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Viewing Guide Table of Contents A Film by STEPHANIE SOECHTIG VIEWING GUIDE TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION 3 ABOUT THE FILM Summary 4 Featured Subjects and Organizations Key Issue Areas 5 A Letter From the Filmmaker Stephanie Soechtig 6 THE EVENT Tips for Leading the Discussion 7 Conversation Starters 7 Discussion Questions 8 BACKGROUND ON THE ISSUES Stats From the Film 12 Gun Lobby Myths Debunked *Courtesy of Everytown for Gun Safety 13 Glossary 14 RESOURCES 15 TAKE ACTION After Watching UNDER THE GUN, I am Ready To . 17 PARTNERS 18 SUBJECTS FEATURED IN FILM 20 CREDITS 22 Please share your event photos and highlights from your post-screening discussion with us via Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram using #UNDERTHEGUN, or email us at [email protected]. INTRODUCTION DEAR SCREENING HOST, Thank you so much for taking the time to bring this important issue to your community. The tagline for this film is “IN THE GUN DEBATE, TRUTH IS THE ULTIMATE WEAPON.” Please use the resources in this discussion guide to help foster a truthful and respectful dialogue about gun violence and what YOU, and everyone in the room, can do to ACT. Talking about gun violence won’t save lives, but collective action will. Thank you for your support and utilizing UNDER THE GUN to educate your community. We hope the event you are hosting will lead to changing hearts and minds, and lead to meaningful action. Please share your event photos and highlights from your post-screening discussion with us via Facebook, Twitter, Instagram using #UNDERTHEGUN or email us at [email protected]. VIEWING GUIDE 3 ABOUT THE FILM Summary In the past few years, a drastic rise in mass shootings has ripped across the United States, compounding an epidemic of gun violence in our country. Despite a growing body count at the hands of gun violence, and the outpouring of shock and outrage that comes with it, our nation has failed to respond with meaningful action. What is keeping the two sides of this debate—those favoring stricter gun laws, and Second Amendment purists like the NRA—from finding common ground? Through the lens of families impacted by the mass shootings in Newtown, Connecticut; Aurora, Colorado; Isla Vista, California; Tucson, Arizona; as well as the daily gun violence in Chicago, the film examines why our politicians are failing to act. Director Stephanie Soechtig and executive producer Katie Couric (the team behind the 2014 Sundance Film Festival hit FED UP) join forces again to create a documentary that is scrupulously comprehensive and decidedly fair to both sides of one of the most polarizing issues facing our country today. Searing and powerful with never-before-seen footage of the shooting in Aurora, UNDER THE GUN gives a human face to a crisis that is costing us in blood and scarring the conscience of a nation. VIEWING GUIDE 4 ABOUT THE FILM Featured Subjects and Organizations • Annette Holt, advocate • John Feinblatt and Richard • Robyn Thomas, Law Center and survivor Martinez, Everytown for to Prevent Gun Violence • Arkadi Gerney, Center Gun Safety • Sandy and Lonnie Phillips, for American Progress • Josh Sugarmann, The Violence Jessi’s Message • Carolyn McCarthy, former Policy Center • Shannon Watts, Moms Demand U.S. congresswoman (D-NY) • Kaile Shilling, coalition director Action for Gun Sense in America • Charles Houser, ATF special agent of the Violence Prevention • Tom Diaz, author of Coalition of Greater Los Angeles Making a Killing • Dan Gross, The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence • Mark Follman, Mother Jones • Victoria Montgomery, • Daniel Webster, director of • Members of the Virginia Open Carry Texas Johns Hopkins Center for Citizens Defense League • William Vizzard, former Gun Policy and Research • Michael Waldman, Brennan Bureau of Alcohol, • Father Michael Pfleger, Saint Center for Justice Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives Sabina Church, Chicago, IL • Pamela and Tom Bosley, (ATF) agent • Gabby Giffords and Mark Kelly, Purpose Over Pain Americans for Responsible • Representative Robin Kelly, Solutions U.S. congresswoman (D-IL) • Jackie and Mark Barden, • Richard Feldman, former NRA Sandy Hook Promise lobbyist Please see the partners section (page 18) to learn more about each of these organizations. Key Issue Areas • Background checks • Gun lobby • Open carry • Bad apple gun dealers • Gun violence perpetrators • Responsible gun ownership • Gun violence research prohibitions • History of the National Rifle • Second Amendment • Gun violence in Chicago Association • Straw purchase • Gun law loopholes • Mass shootings • Terror gap • Gun laws and policy • Mental health • Urban violence VIEWING GUIDE 5 ABOUT THE FILM A Letter from the Filmmaker STEPHANIE SOECHTIG Some of my favorite memories of growing up in Brookfield, Connecticut, involve summer nights at the Edmond Town Hall in Newtown, watching $2 movies. I don’t think my 17-year-old self would have ever believed that I’d be returning to Newtown as a director to cover one of our country’s most devastating massacres. I was filming FED UP when the Sandy Hook shooting happened. I still remember how surreal it felt when I heard the newscaster say “Newtown” in relation to a mass shooting… things like that just don’t happen in our sleepy little town. It felt like nothing ever happened in our town—danger only loomed in the city and dark alleys. Never in a first grade classroom. I was pregnant at the time of the shooting and it felt like I was bringing my son into a very different world than the world before December 14th. So when Katie called me after the Isla Vista shooting and asked me if I thought we should make a film about the gun violence crisis, I felt a new motivation. I started researching the gun violence epidemic and was amazed by the way our country was approaching the issue. I wanted to try to tell this story with a holistic approach and in a way that could break through some of the “noise” that has surrounded this issue for so long. The debate over guns and gun laws has always seemed like a very black-and-white issue, but I was really intrigued to learn that not only is there a lot of gray area, but in fact, common ground. I was also so interested in the parents who had lost their children to gun violence and had gone on to become gun violence activists—I don’t know if I would be able to get out of bed if something like that happened to my son and yet here are these incredible parents that have made this their life’s work. How had they found the strength to take up such a tremendous battle? Their stories were the backbone to the story we wanted to tell. —Stephanie Soechtig VIEWING GUIDE 6 THE EVENT Tips for Leading the Discussion Talking about gun violence can be difficult. Be mindful that you may have participants with different perspectives, some of which may be strongly held, and that some people may be deeply sensitive about the issue, including those touched by gun violence as well as gun owners. To set the stage for a productive conversation, consider the following tips: • Ask everyone to be respectful. Before you begin the conversation, remind everyone to be respectful of others’ viewpoints and to be CONVERSATION STARTERS mindful of listening as well as participating in order to create a safe environment for all attendees to be open to expanding their thinking. 1. Before watching the film, how concerned were you • Be knowledgeable. You don’t need to be an expert on the gun about the issue of gun debate to lead the discussion, but understanding the basic violence? concepts covered in the film can help. Read through this guide before your event, identify a few questions from those provided 2. Was anything in the film below to use for your discussion, and review a few of the resources surprising or shocking to you? Please share one moment or included here to help frame the conversation around your chosen one thing you learned. questions. • Let everyone speak. Be mindful of leading an inclusive discussion 3. Did the film change your where everyone has a chance to be heard, and remind participants mind or shift your perspective to share in a way that invites open dialogue rather than lecturing about gun violence in America? or debating. If so, how? • Create a safe space. Be aware that this film covers a very sensitive 4. Do you have any personal topic, addresses violence, and may be triggering to viewers. experience with guns or Depending on the group you plan on inviting, you may want to gun violence? Is it positive invite a local survivor support organization to attend or have or negative? resources available should someone require additional support following the screening. • Make your event meaningful. Plan and provide ways that your audience can take action after seeing the film to help create change, whether it’s directly associated with your organization through email collection or fundraising, making your community safer through encouraging responsible gun storage, or direct policy action to help pass an upcoming ballot initiative or elect pro-common sense lawmakers. Review the Take Action section of this guide for some ideas on how you can direct your audience to take action to help end gun violence. VIEWING GUIDE 7 THE EVENT Discussion Questions 1. The Second Amendment reads, “A well regulated Militia, 4. In the film, journalist Mark Follman says, “We studied 70 being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of public mass shootings and not a single one was stopped the People to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.” this way by an ordinary citizen who happened to be there with a firearm.” a.
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