind of an ego thing, knowing that I was number one

367. at something in Oscoda, even if it was a bomb-threat list.

368. - Do you believe it was right

369. to blow up the building in Oklahoma City?

370. I'm not saying you did it. - No. No, no, no.

371. - I'm just saying: was it right? - Why was it "blowed up"?

372. That's a good question. Why was that building "blowed up"?

373. And who blew it up? - But if someone did it,

374. it would be wrong. - Yeah.

375. - It is wrong to take the lives of those people.

376. - Yeah.

377. I use the pen. 'Cause the pen is mightier than the sword.

378. But you always must keep a sword handy, for when the pen fails.

379. I sleep with a.44 Magnum under my pillow.

380. - Come on… That's what everyone says.

381. Is that true? - It's true.

382. - If we were to go— - The whole world knows that.

383. - …look under your pillow right now, would we see a.44 Magnum?

384. - Yeah. - Honestly?

385. Would you take us and show us? Right now?

386. He took me into his bedroom, but told the cameraman

387. to stay out. Sure enough,

388. there was a.44 Magnum under his pillow.

389. There it is. Okay. Is it loaded?

390. - Aye-yay-yay.

391. - Okay. I believe you.

392. AND PUT IT TO HIS TEMPLE.

393. Don't do that!

394. You put the gun to your head. - I know!

395. - Jeez! - I'm not gonna get hurt!

396. - This is loaded. - It's loaded, it's safe.

397. You've got to pull the trigger, pull the hammer and shoot it.

398. - Mm, put the hammer back. - No one has a right to tell me

399. that I can't have it. That is protected

400. in our constitution. - Where's it say a handgun

401. is protected? - No, gun. We should…

402. Every citizen— - It doesn't say "gun"!

403. It says "arms." - Arms. What is arms?

404. - Could be a nuclear weapon. - It's not these— That's right,

405. it could be a nuclear weapon! - You think you should have

406. the right to have weapons-grade plutonium here on the farm?

407. - We should be able to have anything—

408. - Should you have weapons-grade plutonium?

409. - I don't want it. - But should you have the right

410. to have it if you did want it? - That should be restricted.

411. - Ah! Ah, so you do believe in some restrictions.

412. - Well, there's wackos out there.

413. "Happiness is a warm gun

414. "Bang bang shoot shoot" The town of Virgin,

415. Utah, has passed a law requiring all residents to own guns.

416. - Cary McWilliams proudly displays the target

417. he used to pass his shooting test.

418. But the thing is, he can't see it.

419. He's blind.

420. Cary has had a love affair with guns

421. since he first got his hands on an M-16 as a teenager.

422. - I'm actually most comfortable with assault rifles.

423. - Woo-hoo!

424. - This is a great place to raise your children.

425. A really great place to raise your kids.

426. Very close-knit community we have here.

427. Everybody looks out for everybody.

428. - Good people. - Good people.

429. - This just happens to be a place where two young men

430. made very bad, very wrong decisions.

431. And there's been international notoriety as a result of it.

432. Other than that,

433. I don't know that Littleton is a lot different

434. than a whole lot of other suburban communities.

435. - Good morning, Mr. Edwards, members of the board.

436. I'd like to report that I've found the perfect location

437. for our new corporate office, South Metro Denver.

438. You can see,

439. I don't need these. Because South Metro Denver

440. has about the same amount of sunshine and precipitation

441. as Southern California. It's so incredible,

442. you're just gonna have to see it for yourselves.

443. How's this look, Mr. Edwards?

444. Denny Fennel Home Security Consultant

445. - We're south of Denver, in a community called Littleton,

446. and this house is pretty much

447. your average middle-class suburban home.

448. The burglar or the rapist is still here

449. in the neighbourhood somewhere.

450. And so citizens sometimes think that…

451. I have people tell me all the time—

452. - Where exactly is the burglar or rapist right now?

453. If I was to try and stab you through this, right here,

454. you're gonna have to be really close. Right?

455. - And here's the bottom line on this.

456. - What if I had a spear?

457. - Now, downstairs is where the safe-room was constructed,

458. and this is a solid-core door, a very heavy door.

459. And now, the criminal has to break through this door,

460. so you've created another barrier.

461. - An axe would do it. - An axe would do it.

462. I think that Columbine did a couple of things.

463. One is that it changed how we talk. That's the first thing.

464. - How's that? - Well, for instance,

465. if I say "Columbine," everybody knows what it means.

466. I don't have to explain to you that Columbine…

467. - Is… What's wrong? - Nothing, I just…

468. - What's wrong? - I just…

469. sometimes Columbine bothers me. I'll be fine. Just a minute.

470. That's okay.

471. There's something…

472. something overwhelming about that kind of… viciousness,

473. that kind of predatory action, that kind of indiscriminate,

474. killing.

475. World's Largest Weapons Maker

476. - This facility, where we're located right now…

477. Evan McCollum Lockheed Martin Public Relations

478. and two other major facilities where our employees work

479. are either in or very near Littleton.

480. So we have over 5,000 employees at these facilities,

481. quite a number of whom live in Littleton,

482. many of whom have children who attend Columbine High School.

483. I suppose in one way you could say that what happened

484. at Columbine High School is a microcosm…

485. of what happens throughout the world.

486. - You know the signs that we see around here,

487. the ones that say: "We Are Columbine,"

488. is that how you, Lockheed Martin, feels,

489. that you're the biggest employer here in Littleton,

490. you're the biggest weapons- maker? "We Are Columbine."

491. - I think we probably embody that spirit,

492. that, yeah, we're all members of this community

493. and that it behoves us to help one another and to reach out

494. to assist one another, yeah.

495. - He told us that no one in Littleton,

496. including the executives

497. at Lockheed, could figure out why the boys at Columbine

498. had resorted to violence.

499. - Why would kids do this?

500. some of the root of that probably has to do

501. with their anger about various issues

502. and we became aware of a program

503. that provides anger-management training.

504. And so we made a $100,000 contribution

505. to the Jefferson County schools to use this training

506. in the schools. We hope to help both teachers and students

507. learn alternative ways to deal with anger.

508. - So you don't think our kids say to themselves:

509. "Well, gee, Dad goes off

510. to the factory every day and, you know,

511. he built missiles." These are weapons of mass destruction.

512. What's the difference between that mass destruction

513. and the mass destruction over at Columbine High School?

514. - I guess I don't see that connection,

515. that specific connection, because the missiles

516. that you're talking about were built and designed to defend us

517. from somebody else who would be aggressors against us.

518. Societies and countries and governments do things

519. that annoy one another.

520. But we have to learn to deal with that annoyance

521. or that anger or that frustration in appropriate ways.

522. We don't get irritated with somebody

523. and just 'cause we're mad at them,

524. drop a bomb or shoot at them, or fire a missile at them.

525. 1953: U.S. overthrows Prime Minister Mossadeq of Iran.

526. U.S. installs Shah as dictator.

527. 1954: U.S. overthrows democratically-elected President Arbenz of Guatemala.

528. 200,000 civilians killed.

529. 1963: U.S. backs assassination of South Vietnamese President Diem.

530. 1963-1975: American military kills 4 million people in Southeast Asia.

531. September 11, 1973: U.S. stages coup in Chile.

532. Democratically-elected President Salvator Allende assassinated.

533. Dictator Augusto Pinochet installed.

534. 5,000 Chileans murdered.

535. 1977: U.S. backs military rulers of El Salvador.

536. 70,000 Salvadorans and four American nuns killed.

537. 1980's: U.S. trains Osama bin Laden and fellow terrorists to kill Soviets.

538. CIA gives them $3 billion.

539. 1981: Reagan administration trains and funds "contras". 30,000 Nicaraguans die.

540. 1982: U.S. provides billions in aid to Saddam Hussein for weapons to kill Iranians.

541. 1987: White House secretly gives Iran weapons to kill Iraqis.

542. 1989: CIA agent Manuel Noriega disobeys orders from Washington.

543. U.S. invades Panama and removes Noriega.

544. 3,000 Panamanian civilian casualties.

545. 1990: Iraq invades Kuwait with weapons from U.S.

546. 1991: U.S. enters Iraq.

547. Bush reinstates dictator of Kuwait.

548. 1998: Clinton bombs "weapons factory" in Sudan.

549. Factory turns out to be making aspirin.

550. 1991 to present: American planes bomb Iraq on a weekly basis.

551. U.N. estimates 500,000 Iraqi children die from bombing and sanctions.

552. 2000-01: U.S. gives Taliban-ruled Afghanistan $245 million in "aid."

553. Sept.11, 2001: Osama bin Laden uses his expert CIA training to murder 3,000 people.

554. Oh my goodness! Oh my word!

555. Oh my word!

556. - South of Denver in Littleton, on the grounds

557. of the U.S. Air Force Academy,

558. there sits an actual B-52 bomber.

559. The plaque underneath it proudly proclaims

560. that this plane killed Vietnamese people

561. on Christmas eve, 1972.

562. It was the largest bombing campaign of the Vietnam War.

563. Just outside Denver is Rocky Flats

564. the largest plutonium- weapons-making factory

565. in the world,

566. and now a massive radioactive dump.

567. A few miles away, buried inside a mountain,

568. is NORAD, which oversees our nuclear missiles,

569. many of which dot

570. the Colorado landscape.

571. And once a month, Lockheed transports one of its rockets,

572. with its Pentagon payload,

573. through the streets of Littleton,

574. passing nearby Columbine High School

575. on its way to an air-force base

576. on the other side of Denver.

577. The rockets are transported in the middle of the night,

578. while the children of Columbine are asleep.

579. Largest one day bombing by U.S. in Kosovo war

580. - Twenty-two NATO missiles

581. fell on the village of Bogutovac near Kraljevo.

582. Deadly cargo was dropped upon the residential part

583. of the village.

584. - We're striking hard at Serbia's machinery of repression,

585. while making a deliberate effort

586. to minimize harm to innocent people.

587. - On the hit list were a local hospital and primary school.

588. - We all know there has been a terrible shooting

589. at a high school in Littleton, Colorado.

590. I hope the American people will be praying for the students,

591. the parents and the teachers.

592. And we'll wait for events to unfold

593. and then there'll be more to say.

594. - Jefferson County, 911.

595. - There's some boy at Columbine High School, someone killed…

596. - Do you know if anybody's injured?

597. - Yes. - They've got pipe bombs,

598. pipe bombs…

599. - You're shitting me. - I'm not.

600. - Student hit in the spine at Columbine.

601. - Okay. - We've got…

602. - He's shot in the head. - He's shot in the head?

603. - Deputy cashier's office. - We have automatic weapons,

604. okay? - Yes.

605. - All right. Can you get us lots and lots of paramedics?

606. - So he's still under an attack? - Yes, sir, the school is.

607. - We got a couple of kids out in the hall that are shot,

608. so they're trying to get to them. Do not let anybody else in

609. until we tell them. - Jefferson County 911.

610. - Hi, it's Izzy Povich at NBC News.

611. We're calling about the school shooting.

612. We're on the air live right now on MSNBC.

613. Can you— Is that something you could just, literally,

614. patch through to my desk,

615. or you could tell us on the air? I could put you through

616. right now— - I understand that…

617. - Now they said he's gone to the library;

618. he stayed in the building.

619. He's gone into the library and he's in the building.

620. - Hi, this is Stephanie Gold from Dateline. How you doing?

621. - Good, how are you? - Fine, thanks.

622. - I love your show. - Oh, I'm so glad. Thank you.

623. - I watch it every night. - Thank you.

624. - Jefferson County 911. - Yes, I'm a teacher

625. at Columbine High School. There is a shooter here with a gun.

626. He just shot out a window. - Has anybody been injured?

627. - Yes! And the school is in a panic

628. and I'm in the library. I've got students down.

629. Under the tables, kids!

630. Heads under the tables! I saw a student outside!

631. Okay,

632. I was on hall duty, I saw a gun! "What's going on out there?"

633. He turned the gun straight at us and he shot, and my God,

634. the window went out.

635. The kid standing there with me, I think he got hit.

636. - We've got help on the way, ma'am.

637. - Oh God! - Stay on line with me.

638. - Oh God!

639. - I think he's shooting in the library right now.

640. He's firing shots from the library.

641. - Firing shots in the library. - …our way.

642. Do we need to leave? Okay, hold on.

643. - …inside the cafeteria

644. I'm gonna have to try and get outta here and call you back.

645. - I called in before, trying to find out

646. where I'm supposed to go and they put me on hold

647. for freaking ever! - Hi, it's Wendy at CNN still.

648. - Hi. We're just taking names and numbers for the press.

649. - Fox has somebody from your office on now—

650. - We've talked to a bunch of people

651. and we can only do so many,

652. we got so many more calls coming in.

653. - I gotta get to my daughter at Columbine.

654. I've been trying for an hour, I can't get anywhere near there…

655. - Sir, okay, calm down, okay?

656. - I think we're entitled to information as parents

657. on where our children are! - We have a lot of units

658. out there right now. - I can't get anywhere near it.

659. I wanna find out

660. how to get in touch with my daughter.

661. How do I get information on my daughter?

662. - I don't have that information right now—

663. - Why in the hell not? It's been over an hour!

664. - My son is Eric Harris,

665. and I'm afraid that he might be involved

666. with the shooting at Columbine High School.

667. - Involved how?

668. - He's a member of what they're calling the "trench-coat mafia."

669. - Have you spoken to your son? - No, I haven't.

670. Have they picked up anybody yet? - They're still looking

671. for suspects. Your son is with who? What gang?

672. - They call them the "trench-coat mafia". I just heard that term

673. on TV. - Stay low, because if you try

674. to leave, I don't want you to get shot.

675. Stay very low and quiet.

676. Low and quiet…

677. - Everybody just stay quiet.

678. - When the shooting was over, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold

679. had killed 12 students and one teacher.

680. Dozens of others were wounded by the over-900 rounds of ammo

681. that were fired. It is believed that the guns that they used

682. were all legally purchased at stores and gun shows.

683. And many of the bullets were bought

684. at the Littleton K-Mart just down the street.

685. - Harris's diary also detailed ideas about hijacking

686. an airplane and crashing it into New York City.

687. Some may characterize that as fantasy…

688. - In the end, they turned the guns on themselves.

689. - And then he came into the library,

690. shot everybody around me, then put a gun to my head

691. and asked if we all wanted to die and…

692. - We started hearing shots in the hall

693. and then they came in and they all told us

694. to get under the desk and we all got under the desk

695. and then they started coming in the library and opening fire…

696. - I just started screaming and crying and telling them

697. not to shoot me. And so he shot the girl,

698. he shot her in the head in front of me.

699. Then he shot the black kid, because he was black.

700. - I have only five words for you:

701. From my cold, dead hands.

702. - Just 10 days after the Columbine killings,

703. despite the pleas

704. of a community in mourning,

705. Charlton Heston came to Denver and held a large pro-gun rally

706. for the National Rifle Association.

707. - Good morning. Good morning.

708. Thank you all

709. for coming and thank you for supporting your organization.

710. I also want to applaud your courage in coming here today.

711. I have a message from the mayor,

712. Mr. Wellington Webb, the mayor of Denver.

713. - No, no, no, no, no.

714. He sent me this,

715. and it says: "Don't come here. We don't want you here."

716. I said to the mayor, "This is our country.

717. As Americans we're free to travel wherever we want

718. in our broad land."

719. Don't come here? We're already here.

720. - I am here today…

721. because my son Daniel would want me to be here today.

722. If my son Daniel was not one of the victims,

723. he would be here with me today.

724. Something is wrong in this country…

725. when a child…

726. can grab a gun… grab a gun so easily…

727. and shoot a bullet…

728. into the middle of a child's face, as my son experienced.

729. Something is wrong.

730. But the time has come to come to understand

731. that a Tech-9 semi-automatic 30-bullet weapon

732. like that that killed my son,

733. is not used to kill deer.

734. It has no useful purpose.

735. It is time to address this problem.

736. - We have work to do, hearts to heal,

737. evil to defeat and a country to unite.

738. We may have differences, yes,

739. and we will again suffer tragedy almost beyond description.

740. But when the sun sets on Denver tonight,

741. and forever more, let it always set on we the people,

742. secure in our land of the free and home of the brave.

743. I, for one, plan to do my part.

744. Thank you.

745. - Or like when they had their convention in Colorado,

746. a week, whatever, the month after Columbine,

747. that was just stupid. Just don't do that.

748. Of course you have "the right to," but what are you doing?

749. Upsetting a whole city full of people, why would you do that?

750. - This is Matt Stone. He grew up in Littleton

751. and has fond memories of Columbine.

752. - Yeah, Columbine, it's just a crappy school

753. in the middle of a bunch of crappy houses.

754. - Matt and his friend Trey Parker

755. found a way to take out

756. their anger of being different in Littleton

757. and turn it not into carnage, but into a cartoon.

758. "Just another Sunday morning In my quiet…

759. "Mountain town"

760. "You can see your breath Hanging in the air

761. "You see homeless people But you just don't care

762. "It's a sea of smiles In which we'd be glad to drown

763. "It's Sunday morning In our quiet little

764. "White-bread redneck mountain town"

765. - Columbine is a normal high school—

766. - Yeah. - …in a normal suburb—

767. - Yeah. - …you know, basically.

768. - Yeah. Painfully, painfully, painfully normal.

769. Just absolutely, painfully, horribly average.

770. Littleton in general is…

771. I remember being in sixth grade and I…

772. had to take the math test to get into Honors Math

773. in the seventh grade. And they're, like,

774. "Don't screw this up. Because if you screw this up,

775. you won't get into Honors Math in seventh grade.

776. And if you don't get in in seventh grade,

777. you won't in eighth grade, then not in ninth grade.

778. And 10th and 11th grade and you'll just die poor

779. and lonely." And that's it, you know?

780. You believe, in high school - and a lot of it is kids,

781. but the teachers and counsellors and principals

782. don't help things. They scare you into conforming

783. and doing good in school by "If you're a loser now,

784. you're gonna be a loser forever."

785. So that with Eric and Dylan, people called them "fag."

786. They're like, "You know what?

787. If I'm a fag, now I'm a fag forever."

788. And you wish someone just could've grabbed them and gone,

789. "Dude, high school's not the end of…

790. A year, a year and a half, was it? I don't even know.

791. You just move out— - No, no, they were two weeks

792. away from graduation. - Yeah, you're done.

793. It's amazing how fast you lose touch with all those people.

794. They just beat it in your head as early as sixth grade:

795. "Don't fuck up. 'Cause if you do,

796. you're gonna die poor and lonely.

797. You don't want to do that." You're, like, "Fuck,

798. whatever I am now, I'm that forever." Of course,

799. it's completely opposite. All the dorks in high school

800. go on to do great things and all the really cool guys

801. are all living back in Littleton as insurance agents.

802. Almost person to person, it's completely that way.

803. If somebody could've told them that,

804. maybe they would've have done it, but…

805. - I guess we'll never know why they did it,

806. but one thing adults should never forget:

807. It still sucks being a teenager.

808. And it really sucks going to school.

809. - What's your view on high school?

810. - I love it.

811. I learn, I get picked on by bastards who hate me,

812. and the principal's a dick.

813. - All right. What causes school violence?

814. - him.

815. - Him? - Yeah.

816. - Yes, and after Columbine, it really sucked

817. being a student in America.

818. Since last spring's shooting,

819. at Columbine High, schools nationwide

820. have extended zero-tolerance policies,

821. suspending and expelling students for all kinds

822. of behaviour considered unruly,

823. or warning signs of violence to come.

824. This second-grader in Illinois was suspended for 10 days

825. for bringing a nail clipper to class

826. "That's a weapon," his school said.

827. - An elementary school suspended a first-grader

828. for pointing a chicken strip at a teacher in the cafeteria.

829. The eight-year-old was fooling around with a friend

830. at lunch last week when he pointed a breaded-chicken finger

831. at a teacher and then said: "Pow pow.

832. - He pointed a folded piece of paper shaped like a gun,

833. and told his classmates he was going to kill them

834. during a game of cops and robbers.

835. - If this isn't a warning sign, then what is it?

836. - This Virginia high-school student spent a month

837. out of classes, originally sent home

838. for dying his hair blue. - A high-school honour student

839. from Michigan could be expelled later today

840. in a school-board hearing.

841. Seventeen-year-old Jeremy Hicks wore a Scottish

842. bagpiper's outfit to his junior prom that included

843. a plaid kilt, a feathered hat and a traditional knife

844. known as a "skein dhu."

845. - This T-shirt

846. landed a high-school student in court.

847. She wanted to start an anarchy club.

848. - The little time-bombs that are out there ticking,

849. waiting to go off. And there are many of them in every community.

850. - Students in at least seven different states

851. have been suspended or arrested

852. for talking about or planning plots of their own.

853. - It's almost like guerrilla warfare.

854. You don't know from which direction

855. the enemy will be coming.

856. - Having a well-conceived and strictly enforced dress code

857. can dramatically improve the safety of a school,

858. and can ensure a positive learning environment

859. for everyone.

860. As this student's appearance demonstrates,

861. having a lax policy about dress makes it easy

862. for a student to conceal a weapon

863. and makes it difficult to identify intruders on campus.

864. A dress code can reduce weapons violations,

865. relieve tensions between gangs, reduce disciplinary infractions

866. and generally improve the atmosphere of the school.

867. Our policy requires that students tuck in their shirts,

868. making the beltline visible at all times.

869. Our students may not wear baggy pants

870. or colours or insignias that are commonly associated

871. with gang activity.

872. This policy was a collaborative effort.

873. - Yes, our children were indeed something to fear.

874. They had turned into little monsters.

875. But who was to blame?

876. All the experts had an answer.

877. - Angry, heavy-metal subculture.

878. - Where were the parents? - Violent movies.

879. - "South Park." - Video games. - Television. - Entertainment.

880. - Satan. - Cartoons. - Films. - Society. - Toy guns.

881. - Drugs. - Shock-rocker Marilyn Manson.

882. Marilyn Manson.

883. - Marilyn Manson has cancelled the last five dates

884. of his U.S, tour out of respect for those lost in Littleton.

885. But the singer says artists like himself

886. are not the ones to blame.

887. - This is perhaps the sickest group ever promoted

888. by a mainstream record company.

889. "I'm not a slave

890. "to a god

891. "that doesn't exist"

892. - After Columbine, it seemed

893. that the entire focus on why the shootings occurred

894. was because the killers

895. listened to Marilyn Manson.

896. Two years after Columbine,

897. Manson finally returned to Denver.

898. - The Oz Fest at Mile High Stadium

899. brings shock-rocker Marilyn Manson to Denver tomorrow.

900. - There were protests from the religious right.

901. But I thought I'd go and talk with him myself.

902. - When I was a kid growing up, music was the escape.

903. That's the only thing

904. that had no judgements. You can put on a record

905. and it's not gonna yell at you for dressing the way you do.

906. It's gonna make you feel better about it.

907. - Some will be so brash to ask if we believe

908. that all who hear Manson tomorrow night

909. will go out and commit violent acts.

910. The answer is "no." But does everybody

911. who watches a Lexus ad go and buy a Lexus?

912. No. But a few do.

913. - I definitely can see why they would pick me,

914. because I think it's easy to throw my face on a TV,

915. because I'm, in the end, sort of a poster boy for fear.

916. Because I represent what everyone's afraid of,

917. because I do and say what I want.

918. - If Marilyn Manson can walk into our town and promote hate,

919. violence, suicide, death, drug use

920. and Columbine-like behaviour,

921. I can say, "Not without a fight, you can't."

922. - The two by-products of that whole tragedy were…

923. violence in entertainment and gun control.

924. And how perfect that that was the two things

925. that we were gonna talk about with the upcoming election.

926. And also, then we forgot about Monica Lewinsky

927. and we forgot about…

928. The president was shooting bombs overseas,

929. yet I'm a bad guy because I sing some rock'n'roll songs.

930. And who's a bigger influence, the president or Marilyn Manson?

931. I'd like to think me, but I'm gonna go with the president.

932. - Do you know the day that Columbine happened,

933. the United States dropped more bombs on Kosovo

934. than any other time during that war?

935. - I do know that and I think that's really ironic,

936. that nobody said, "Well, maybe the president had an influence

937. on this violent behaviour.

938. Because that's not the way the media wants to take it

939. and spin it and turn it into fear.

940. 'Cause then you're watching television,

941. you're watching the news; you're being pumped full of fear.

942. And there's floods, there's AIDS, there's murder.

943. You cut to commercial, buy the Acura, buy the Colgate.

944. If you have bad breath, they're not gonna talk to you.

945. If you got pimples, the girl's not gonna fuck you.

946. It's a campaign of fear and consumption.

947. And that's what I think that's it's all based on,

948. is the whole idea that: keep everyone afraid,

949. and they'll consume. And that's really as simple

950. as it can be boiled down to. - Right.

951. If you were to talk directly to the kids at Columbine

952. and the people in that community,

953. what would you say to them, if they were here right now?

954. I wouldn't say a single word to them.

955. I would listen to what they have to say.

956. And that's what no one did.

957. - I'm Nicole Shleif. - And I'm Amanda Lamontagne.

958. - And you went to Columbine? - Yes.

959. - And you were with Eric and Dylan?

960. In their class? - Yeah,

961. we were in their bowling class. - In their bowling class?

962. - Yes. - What's bowling class?

963. - Just an elective you can take for a gym credit.

964. - Where's the educational value of this, though?

965. - I guess there isn't really any.

966. - No, there's not.

967. - I learned how to bowl a lot better, that's for sure.

968. - What were Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold like?

969. - Weird. - Yeah?

970. - I mean, not very social.

971. - I didn't really know who they were.

972. - Not very social, just kinda kept to themselves.

973. - How good a bowlers were Eric and Dylan?

974. - When we played them,

975. all I remember is they were just, like, crazy.

976. They would just chuck the ball. - Chuck it down there.

977. - Throw the ball down; didn't really care how they bowled.

978. - Yeah, they didn't really care about their scores.

979. What were the suspects doing the morning of attack?

980. I told you that I'd heard that they were bowling;

981. that's the only thing I'm aware of.

982. - So did Dylan and Eric show up that morning

983. and bowl two games before moving on

984. to shoot up the school?

985. And did they just chuck the balls down the lane?

986. Did this mean something?

987. - I guess they went to their favourite class.

988. - Why wasn't anyone blaming bowling

989. for warping the minds of Eric and Dylan

990. to commit their evil deeds?

991. Wasn't that just as plausible as blaming Marilyn Manson?

992. After all,

993. it was apparently the last thing they did

994. before the massacre.

995. But wait a minute. There's lots of bowling going on

996. in other countries.

997. And don't they listen to Marilyn Manson in Germany,

998. the home of sinister Goth music?

999. Some Gothic festival.

1000. - Don't they watch the same violent movies in France?

1001. Most of the violent video games are from Japan.

1002. Many people in America believe

1003. that it's the break-up of the family unit

1004. that's caused so many wayward youth to turn to violence.

1005. - I'll save you the trouble. I'll run away and kill myself!

1006. How would you like that? You can't keep me here!

1007. - But statistics show

1008. that there are more broken homes and divorce

1009. in Great Britain than in the U.S.

1010. - It's official: Fergie's marriage has ended.

1011. - Liberals contend that it's all the poverty we have in America

1012. that causes all this violence.

1013. But the unemployment rate in Canada

1014. is twice what it is here. Of course, most people say

1015. it's because we Americans have a violent history,

1016. a violent past. Cowboys and Indians,

1017. the Wild West,

1018. a history of conquering and bloodshed.

1019. Well, if that's all it takes to end up

1020. with such a violent society

1021. like we have in America, how do you explain this?

1022. Yet in spite of all this,

1023. how many people are killed by guns each year?

1024. In Germany:

1025. In France:

1026. In Canada:

1027. In the United Kingdom:

1028. In Australia:

1029. In Japan:

1030. In the United States:

1031. - But that, to me, brings up an important question:

1032. Then what is so different about Americans?

1033. Are we homicidal in nature?

1034. Because in Europe and Australia,

1035. most other free-world countries, they don't have this.

1036. They don't have people who snap and go on murderous rampages.

1037. - Well, no, they're just like us. They have the occasional person

1038. that snaps and kills a lot of people.

1039. How about a British soccer riot? Those aren't Quakers there,

1040. - Every time that I bring up comparisons

1041. with other free-world countries, what I hear is:

1042. "Oh, our culture is so different. We're so different."

1043. And as you said, they have violent video games,

1044. they have violent movies, they have alienated youth,

1045. they - like us - don't have prayer in schools.

1046. What is so radically different? What is it about us?

1047. - What is it? - What is it?

1048. - What is it? - What is it?

1049. I don't know.

1050. - Now, it's time for…

1051. Hi, boys and girls. Ready to get started?

1052. Once upon a time, there were these people in Europe

1053. called pilgrims and they were afraid of being persecuted.

1054. So they all got in a boat and sailed to the New World

1055. where they wouldn't have to be scared ever again.

1056. - Oh, I'm so relaxed. - I feel so much safer.

1057. - But as soon as they arrived, they were greeted by savages.

1058. They got scared all over again. - Injuns!

1059. - So they killed them all. Now, you'd think

1060. wiping out a race of people would calm them down, but no.

1061. Instead, they started getting frightened of each other.

1062. Witch! - So they burned witches.

1063. In 1775,

1064. they started killing the British, so they could be free.

1065. And it worked. But they still didn't feel safe.

1066. So they passed a 2nd amendment, which said every white man

1067. could keep his gun. - I loves my gun, loves my gun.

1068. - This brings us to the genius idea of slavery.

1069. You see, boys and girls, the white people back then

1070. were also afraid of doing any work. So they went to Africa,

1071. kidnapped thousands of black people, brought them to America,

1072. and forced them to work very hard for no money.

1073. And I don't mean no money like:

1074. "I work at Wal-Mart and make no money."

1075. I mean zero dollars. Nothing, nada, zip.

1076. Doing it that way made the USA

1077. the richest country in the world.

1078. So did having all that money and free help

1079. calm the white people down? No way. They got even more afraid.

1080. That's because after 200 years of slavery,

1081. the black people now outnumbered the white people in many parts

1082. of the South. Well, you can pretty much what came next.

1083. The slaves started rebelling. There were uprisings

1084. and old masters' heads got chopped off

1085. and when white people heard of this, they were freaking out.

1086. They going: - I want to live!

1087. Don't kill me, big black man.

1088. - Well, just in the nick of time came Samuel Colt, who,

1089. in 1836, invented the first weapon ever that could be fired

1090. over and over without having to reload.

1091. And all the settlers were, like: - Yee-hah!

1092. - But it was too late. The North soon won the Civil War

1093. and the slaves were free to go chop all the old masters' heads off.

1094. Then everybody was, like: - Oh, no, we're gonna die.

1095. - But the freed slaves took no revenge.

1096. They just wanted to live in peace.

1097. But you couldn't convince the white people of this.

1098. So they formed the Ku Klux Klan and, in 1871,

1099. the same year the Klan became an illegal terrorist organization,

1100. another group was founded: the National Rifle Association.

1101. Soon, politicians passed one of the first gun laws,

1102. making it illegal for any black person to own one.

1103. It was a great year for America. he KKK and the NRA.

1104. Of course, they had nothing to do with each other;

1105. it was a coincidence. One group legally promoted responsible

1106. gun ownership; the other shot and lynched black people.

1107. That's the way it was till 1955, when a black woman

1108. broke the law by refusing to move to the back of the bus.

1109. White people just couldn't believe it.

1110. - Why won't she move? - What's going on?

1111. - Man, all hell broke loose. Black people everywhere demanded

1112. their rights. White people had a major, freaky-feel meltdown

1113. and they were all, like: - Run away! Run away!

1114. - And they did. They all ran fleeing to the suburbs,

1115. where it was all white and safe and clean. And they went out

1116. and bought a quarter-of-a-billion guns.

1117. And put locks on their doors, alarms in their houses,

1118. and gates around the neighbourhoods.

1119. And finally, they were all safe and secure and snug as a bug.

1120. And everyone lived happily ever after.

1121. - Because if you turn on the evening news,

1122. America still seems like a pretty scary place.

1123. - Who is he? Is he dangerous? What's he up to?

1124. - What are you trying to pull, man?

1125. - Remember all the Y2Kscares?

1126. Weren't we told that our very society was about to collapse

1127. because somebody forgot

1128. to type in a couple of digits on the computer?

1129. - There's gonna be mass chaos and confusion.

1130. - Tonight, the countdown begins.

1131. All day, store director Rick Smith

1132. watched consumers get Y2K ready. - Batteries sell extremely well.

1133. The lamp oil, generators.

1134. - After sending the country into a panic,

1135. the clock struck midnight…

1136. And nothing happened.

1137. Or how about those killer bees

1138. that were going to attack America?

1139. - We're almost certain they'll arrive this year.

1140. - Shmidt expects the Africanized bees to reach Texas this year,

1141. cross into Arizona in about two to three years.

1142. He's concerned because the killer bee is overly aggressive.

1143. - They will follow you for half a mile.

1144. - The bees never came.

1145. Remember the first time you heard

1146. that someone had hidden a razor blade in an apple at Halloween?

1147. Before long,

1148. kids were not permitted to go out in the dark on Halloween

1149. and go trick-or-treating at strangers' homes.

1150. - Many people say they won't give out candy treats on Halloween.

1151. It's too dangerous and they're too scared.

1152. - Well, guess what?

1153. There never was any razor blade in the apple.

1154. In fact, only two kids

1155. in the past 40 years have been killed by Halloween candy.

1156. And both of them were poisoned on purpose by relatives.

1157. - Bye.

1158. It was like a scene from a horror movie.

1159. This man was mowing his lawn when a fox darted out

1160. of the woods and attacked his riding-mower.

1161. - A warning about a popular weight-loss supplement.

1162. What you don't know may kill you.

1163. - You ride them every day, but in an instant,

1164. an escalator can mangle you or a loved one.

1165. - We reveal why you may be riding on stairway to danger.

1166. - You might want to take some extra precautions:

1167. keep a low profile, don't go around dancing

1168. with a bunch of Americans in the streets.

1169. Make sure that you don't draw a lot of attention to yourself

1170. and the fact that you're American.

1171. - Nation's top doctor says one in five Americans

1172. suffers some form of mental disorder.

1173. The surgeon general David Satcher pleads with people

1174. to seek help now.

1175. - The media, the corporations, the politicians,

1176. have all done such a good job of scaring the American public,

1177. it's come to the point where they don't need to give

1178. any reason at all.

1179. - Today, the Justice Department did issue a…

1180. a blanket alert.

1181. It was in recognition of a general threat we received.

1182. this is not the first time

1183. the Justice Department have acted like this.

1184. I hope it's the last.

1185. But given the attitude of the evildoers, it may not be.

1186. - I just love these boulevards down here, though.

1187. You don't get this in most of L.A.

1188. South Central Los Angeles

1189. - How come whenever I'm out here, though,

1190. I turn on the 11-o'clock news and I hear, you know:

1191. "Tonight in South Central, drive-by shooting."

1192. Or: "Tonight in South Central…"

1193. Prof. Barry Glassner Author, "The Culture of Fear"

1194. …this, that or whatever. I mean, they're not making that up, are they?

1195. - No, they're not making it up, but they're choosing

1196. what they're covering. If you turn on the TV, on the news,

1197. what are you gonna hear about?

1198. Dangerous black guys, right? Unnamed black guy who, you know,

1199. accused of some crime or… - Right.

1200. - You're gonna see pictures of black guys doing bad things,

1201. and hearing stories about black guys doing bad things.

1202. And we've heard this our whole lives.

1203. - Now, the suspect is a black male in his twenties.

1204. We are told he has a large afro, sideburns,

1205. he was wearing a silver chain at the time.

1206. - Police say the suspect is a black man.

1207. Six foot one, 160 to 180 pounds, about 35 years in age.

1208. - Suspect is a black male, age 16 to 18.

1209. - The suspect is African-American.

1210. Police believe— - Police say—

1211. - The black man— Suspect—

1212. - The suspect is a black male - A black man.

1213. A black… black… black…

1214. - A black man.

1215. - Susan Smith drowns her two children.

1216. She tells people a black guy… - Correct.

1217. - Stole the car and stole the kids.

1218. And everyone, at first, bought it.

1219. - Some guy jumped into her car, with her two kids in it.

1220. Then he took off. That's a black guy, she says.

1221. - Black male? - Yes, Ma'am.

1222. - And I told them I loved them. I hollered I loved them

1223. And it's just a tragedy.

1224. - The anonymous urban - which means usually black -

1225. male, comes by and does this.

1226. It's the excuse for all kinds of things.

1227. - Charles Stewart, a lawyer in Boston…

1228. - Right, exactly. - …kills his pregnant wife,

1229. says a black guy did it; everybody buys it.

1230. - The suspect described as a black male about six feet tall.

1231. Chuck and Carol Stewart were robbed at gunpoint

1232. as they left a Lamaze class.

1233. It seemed the ultimate urban nightmare.

1234. - You know, the thing I love about this country of mine,

1235. is that whether you're a psychotic killer

1236. or running for president of the United States,

1237. the one thing you can always count on

1238. is white America's fear of the black man.

1239. - We've heard the stories on the news and in the papers

1240. and they have killed people.

1241. Killer bees, also known

1242. as "Africanized" bees.

1243. - I'm scared. I'm really worried.

1244. - Rose Shipley never expected a nest of Africanized killer bees

1245. to shack up across the street from her.

1246. - But I'm terribly allergic to them and so are my grandkids.

1247. - They're originally from southern and eastern Africa.

1248. Dr. Warrick Care brought some to Brazil in 1956

1249. and tried to mate them

1250. with the European bee, the kind that we're used to.

1251. But they got loose and moved to the southern United States.

1252. - The main difference between a traditional honey bee

1253. and an Africanized bee is the bee's aggressiveness.

1254. If I was to do this to an Africanized bee's hive,

1255. I could have several hundred stings in a matter of minutes.

1256. - Danny Self raises the kinder, gentler European bees,

1257. and he's done the research.

1258. - The only way that you can tell

1259. the two of them, is doing measurements on the body parts.

1260. - Quite frankly, the black community has become

1261. entertainment for the rest of the community.

1262. - Meaning what?

1263. Arthur Busch County Prosecutor - Flint, Michigan

1264. - The entertainment being that the crime of the day -

1265. you know, "If it bleeds, it leads" -

1266. gets to be the front story and then that becomes the perception

1267. and the image of an entire people.

1268. Which couldn't be further from the truth, in my opinion.

1269. In fact, you'll find, I think,

1270. most African-Americans are quite adverse to gun possession.

1271. In suburbia, I think,

1272. there's some notion that there's going to be an invading horde,

1273. come from either the city or from someplace unknown,

1274. to savage their suburban community.

1275. To me, not only is it bizarre, but it's totally…

1276. unfounded.

1277. And these pistols, curiously enough,

1278. weren't being taken off kids in the city of Flint,

1279. but were being taken off of kids out in the out-county area,

1280. in the suburban communities. And—

1281. - I didn't think that's what you were gonna say.

1282. I thought you were gonna say that it's all these black kids

1283. in the inner-city schools that had these guns.

1284. - No, that's…

1285. We've never really had many problems with guns in the city.

1286. Not to say that we haven't; we've had some.

1287. But that's never been the biggest problem.

1288. The biggest problem has been the gun possession

1289. by these adolescents in suburbia.

1290. - How'd you get a gun?

1291. - I stole mine. I stole it from a friend of mine.

1292. His dad owns a bunch of guns.

1293. - What we're you doing with the stolen guns?

1294. - We went down to Detroit and started selling them.

1295. 'Cause I can get, like, a buck fifty a pop for a 9-millimetre.

1296. - Oh, really. Who were you trying to sell them to?

1297. - Anybody that would really want 'em. Gangs and stuff like that.

1298. - Gangs in the city of Detroit? - Yeah.

1299. - Black? - predominantly. Yeah.

1300. - Yeah. So now you're out now, you're okay.

1301. - Yeah, I'm free now. I'm completely clear.

1302. - You can keep selling guns. - I can't keep selling guns.

1303. It's getting too risky. Everybody knows me up here.

1304. People want guns, drugs or alcohol, they come to my house

1305. and that's just too much.

1306. - Yeah, too much hassle. - Yeah.

1307. - My favourite statistic in all the research I did discovered

1308. that the murder rate had gone down by 20%. The coverage -

1309. that is, how many murders are on the evening news -

1310. it went up by 600%.

1311. - The American people are conditioned by network TV,

1312. by local news,

1313. to believe that their communities are

1314. much more dangerous than they actually are.

1315. For example, here, in this community,

1316. crime has decreased every year for the past eight years.

1317. Yet, gun ownership, particularly handgun ownership,

1318. is on the increase.

1319. - Crime rates have been dropping, dropping, dropping.

1320. Fear of crime has been going up, up, up.

1321. How can that be possible? It doesn't make any sense.

1322. But it makes perfect sense when you see what we're hearing

1323. from politicians and seeing in the news media.

1324. - So we're, we're right here

1325. on the corner of Florence and Normandie.

1326. It's kind of Ground Zero for the L.A. riots.

1327. - Right.

1328. - You know, if a couple of white guys

1329. would go down and walk around South Central,

1330. they're gonna get killed.

1331. Which I can tell you is a common perception.

1332. The odds that something's going to happen to us

1333. are really, really slight.

1334. Minuscule. - Right. Okay.

1335. - But you know, if you look up there,

1336. you get a different symbol of the Hollywood sign.

1337. It means something very different

1338. than the corner of Florence and Normandie.

1339. For most Americans and most of the world,

1340. it means glamour and Hollywood, except that we can't see it.

1341. - I can't see the Hollywood sign. Where is it?

1342. - Right. You can't see it because of something that's probably…

1343. much more dangerous for us right now,

1344. which is the stuff we're breathing.

1345. - The pollution that's blocking the Hollywood sign,

1346. we're breathing this.

1347. That's far more dangerous than all the other stuff the media's

1348. telling us to be afraid of. - Right.

1349. - As we left the corner of Florence and Normandie,

1350. I noticed that a number of helicopters

1351. had appeared in the sky.

1352. Within seconds, the news media

1353. started to arrive. - So what's the story here?

1354. - I'm waiting. I thought you would know.

1355. - No, I don't know anything.

1356. - The Sergeant just told me there's a guy with a gun.

1357. But they're not sure. That's all they told me.

1358. Since there's no action, I'm not getting my camera down.

1359. - I just happened to see the chopper, going to another story.

1360. - What story are you going to? - It's a near-drowning.

1361. - It's a drowning? - A near-drowning.

1362. - How about a story about how you can't see

1363. the Hollywood Hills because of the pollution?

1364. Could you maybe do a story on that tonight?

1365. - Pollution, that's rather good. I find that good.

1366. You can't see it. You can't see anything around here.

1367. - If you have to choose between a guy with a gun

1368. and a near-drowning of a baby - you could only be one place—

1369. - I go with the gun. - You go with the gun, always.

1370. Is it all over, here? It's all over? All over?

1371. - Not yet, not yet. - Looks like it.

1372. - Just wait for these sergeants down here to come down,

1373. 'cause they got all the details.

1374. - Okay. Hey, I was just wondering -

1375. I just got here to L.A. today - I can't see the Hollywood sign,

1376. down on the hills there, down Normandie.

1377. You can't see the sign 'cause of the pollution.

1378. - Right. - Is there anybody you can arrest

1379. for polluting up the air? - Absolutely not.

1380. - Nobody? - No.

1381. - Why is that?

1382. Why is that, Sergeant?

1383. - He's fighting!

1384. - For over a decade,

1385. there has been one show on American television

1386. that has consistently brought black and white people together

1387. in an effort to reduce our fears

1388. and celebrate our diversity.

1389. That show is Cops.

1390. I went to see a former producer of "Cops"

1391. and executive producer

1392. of World's Wildest Police Videos:

1393. Mr. Dick Herland.

1394. - Look "liberal" up in the dictionary

1395. and I think my picture's in there somewhere,

1396. - So then, you know, why not be compelled to do, you know,

1397. a show that focuses on, you know, what's causing the crime,

1398. as opposed to just chasing the criminals down?

1399. - Because I think it's harder to do that show.

1400. I don't know what that show would be.

1401. Anger does well, hate does well, violence does well.

1402. Tolerance and understanding and trying to learn to be

1403. a little different than you were last year does less well.

1404. - Does less well in the ratings. - Oh yeah.

1405. - Maybe because we, in the television business,

1406. because we tend to demonize black and Hispanic people,

1407. then those watching it at home are going:

1408. "I don't want to help those people.

1409. I'm not going to do anything to help them.

1410. Because I hate them now, because they may hurt me."

1411. You know what I'm saying? - I know what you're saying,

1412. I'm not sure that's what we're doing.

1413. I'm not sure we're demonizing

1414. black and Hispanic people… particularly.

1415. I don't think we show black and Hispanic people

1416. as being criminals.

1417. I'd like to say not more often,

1418. but probably they are more often.

1419. But I certainly don't think… We're certainly not trying

1420. to demonize black and Hispanic people.

1421. - We show them on the news, we show them on TV,

1422. as pretty scary people.

1423. - Yeah.

1424. And I agree. I'd like to see that reversed

1425. as much as possible. I…

1426. - Start tonight. - Well, the thing is,

1427. I don't know how to start tonight.

1428. I don't know how to tell that story.

1429. If I was smart enough to do that…

1430. - I'll pitch you one. - Okay. All right.

1431. Do a show called not Cops but Corporate Cops.

1432. "Corporation man Hey Corporate man

1433. "We're coming out to get you better run while you can

1434. "We're coming out to get you better run while you can"

1435. - I love the idea.

1436. I don't think it would make very interesting reality TV.

1437. Unless we can get those people to get in their SUVs

1438. and drive really fast down the road away from the police.

1439. - But I'm telling you, everyone in America

1440. who's got just your basic, everyday job

1441. is gonna love watching the boss

1442. being chased down the street with his shirt off,

1443. thrown to the ground

1444. and a knee to the neck. I tell you, that is gonna get ratings.

1445. - Yeah, I'm with you. And if I can find a police outfit

1446. that would prosecute corporate criminals appropriately

1447. and would go after them appropriately… In other words,

1448. what you do to a man who's just stolen a lady's purse

1449. with $85 to it,

1450. than you need to do an appropriate response

1451. to a man who has just stolen $85 million from indigent people,

1452. then, boy, we're gonna be out there filming that.

1453. But as a matter of fact, when police go after the guy

1454. who's just stolen $85 million,

1455. they treat him like he was a member of the city council -

1456. as he may or may not be - and it's not exciting television.

1457. If you could get that guy to take his shirt off…

1458. - Right.

1459. - Yeah, and throw his cellular phone at the police

1460. as they come through the door,

1461. try to jump out that window, then we'd have a show.

1462. - You watch violence on TV in a place like Canada

1463. and you know it's not happening next door.

1464. You watch it here, and you know it is happening next door.

1465. - Right. - I think that's…

1466. I don't know what the difference is,

1467. but there's a big difference. - Yeah, but why isn't…

1468. Why isn't it happening in Canada?

1469. Why aren't there, you know, 10,000 murders a year?

1470. - I don't know, but I want to go to Canada to retire,

1471. or something, 'cause it sounds like where we want to be.

1472. I'd like to find out what that difference is. Wouldn't you?

1473. - Yeah. Yeah, I'm trying to find out.

1474. Where are you supposed to be right now?

1475. School.

1476. - Aren't you worried about what you're not learning?

1477. - Nah, I'm mostly helping everybody else in the class.

1478. Then I barely get to do my work. - How about you? You're not

1479. worried about your education? - Well, I've got the textbook.

1480. - Why do you think we have so many…

1481. gun murders in America?

1482. I have no idea. People must hate each other or something.

1483. - Oh, you mean Canadians don't hate each other?

1484. - Well, we do but we don't go to the point of shooting somebody

1485. just to get revenge. - What do you do?

1486. - I don't know. Tease them, maybe.

1487. Make fun of them, ridicule them. - Throw eggs at them.

1488. - How many gun murders in Sarnia this year?

1489. - None. - Last year?

1490. - I believe we had one, at the time.

1491. - The year before that?

1492. - I can't recall what we had in the way of—

1493. - Maybe one in the last three years?

1494. Probably, yes.

1495. - Very low. Very low for this city.

1496. - Well, of course, there's no murders here

1497. because there's only 70,000 people

1498. and it's the kissing capital of the world.

1499. So I went down the river to another Canadian city

1500. that was five times as large as Sarnia:

1501. Windsor, Ontario, just across the river from Detroit.

1502. I was sure there'd be more murders in Windsor.

1503. Ever hear of anyone being shot by a gun in Windsor?

1504. - No. No.

1505. - You remember any murders here?

1506. - there was one a long time ago. Probably—

1507. - How long ago? - Oh…

1508. - In your lifetime? - In my lifetime,

1509. probably around 15, 20 years ago, there was one murder.

1510. - In fact, this Windsor policeman told me

1511. that the only gun murder

1512. he could recall in Windsor in the last three years

1513. was committed by a guy from Detroit,

1514. who had a stolen gun from Minnesota.

1515. With nearly 400,000 people in the Windsor area,

1516. there were simply no Canadians shooting other Canadians.

1517. I thought it might be time

1518. for some fun facts about Canada.

1519. I hit the streets of New York to find out what

1520. the average American thought about our friendly neighbour

1521. to the north.

1522. - Canadians don't watch as much violent movies as Americans do.

1523. - That's wrong.

1524. Hordes of young boys, all throughout Canada,

1525. eagerly await the next Hollywood bloodbath.

1526. - Then one of the guy gets his leg taken off.

1527. - Oh, wow! - And there was a lot of girls,

1528. and naked at one point. - I like that stuff.

1529. - What movie did you see tonight? - Sixth Day.

1530. - With Arnold Schwarzenegger? - Yeah.

1531. - Did it make you want to come out here

1532. and play this shoot-'em-up game?

1533. - Well… yeah.

1534. - There's no poverty in Canada like there is here…

1535. in the States.

1536. - Wrong again.

1537. - Actually, we've also had a much higher unemployment rate.

1538. When Michigan rate was running at 4%, we were still at 8-9%,

1539. We seem to have an institutional unemployment rate.

1540. - I think there'd mostly be white people in Canada.

1541. That's strange, 'cause when I'm in Canada,

1542. I see black people everywhere.

1543. And yellow people, and brown people…

1544. and 13% of the country is non-white.

1545. So the Canadians are

1546. pretty much just like us. And the reason that they have

1547. so few murders has to be because they've got

1548. so few guns.

1549. What kind of guns do you own? - I hunt.

1550. I own rifles and shotguns, and I own pistols.

1551. - So how many guns total? - Probably about seven.

1552. - Seven guns? - Yeah.

1553. - Do you have a gun? - I have a few.

1554. - How many guns do you have? - Half a dozen.

1555. - You could name how many people that own guns, that you know?

1556. Two, three, a dozen? - More than that.

1557. - There's a tremendous amount of gun ownership.

1558. We're a large country geographically.

1559. We grew up with hunting and fishing being a tradition.

1560. - In Canada, with a population of just around 30 million -

1561. there's about 10 million families -

1562. and the best estimate is somewhere in the region

1563. of seven-million guns.

1564. - Wow!

1565. Canada was one gun-loving,

1566. gun-toting, gun-crazy country!

1567. Where can you get a gun? - Uptown, any time I want.

1568. - I see you're a Glock owner.

1569. Where can I get a Glock in Canada?

1570. - Most gun stores'll sell 'em to you

1571. if you have the proper permits and stuff.

1572. - In fact, despite all their tough gun laws,

1573. take a look at what I,

1574. a foreign citizen, was able to do

1575. at the local Canadian Wal-Mart.

1576. Where's the ammunition at? - Where's the ammunition?

1577. - Yeah. - Back here.

1578. What kind are you looking for? - You know, like, bullets.

1579. That's right.

1580. I could buy as much live ammunition as I wanted to

1581. in Canada. You take American?

1582. Do you lock your doors?

1583. - No. - Are you afraid of anything?

1584. - Nah, not really, no. - Do you lock your doors at night?

1585. - No. - You don't lock your doors?

1586. - No. - Well, what do you…

1587. Are you afraid of anything? - Not really.

1588. - Have you ever been broken into? - Yes, I have. Yeah.

1589. - What happened? - They broke into my home.

1590. I wasn't there. They broke in,

1591. they stole some booze and cigarettes and they left.

1592. So I figure it must've been some teenagers

1593. out to have a little bit of fun. That's all they took, though.

1594. Just some booze and some cigarettes.

1595. - Have you ever been a victim of crime?

1596. - Yes. - What kind of crime?

1597. - I've had people walk in while I've been sleeping

1598. and vandalize my home and steal from me.

1599. - And that didn't want to make you lock your doors at night?

1600. - No. No.

1601. - As an American with three locks on his doors,

1602. I found this all a bit confusing.

1603. Even here, in Toronto, a city of millions,

1604. people just didn't lock their doors.

1605. So you don't lock your doors but we, Americans, do. Why is that?

1606. - You must be afraid of your neighbour.

1607. - Do you ever leave your doors unlocked at home?

1608. - Yeah. - Yeah, you do?

1609. Where do you live? - Right around here.

1610. - Toronto? - Around here.

1611. - You leave your doors unlocked? - Yeah.

1612. - You'd think, as Americans,

1613. that the lock is keeping people out of your place.

1614. We, as Canadians, see it more as…

1615. when we lock the door, we're imprisoning ourselves inside.

1616. - You don't want to do that.

1617. - Not really, no.

1618. We don't want to… No.

1619. - I decided to go unannounced to a neighbourhood in Toronto

1620. to see if this unlocked-door thing was true.

1621. Oh, hi. I'm sorry. Just checking.

1622. Oh, hello!

1623. - Oh, hi. - Hi.

1624. - Nobody locks their doors.

1625. Nobody locks their doors in this town.

1626. - You want to lock? - No, no, no.

1627. Do you like living here? - I like it very much.

1628. - Yeah? And the T-shirt? - The T-shirt too.

1629. - This door was wide open. And you're not afraid?

1630. - Should I be afraid? - I don't know. You live here.

1631. - I don't think I'm afraid. - You're not, are you?

1632. Thank you very much. - All right. No problem.

1633. - I'm sorry about the intrusion. - No, no problem.

1634. - Thank you for not shooting me. - No problem at all.

1635. - Bye-bye. - Okay.

1636. - As an American,

1637. I gotta say this all seemed kind of strange.

1638. Until I looked up at the TV

1639. in the bar and noticed what they watched

1640. for their evening news.

1641. - They're friends of ours.

1642. We'll certainly listen to them courteously and carefully,

1643. but you don't just make war just 'cause someone says so.

1644. - The Canadians weren't being pumped full of fear.

1645. And their politicians seemed to talk kind of funny.

1646. - …making sure they have good daycare, assistance for their parents

1647. when they're elderly and need to be in an old-age home,

1648. that they have proper health care that insures

1649. that they won't lose their business or their house

1650. because they can't afford their medical bills.

1651. That's how you build a good society.

1652. No one wins unless everyone wins. And you don't win

1653. by beating up on people who can't defend themselves.

1654. And that's been the approach, unfortunately,

1655. that's been spreading with some of the right-wing governments

1656. across North America. They pick onto people

1657. that can't defend themselves and at the same time,

1658. they're turning around and giving financial support

1659. and tax breaks and tax benefits to people that don't need them.

1660. - Where are the indigents in the city? Where do they live?

1661. - indigent…

1662. - You act like you've never heard the word before.

1663. - There's… We don't have that problem here, really. It's…

1664. - So I asked him,

1665. "Could you at least take me to a Canadian slum,"

1666. and well…

1667. this is what a ghetto looks like in Canada.

1668. Is this the same mentality that says, with Canadians, if someone

1669. gets sick, they should actually be able to have health care?

1670. - Yeah. - Oh, definitely.

1671. - Yeah. - Yup.

1672. - Why?

1673. - Because!

1674. - Human rights. Everyone's got the right to live.

1675. - You just came out of the emergency room?

1676. - Yes, I did.

1677. - How much did you have to pay for your treatment?

1678. - The bill is covered by our hospital plan.

1679. - You're telling me you didn't have to pay anything?

1680. - No, I don't.

1681. - I have family that lives in the States.

1682. They used to live in Canada and moved over there.

1683. And it's so different. - They get afraid more easily.

1684. - Oh, yeah.

1685. Yeah, very much so.

1686. 'Cause everybody reacts over there just like that.

1687. They don't stop and think.

1688. First reaction is pull the gun out. "You're on my property."

1689. You know, like…

1690. I don't know. It's just different over here.

1691. - Where do you live? - Detroit.

1692. - Come over to Canada here for the night?

1693. - Right.

1694. - People are more open-minded here, a bit more welcoming.

1695. - Feel any difference when you cross over to this country?

1696. Be honest, now, come on. - It's a lot lighter.

1697. - The segregation over there is definitely much more—

1698. - In the United States. - …more intensified

1699. in the States, yeah. - Yeah.

1700. - So you can… You can feel it.

1701. - Almost like they just let you be.

1702. - That's Canada for you.

1703. - Every time I turn on the TV in the States,

1704. it's always about a murder here, a gunfight, hostile position…

1705. - I just think the States, their view of things is fighting.

1706. That's how they resolve everything.

1707. If there's… there's something going on in another country,

1708. they send people over to fight it and…

1709. - They are the most powerful country in the world, though.

1710. - Canada's more just, like, "Let's negotiate,

1711. let's work something out." Where the States is,

1712. "We'll kill you and that'll be the end of that."

1713. - if guns were… If more guns made people safer,

1714. then America would be one of the safest countries in the world.

1715. It isn't. It's the opposite.

1716. - I heard that 911 call, you know, on TV someplace.

1717. It was horrible. It was just…

1718. - 'Cause he kept asking, "Where's the shooter?"

1719. She said, "He's gone. I need some help."

1720. - The little girl was in there too?

1721. - She was on the floor, yes.

1722. - And the police and the medics came, or…

1723. - By the time the medics were here…

1724. The medics had just come in and I remember him stepping in

1725. and taking over the room. He said, "You have to leave."

1726. - All right. - And then when the meds come in,

1727. when the police come in, you're no longer in control.

1728. They take over the building. - Was she still alive then?

1729. - Her lips had become totally blue.

1730. - Back in my hometown of Flint, Michigan,

1731. a six-year-old first-grade boy, at Buell Elementary,

1732. had found a gun at his uncle's house,

1733. where he was staying because his mother was being evicted.

1734. He brought the gun to school and shot another first-grader,

1735. six-year-old Kayla Rolland.

1736. With one bullet that passed through her body,

1737. she fell to the floor and laid there dying

1738. while her teacher called 911 for help.

1739. No one knew why the little boy

1740. wanted to shoot the little girl.

1741. As if the city had not been through

1742. enough horror and tragedy

1743. in the past two decades, it was now home

1744. to a new record: the youngest school shooting ever

1745. in the United States.

1746. On the morning of the shooting,

1747. it only took the helicopters and satellite trucks

1748. a half-hour to show up.

1749. - They check in the truck.

1750. You know, we're doing one in 30 minutes again.

1751. - This evening, about seven o'clock,

1752. will be a public memorial service. Hundreds of people

1753. will mourn the loss of little Kayla, a tiny little girl

1754. who loved pizza, teddy bears,

1755. and who was taken away from us much too soon. Gina?

1756. - Good morning, Christine. The funeral home now passing out

1757. tens of thousands of these pink ribbons

1758. to support the young girl's family.

1759. Today will be an emotional day and has been already,

1760. remembering little Kayla.

1761. Jeff Ross, Fox-2 News.

1762. - Nice job.

1763. - Yeah, Michelle, we're having technical problems, okay?

1764. Well, don't talk to me about it, call our sat truck.

1765. I need a haircut, man.

1766. I'm a pig. A rug.

1767. Here we go.

1768. Some too choked up even to speak about it.

1769. There's a memorial service scheduled here

1770. for seven o'clock tonight.

1771. We're live in Flint, Michigan, this afternoon.

1772. Jeff Ross, Q-13 Reports.

1773. Thank you. - Thank you.

1774. - I kind of need it, don't I? - Yeah, you do,

1775. - I got some…

1776. - I have some. I just didn't put it in. I didn't have a chance.

1777. This man prayed for Kayla then let the balloon go.

1778. I say we have the colour picture,

1779. not the black-and-white.

1780. Plenty of media here that covered Columbine.

1781. You know, there are some networks, especially,

1782. that go from, unfortunately, tragedy to tragedy.

1783. And, I feel bad for them. Because that's all they see…

1784. The tragedies.

1785. We're just trying to crunch right now

1786. for the five and the six.

1787. Today, we're feeding CNN and Fox, so…

1788. - The national media had never visited Buell Elementary,

1789. or the Beecher school district in which it sat,

1790. or this part of Flint ever before.

1791. And few, if any, of these reporters bothered to visit it

1792. even when they were here now.

1793. If they had ventured just a block away from the school

1794. or the funeral home, they might have seen

1795. a different kind of tragedy that, perhaps, would contain

1796. some answers as to why this little girl was dead.

1797. For over 20 years, this impoverished area,

1798. in the hometown

1799. of the world's largest corporation,

1800. had been ignored as completely as it had been destroyed.

1801. With 87% of the students living below

1802. the official poverty line,

1803. Buell and Beecher, and Flint, did not fit into

1804. the accepted and widely circulated story line

1805. put forth by the nation's media.

1806. That being the one about America

1807. and its invincible economy.

1808. The number-one cause of death among young people

1809. in this part of Flint was homicide. The football field,

1810. at Flint-Beecher, was sponsored by a funeral home.

1811. The kids at Beecher have won

1812. 13 state track championships,

1813. but they've never had

1814. a home track meet.

1815. Because around the football field,

1816. all they have is this dirt ring.

1817. Years ago, someone here named the streets,

1818. in this part of town, after all the Ivy League schools,

1819. as if they had dreamed of better days

1820. and something greater for themselves.

1821. - The children are doing well.

1822. The faculty and staff are doing well.

1823. But we don't forget.

1824. We don't forget.

1825. Just don't want this happening to anybody else, you know?

1826. It's…

1827. - I know.

1828. I know. I don't want it to happen to anybody else either.

1829. It's okay.

1830. - I'm sorry. - That's all right.

1831. …from my cold, dead hands!

1832. - Just as he did

1833. after the Columbine shooting, Charlton Heston showed up

1834. in Flint to have a big pro-gun rally.

1835. - Freedom has never seen

1836. greater peril nor needed you more urgently

1837. to come to her defence than now.

1838. - Before he came to Flint, Heston was interviewed

1839. by the Georgetown Hoya about Kayla's death,

1840. and even his own NRA website talked about it.

1841. - We wanted to let the NRA know that we haven't forgotten

1842. about Kayla Rolland.

1843. How could they come here? To me, it's like they're rubbing

1844. our nose in it. I was shocked

1845. and appalled that they would come here.

1846. - Heston was asked by a local reporter why he came to Flint

1847. after the tragedy at Buell,

1848. and what did the NRA have to say

1849. about six-year-olds using guns.

1850. - We spend $20 million every year

1851. and then we teach you… to five and six-year-olds,

1852. we say, "If you see a gun, don't touch it,

1853. leave the room, call an adult."

1854. - And then Moses himself showed up.

1855. - Right here in the city of Flint?

1856. - Right here in Flint.

1857. - Were there people that wanted you to try this child,

1858. or even try him as an adult? - Oh, yeah.

1859. There were people from all over America that wrote and called

1860. and sent mail and… It was amazing to me…

1861. groups that were affiliated with the NRA -

1862. groups, you know, people that I call "gun nuts" -

1863. writing me and telling me what a horrible thing it was

1864. that I had admonished homeowners in our country

1865. to be careful about bringing weapons into their home.

1866. They wanted this little boy hung from the highest tree.

1867. I mean, there was such an undercurrent of racism

1868. and hate and anger.

1869. It was ugly.

1870. - That's a picture that the little boy that was involved

1871. in the Buell-school shooting…

1872. Once he was brought back here to our office,

1873. about 15 minutes after the shooting took place,

1874. I gave him some crayons to kind of occupy him a little bit.

1875. He came over and drew that picture for me.

1876. Because at the time, I had pictures right behind my desk

1877. that my children had drew for me and he wanted to draw me one.

1878. - This is what he drew for you. What did he say this was?

1879. - That's him at his house.

1880. - That's him at his house, right here.

1881. And why did you decide to hang on to it?

1882. - Because of the gravity of the situation and what had occurred

1883. and he asked me to hang that behind my desk,

1884. so I put it in a frame and that's where it'll stay.

1885. - Tamarla Owens was the mother of the six-year-old boy.

1886. In order to get food stamps and health care for her children,

1887. Tamarla was forced to work as part of the state of Michigan's

1888. Welfare-to-Work Program.

1889. This program was so successful

1890. in tossing poor people off welfare

1891. that it's founder,

1892. Gerald Miller, was soon hired

1893. by the number-one firm in the country that states turned to

1894. to privatize their welfare systems.

1895. That firm was Lockheed Martin. With the cold war over

1896. and no enemy left to frighten the public,

1897. Lockheed had found the perfect way to diversify

1898. and the perfect way

1899. to profit from people's fears,

1900. with an enemy much closer to home:

1901. poor black mothers

1902. like Tamarla Owens.

1903. - We've got a one-parent family and the mother's travelling 60 miles.

1904. An hour, an hour and a half away to go to work

1905. an hour, an hour and a half to come home.

1906. How does that help a community? But that's part of the state…

1907. you know, making parents responsible, making them work—

1908. Welfare to work.

1909. That's a program that ought to be stopped

1910. because it really has no merit.

1911. I think it adds more to the problem

1912. than it does to solve it.

1913. - Really? - I do.

1914. - You're the sheriff and you feel this way.

1915. - I do, I do. I wish I could put two parents in every home

1916. and make every parent equally responsible,

1917. but I can't do that.

1918. But we're not doing anything by taking one parent

1919. and putting them on a bus and sending them out of town

1920. to make $5.50 an hour.

1921. - This is the bus that she was forced to ride every day

1922. in order to work off the welfare money

1923. the state had given her.

1924. She and many others from Flint who were poor

1925. would make the 80-mile round-trip journey every day,

1926. from Flint to Auburn Hills, in Oakland County,

1927. one of the wealthiest areas in the country.

1928. Tamarla would leave

1929. early in the morning and return late at night,

1930. rarely seeing her young children.

1931. - What's the point in doing that? Where does the state benefit?

1932. Where does Flint and Genesee County benefit from that?

1933. We have a child dead. I think that may be, in part,

1934. part of the problem.

1935. We drove the one parent out.

1936. Now, you or anybody else that can tell me

1937. that that best serves the community,

1938. I shake my head and wonder why.

1939. - How long you been riding the bus?

1940. - I've been working here

1941. just about three years now. - About three years?

1942. - Yeah. My brother… I got my brother working here,

1943. half of my neighbourhood works out here.

1944. Just about everybody I know personally works in the mall.

1945. In Flint, doing the same thing I'm doing now,

1946. they only pay minimum wage in Flint. I come 40 miles

1947. to make three or four dollars more an hour.

1948. - How much do you make an hour? - I make 8.50 now.

1949. - Is that enough to pay the bills?

1950. - No.

1951. - So did you know Tamarla Owens,

1952. the woman whose son shot the little girl?

1953. I think she rode this bus. - I knew her a little bit.

1954. Not real good. - Nice lady?

1955. - Yeah, she was okay. She came to work every day, did her job.

1956. She worked two jobs, so… - She worked two jobs?

1957. - She was trying to make ends meet.

1958. "We're going hopping We're going hopping today

1959. "Where things are popping…

1960. - This is Dick Clark's American Bandstand Grill,

1961. where Tamarla worked one of her two jobs.

1962. "On the Bandstand Bandstand"

1963. - I think she worked in this room here, as a bartender,

1964. fountain-person making drinks, making shakes, desserts.

1965. - Was she a good employee? - Yeah, she was.

1966. She also worked at the Fudgery, in the mall here.

1967. - Dick Clark is an American icon,

1968. the man who brought rock'n'roll into our homes every week

1969. on American Bandstand.

1970. - Every part of your life, you can link up

1971. to a part of music, usually. So, as Dick says,

1972. "It's the soundtrack of our lives."

1973. Music's the soundtrack of our lives.

1974. - His restaurant and the Fudgery, here in Auburn Hills,

1975. applied for special tax breaks because they were using

1976. welfare people as employees.

1977. Even though Tamarla worked up to 70 hours a week

1978. at these two jobs

1979. in the mall, she did not earn enough to pay her rent.

1980. And one week before the shooting,

1981. was told by her landlord

1982. that he was evicting her.

1983. With nowhere to go and not wanting to take

1984. her two children out of school, Tamarla asked her brother

1985. if they could stay with him for a few weeks.

1986. It was there that Tamarla's son

1987. found a small 32-calibre gun and took it to school.

1988. Tamarla did not see him take the gun to school,

1989. because she was on a state bus to go serve drinks

1990. and make fudge for rich people.

1991. "Bandstand"

1992. I decided to fly out to California

1993. to ask Dick Clark what he thought about a system

1994. that forces poor, single mothers to work

1995. two low-wage jobs to survive.

1996. I'm doing a documentary on these school shootings

1997. and, you know, guns and all that.

1998. And in my hometown of Flint Michigan, which you know,

1999. this little six-year-old shot a six-year-old—

2000. - Get in the car, Dave! Watch your arm, watch your arm.

2001. - Oop, sorry, sorry. - I'm sorry, we're really late.

2002. - Anyways, but the mother of the kid who did the shooting

2003. works at Dick Clark's All-American Grill…

2004. - Forget it. - …in Oakland County…

2005. - Close the door. - A Welfare-to-work program—

2006. - Close the door. - These people are forced…

2007. Dick, no… - Bye-bye. Come on, move over!

2008. - I want you to help me convince the governor of Michigan…

2009. It's a Welfare-to-work pro… These women are forced to work!

2010. They've got kids at home. Dick!

2011. Ah, jeez!

2012. In George Bush's America,

2013. the poor were not a priority.

2014. And after September 11th, 2001,

2015. correcting America's social problems

2016. took a back seat to fear,

2017. panic and a new set of priorities.

2018. - One way to express our unity

2019. is for Congress to set the military budget,

2020. the defence of the United States,

2021. as the number-one priority and fully fund my request!

2022. - We've been selling a lot of chemical suits,

2023. with the gloves and the hoods.

2024. And we've been selling a lot of gas masks.

2025. - I'm trying to get one for myself and my puppy.

2026. Denis Marks and his wife

2027. have been stocking up supplies.

2028. - Weapons, ammunition…

2029. Wal-Mart says after September 11th,

2030. gun sales surged 70%,

2031. ammunition up 140%.

2032. In Dallas, they're already taking potshots

2033. at Osama bin Laden.

2034. - In the months following the 9/11 attacks,

2035. we, Americans, were gripped in a state of fear.

2036. None of us knew if we too would die

2037. at the hands of the evildoers,

2038. or who might be sitting

2039. next to some crazy guy trying to light his shoes on fire.

2040. The threat seemed very real.

2041. - Sounds a little paranoid but I'm not gonna take the chance.

2042. Just trying to protect myself and my family.

2043. - Our growing fears were turned

2044. into a handsome profit for many.

2045. - Mike Blake has seen

2046. a 30% increase in sales at ADT

2047. over the last month.

2048. Most of the people he talks to are still a little uneasy

2049. over the September 11th terrorist attacks.

2050. - How are we afraid of all these things, it's because

2051. a lot of people are making a lot of money off of it

2052. and a lot of careers off of it.

2053. And so, there's vested interests,

2054. a lot of activity to keep us afraid.

2055. - And what better way to fight box-cutter-wielding terrorists

2056. than to order a record number of fighter jets

2057. from Lockheed?

2058. Yes, everyone felt safer, especially with the army

2059. doing garbage detail on Park Avenue.

2060. And the greatest benefit of all of a terrorized public

2061. is that the corporate

2062. and political leaders can get away with just about anything.

2063. - I've never seen a better example

2064. of cash-and-carry government

2065. than this Bush administration and Enron.

2066. - There were a lot of things that I didn't know

2067. after the World Trade Center attack,

2068. but one thing was clear: whether it was before or after

2069. September 11th, a public that's this out of control with fear

2070. should not have a lot of guns or ammo laying around.

2071. - Well, I was shot with a Tech-9.

2072. - Nine millimetre?

2073. - Yeah. It was…

2074. I guess it was supposed to be semi-automatic,

2075. but it kind of seemed like fully automatic to me,

2076. from what I remember. - This is Richard Costaldo.

2077. And this is Mark Taylor. Both of these boys were shot

2078. the day of the Columbine massacre.

2079. Richard is paralyzed for life and in a wheelchair.

2080. And Mark is barely standing after numerous operations.

2081. - The kids at Columbine had to pay a penalty.

2082. We paid a penalty that day… for this nation.

2083. The way we look at it.

2084. - Mark and Richard were disabled and suffering

2085. from the 17-cent K-Mart bullets still embedded in their bodies.

2086. As they showed me the various entry points for the bullets,

2087. I thought of one way we could reduce

2088. the number of guns and bullets laying around. I asked the boys

2089. if they'd like to go to K-Mart to return the merchandise.

2090. - Ready? - You go.

2091. - Hi.

2092. - Excuse me, will you turn the camera off, please?

2093. - We're here to see Mr. Conaway. - You have to turn the camera off

2094. while you're in the building. - Oh, okay, all right.

2095. Okay, turn it off now.

2096. - Hey, Michael. - Hi, how are you?

2097. - I'm Mary Lorenz. I'm director of Media Relations for K-Mart.

2098. - Oh, good. All right, good. - How can I help you today?

2099. - Well, I'm here today… This is Richard Costaldo.

2100. - Richard, nice to meet you. - And this is Mark Taylor.

2101. - Mark. - And they're students

2102. from Columbine High School. They were shot at Columbine,

2103. in the massacre, with bullets from K-Mart.

2104. - You came a long way. All the way from Colorado.

2105. - Yeah, I just… I was thinking that…

2106. since you stopped selling the handguns and all,

2107. it'd kind of make sense to stop selling the bullets too.

2108. - Our request is that you get rid of nine-millimetre bullets

2109. and that you don't sell them in the store completely.

2110. - We do carry… You probably are aware of K-Mart -

2111. hopefully, you're shoppers at our stores -

2112. that we do only carry, you know, sporting firearms

2113. and the accessories that go with the hunting sport.

2114. And we'll certainly take your message to our chairman and CEO,

2115. Chuck Conaway. He's not here today.

2116. - He's not here today? - No. He's not here, actually,

2117. this whole week. - Not at all during the week?

2118. Do you have a limit on the number of bullets, ammunition,

2119. that people can purchase? - You know, I can't answer

2120. these questions for you. I'm not the merchandiser

2121. who places those products in our stores.

2122. - Can we speak to that person?

2123. - But I can get answers to those questions for you.

2124. If you leave your card, I could get those answers for you.

2125. - We don't want to leave a card.

2126. The reason why we can't take a card

2127. and come back is because Mark here,

2128. he's got a K-Mart bullet just an inch away… right?

2129. - Yeah. - From your aorta.

2130. - In between my aorta and spine. - Between your aorta and spine.

2131. - I'm glad to see that you're still able to stand.

2132. - And I told him that somebody here would listen,

2133. somebody here would…

2134. take the request seriously. Not just a PR person,

2135. but somebody who has some authority and can answer

2136. some of the questions that they want answered.

2137. - K-Mart does care about this,

2138. but I can't go any further right now.

2139. So until I make a call,

2140. I'm gonna go back to the office

2141. and see if there's anyone in Merchandising…

2142. - Mary went back upstairs. And two hours later,

2143. she brought down this guy whose job it is to buy the bullets

2144. for K-Mart.

2145. - Good. Stay out of trouble. - Yes.

2146. - We're not the ones in trouble, guys.

2147. Mark thought he'd show him his bullet wounds.

2148. Those are his bullet holes.

2149. - From your bullets.

2150. That's where the K-Mart bullets went in.

2151. - Well, take care.

2152. - Is anybody else gonna come down?

2153. Is anybody else gonna come down? Is that it?

2154. - Let me check. - Okay, thank you.

2155. We waited around a couple more hours

2156. but no one else came down.

2157. As we left the building, Mark came up with an idea.

2158. He suggested that we go

2159. to the nearest K-Mart and buy out all their bullets.

2160. - Just take as many of those as you can.

2161. - Yeah, you can come around here and look.

2162. - What else do we have over here?

2163. You got 357. Sure, I'll take 'em all, take everything you got.

2164. - So you're 17? You're what? - Sixteen.

2165. - Wait.

2166. - Oh, shit!

2167. - Oh, my God…

2168. - Mark pretty much cleaned them out of their ammunition.

2169. And the next day, we decided to go back to K-Mart headquarters

2170. with all the bullets. This time,

2171. we brought the press.

2172. - Our local first coverage of south-eastern Michigan

2173. continues now with all-new stories.

2174. - Coming up here on our six-o'clock report,

2175. a warning to everyone this summer to watch out for snakes.

2176. You'll hear from a mom who was bitten by a rattlesnake.

2177. - And also, students who survived the Columbine massacre

2178. are in town. They are very angry with K-Mart.

2179. - We're here to see Chuck Conaway, the chairman of K-Mart.

2180. - How you doing, sir? It's always a pleasure.

2181. Okay…

2182. They would like to speak to Mr. Conaway.

2183. - Here's the nine-millimetres.

2184. These are the bullets that are in both Richard

2185. and in Mark's body right now.

2186. - Move your group outside.

2187. I'll have somebody here in five minutes.

2188. - Do me a favour, don't block the door.

2189. Just off to the side, if you would.

2190. - Will go outside and somebody will come out.

2191. - My name's Laurie McTavish.

2192. I'm the Vice-president of Communications for K-Mart.

2193. I'm happy to deliver a statement on behalf of the company.

2194. What happened in Columbine, Colorado, was truly tragic

2195. and touched every American.

2196. We're sorry for the…

2197. disadvantage to this young man.

2198. K-Mart is phasing out the sale of handgun ammunition.

2199. The business plan calls for this to be complete

2200. in the continental U.S. within the next 90 days.

2201. - Wow! Wow!

2202. - K-Mart representatives met with Mr. Moore

2203. and the students from Columbine, Colorado, yesterday,

2204. and listened to their concerns about the product

2205. carried in K-Mart stores.

2206. The company committed, at the end of that meeting,

2207. that K-Mart would have an answer for them within a week's time.

2208. - Well, the first thing we want to do is thank you

2209. for committing to no longer selling handgun ammunition

2210. in your stores. And within 90 days—

2211. - The process will be phased out within 90 days.

2212. - And after 90 days, there will be no more selling

2213. of ammunition that can go into handguns or assault weapons.

2214. - Firearm ammunition, will be… We will not sell it,

2215. after 90 days, in our stores.

2216. - We greatly appreciate that. - Thank you.

2217. - Thank you very much. Thank you. That's very brave.

2218. Thank you. Wow!

2219. That blows my mind. That's more than what we asked for.

2220. - It's remarkable. - Yeah. Well, like I told you—

2221. - I didn't think— - Did you think?

2222. - No! - We're like…

2223. We're just getting ready to… We're going to the airport.

2224. The kids from Columbine had scored an overwhelming victory

2225. against K-Mart and it inspired me

2226. to do something that I knew I had to do.

2227. All I needed… was a star map.

2228. - Hello? - Mr. Heston?

2229. - Yeah. - This is Michael Moore.

2230. - Yes. - The film-maker?

2231. - Yes, of course. - Yes. How you doing?

2232. - Fine, thank you.

2233. - Listen, I was wondering if maybe I could talk to you.

2234. We're making a documentary about the whole gun issue.

2235. And I'm a member of the NRA.

2236. I thought maybe we could talk a little bit about—

2237. - Tell you what, let me look at my calendar.

2238. I may be able to give you some time tomorrow.

2239. I have some people here now. - Okay, well, how can I—

2240. Pardon me? - Hold the phone.

2241. - Okay, thank you. - Okay.

2242. I can give you a little time tomorrow morning.

2243. I think that's Thursday. - Yes.

2244. - Let's say 8:30. - Eight-thirty in the morning?

2245. - Yeah. Okay? - Okay. And just come here?

2246. - Yes. - Okay, good.

2247. - Hello?

2248. - Hi. It's Michael Moore here to see Charlton Heston.

2249. - Okay.

2250. - Hi. Good morning.

2251. How are you? - Fine.

2252. - Thank you very much for agreeing to see me.

2253. He took me out to his pool-and-tennis house

2254. so we could have a chat.

2255. I told him that I was a lifetime member of the NRA

2256. and showed him my membership card.

2257. - Good for you. Well done.

2258. - I assume you have guns in the house here?

2259. - Indeed I do. Bad guys take notice!

2260. - So you have them for protection?

2261. - Yeah. Sure. - Have you ever been

2262. a victim of crime? - No. No.

2263. - Never been assaulted or…? - No.

2264. - No violence toward you, but you have guns in the house.

2265. - Loaded. - They're loaded?

2266. - Well, if you really needed a weapon for self-defence,

2267. you need it loaded. - Okay, but why…

2268. why do you need it for self-defence? Because—

2269. - I don't. - Yeah, you've never been

2270. a victim of crime, you haven't been assaulted.

2271. - No, that's true. - You haven't been, you know…

2272. Why would you… So why not… Why don't you unload the gun?

2273. - Because the second amendment gives me the right

2274. to have it loaded. - I agree.

2275. I totally agree with that. I'm just saying… I mean,

2276. the second amendment gives me—

2277. - Let's say it's a comfort factor.

2278. - It gives you comfort to know that there's a loaded gun.

2279. - Yeah.

2280. - Comfort meaning that it allows you to relax and feel safe?

2281. - Not worry about it. - Not worry, not be afraid.

2282. - And I'm not really, but…

2283. I'm exercising one of the rights passed on down to me

2284. from those wise, old, dead white guys that invented this country.

2285. If it was good enough for them, it's good enough for me.

2286. - But you could still exercise the right,

2287. just by having a gun unloaded and locked away somewhere.

2288. - I choose to have it.

2289. - What sort of strikes me as interesting is that,

2290. in other countries, where they don't have the murder rate,

2291. the gun-murder rate that we have, that…

2292. many people say,

2293. "Well, that's because they don't have guns around.

2294. It's hard to get a gun in Britain or Germany or whatever."

2295. But we went to Canada and there's seven million guns

2296. in 10-million homes. - There won't be very long.

2297. - But hear me out, though. - Okay.

2298. - Canada is a nation of hunters,

2299. millions of guns,

2300. and yet, they had just a few murders last year.

2301. That's it. A country of 30-million people.

2302. Now, why - here's my question - why is it that…

2303. that they've got all these guns laying around,

2304. yet they don't kill each other

2305. at the level that we kill each other?

2306. - I think American history is…

2307. has a lot of blood

2308. on its hands. - And Germany history doesn't?

2309. - No. - And British history?

2310. - I don't think as much. - Oh, are you…

2311. Germans don't have as much, blood on their hands?

2312. - they do, yes. - The Brits, they ruled the world

2313. for 300 years at the barrel of a gun.

2314. They're all violent people. They have bad guys, they have crime,

2315. they have lots of guns—

2316. - Well, it's an interesting point, which can be explored

2317. and you're good to explore it at great lengths,

2318. but I think that's about all I have to say on it.

2319. - You don't have any opinion, though, as to why that is,

2320. that we are the unique country, the only country,

2321. that does this, that kills each other on this level, with guns?

2322. - Well, we have, probably, more mixed ethnicity

2323. than other countries, some other countries.

2324. - You think it's an ethnic thing?

2325. - No, I don't. It's…

2326. I wouldn't go so far as to say that.

2327. We had enough problems with civil rights in the beginning.

2328. It's… But, I have no answer for that.

2329. - What do you mean, you think it's a mixed ethnicity?

2330. I don't understand.

2331. - You said, "How is it that…" - That we're unique.

2332. - "So many Americans kill each other?"

2333. I don't know that that's true, but…

2334. - Well, no, you know that.

2335. We know we have the highest murder rate with guns.

2336. It's way higher than any other country.

2337. - The only answer I can give you is the one I already gave you.

2338. - Which is? - Which is that we have…

2339. - Historically— - …a history of violence.

2340. Perhaps more than most countries. Not more than Russia,

2341. not more than Japan or China— - Not more than Germany.

2342. - Not more than Germany, but certainly more than Canada.

2343. - I come from Flint, Michigan, and last year,

2344. a little six-year-old boy took a gun into a classroom

2345. and shot and killed a six-year-old girl. And…

2346. it was really a tragic thing—

2347. - This was a kid, though. - A six-year-old, yeah.

2348. Did you hear about this?

2349. A six-year-old shooting a six-year-old?

2350. - Yeah. - Well, here's my question.

2351. After that happened,

2352. you came to Flint and held a big rally.

2353. - And, you know, I just—

2354. - So did the vice-president.

2355. - Yeah, but did you feel it was being at all insensitive

2356. to the fact that this community had just gone through—

2357. - Actually, I wasn't aware of that at the time we came.

2358. We came and did an early-morning… rally,

2359. then went on to wherever we were going.

2360. - You didn't know at the time, that this killing had happened?

2361. - No. - Had you known, would you have—

2362. - Would I have cancelled the…

2363. - Yeah. - I don't…

2364. Hard to say.

2365. - It wasn't like it was already planned.

2366. I mean, the choice to come there was made

2367. after this horrible killing took place.

2368. - Yeah.

2369. - You know, had you know that, would you have come?

2370. - I don't know. I have no idea.

2371. - Maybe not. Maybe not. - Okay. Thank you.

2372. - You think you'd like to just maybe apologize to the people

2373. in Flint for coming and doing that at that time, or…?

2374. - You want me to apologize…

2375. me, apologize to the people in Flint?

2376. - Or the people in Columbine

2377. for coming after their horrible tragedy.

2378. Why do you go to the places after they have

2379. these horrible tragedies? I'm a member of your group here—

2380. - Well, I'm afraid we don't agree on… on that.

2381. - You think it's okay to just come and show up

2382. at these events. - No.

2383. - You don't think it's okay?

2384. Mr. Heston, just one more thing.

2385. This is who she is -

2386. or was. This is her.

2387. Mr. Heston, please don't leave.

2388. Mr. Heston, please, take a look at her.

2389. This is the girl.

2390. I left the Heston estate atop Beverly Hills

2391. and walked back into the real world,

2392. an America living and breathing in fear…

2393. In your mind, you imagine somebody

2394. who might break into your house, to harm you or your family.

2395. What does that person look like?

2396. - You. Her. Him. The camera guy, anybody.

2397. Could be a gun in the camera, I don't know.

2398. - Where gun sales were now at an all-time high…

2399. - Can shoot as fast as Wesson semi-automatic.

2400. - And where, in the end,

2401. it all comes back to bowling

2402. for Columbine.

2403. - Three bowling-alley employees shot to death Sunday night

2404. at the AMF Broadway Lanes.

2405. - There's nothing I really know. I really don't know anything.

2406. - Just that three people died. - Right.

2407. - In Littleton, in a bowling alley.

2408. I'm sorry.

2409. Yes, it was a glorious time to be an American.

2410. I see trees of green

2411. Red roses too

2412. I see them bloom

2413. For me and you

2414. And I think to myself

2415. What a wonderful world

2416. I see skies of blue

2417. And clouds of white

2418. The bright sunny days

2419. The dark sacred nights

2420. And I think to myself

2421. What a wonderful world

2422. The colours of the rainbow

2423. All so pretty in the sky

2424. Are also on the faces

2425. Of the people walking by

2426. I see friends shakin' hands

2427. Sayin' How do you do

2428. They're really saying

2429. I love you

2430. I see babies cryin'

2431. I watch them grow

2432. They'll learn much more

2433. Than I'll ever know

2434. And I think to myself

2435. What a wonderful world

2436. And I think to myself

2437. What a wonderful world…

2438. And I say to myself

2439. What a wonderful

2440. World