Bowling for Columbine

The National Rifle Association

has produced a film

which you are sure to find of great interest.

Let's look at it.

It was the morning of April 20th 1999,

and it was pretty much

like any other morning in America.

The farmer did his chores.

The milkman made his deliveries.

The President bombed another country

whose name we couldn't pronounce.

Out in Fargo, North Dakota,

Kerry McWilliams went on his morning walk.

Back in Michigan, Mrs Hughes welcomed

her students for another day of school.

And out in a little town in Colorado,

two boys went bowling at six in the morning.

Yes, it was a typical day

in the United States of America.

May I help you?

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

- OK, what type of account would you like?

- Um...

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

- OK.

I'd spotted an ad in the local Michigan paper

that said if you opened an account

at North Country Bank,

the bank would give you a gun.

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

We have a whole brochure here

that you can look at.

Once we do the background check

and everything, it's yours to go.

OK. Right, well,

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

We have a vault in which, at all times,

we keep at least 500 firearms.

- 500 of these you have in your vault?

- In our vault.

- We have to do a background check.

- At the bank here?

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

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

What do I put for race?

White, or Caucasian, or...?

- Caucasian.

- Caucasian.

I knew you were gonna make me spell that.

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

- Yes.

Thank you.

I don't think that's the part

they're gonna be worried about.

"Have you ever been adjudicated

mentally defective

or been committed to a mental institution?"

I've never been committed.

What does that mean, have I ever been

adjudicated mentally defective?

- It would be something involved with a crime.

- Oh, OK.

So if I'm just normally mentally defective,

but not criminal...

- There you go, Mike.

- OK, thank you very much. Wow!

I have one personally.

- That's a nice action.

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

Wow! Sweet!

Do you think it's a little dangerous

handing out guns in a bank?

Some people say

that bowling alleys got big lanes

Got big lanes, got big lanes

Some people say

that bowling alleys all look the same

Look the same

Look the same

Everybody's coming home

for lunch these days

Last night there were skinheads on my lawn

Take the skinheads bowling

Take them bowling

Take the skinheads bowling

Take them...

Guns ho!

Each gun makes lots of battle sounds.

Just press the trigger and listen.

That sounds like a gun battle.

Is it real?

Looks like real.

And it sounds like real.

Right. The Sound-O-Power

Military and Western rifles by Marx.

This was my first gun.

I couldn't wait to go outside

and shoot up the neighborhood.

Those were the days.

I was born in Michigan

And I wish and wish again

That I was back in the town where I was born

By the time I was a teenager,

I was such a good shot,

I won the National Rifle Association's

marksman award.

You see, I grew up in Michigan,

a gun-lover's paradise.

And so did this man,

Oscar-winning actor

and president of the National Rifle Association,

Mr Charlton Heston.

We come from a state

where everyone loves to go hunting.

Even the dogs.

There were actually

two of the hunters at camp.

They thought

they'd get a few pictures of the dog

dressed up as a hunter,

to kinda just have some fun around camp.

And one of the guys had the idea,

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