Making a Killing: Guns, Greed, and the NRA

“When we talk about gun violence prevention, we don’t have a store front that sells common sense.  We don’t  have a store front that sells empathy and compassion and safety.  That has to be a movement by the people, by those of us who have been affected by it.”

Making a Killing: Guns, Greed, and the NRA is the title of a new film that will have its Denver premier on Tuesday March 22nd at the Denver Film Society Sie Film Center. It features people who have been directly impacted by gun violence whether through domestic violence, suicides and mass shootings like the Aurora Theater Shootings. Tom Sullivan is one of those people who has been directly impacted. His son Alex was murdered in 2012 in the Aurora Theater Shooting. Sullivan says we should be having a daily conversation about the reality of gun violence. “It’s not o.k. that 90 people a day die by gun violence. It’s not o.k. that two thirds of that is by suicides, as you say, accidental shootings.  Children shooting other family members… I think the statistic is that children under the age of 5 have shot more people this year than police officers. We’re outraged by the police officers who use their firearm yet we have 5 year olds that have shot more people than police officers and yet not a word is spoken about that.”

Making a Killing investigates the deep ties between the gun industry and the NRA, which serves the industry by selling fear and anger because fear and anger sell guns. “There is an industry out there and quite obviously a political party that has put guns over people and is all about making money and they’re backed by an industry whose goal is making profits and they’re financed by stores that sell these armaments, these weapons of mass destruction, that they’re able to sell at the corner store, at the big box store.  Whereas on the other side, when we talk about gun violence prevention, we don’t have a store front that sells common sense.  We don’t  have a store front that sells empathy and compassion and safety.  That has to be a movement by the people, by those of us who have been affected by it.”

Sullivan recently announced that he would run for State Senate with gun reform as central to his platform.  Sullivan says that he is trying to tell his own story and to counter the narrative that is controlled by the gun lobby.

Tom Sullivan will be one of the panelists participating in a forum after the Denver premier of Making a Killing: Guns, Greed, and the NRA. Other panelists include Tom Mauser, whose son Daniel was killed in the Columbine shooting and John Morse, former state senator who was targeted for a recall election by the gun lobby after his support of gun control legislation.

The Denver premiere of Making a Killing: Guns, Greed, and the NRA is on Tuesday March 22nd at 7pm followed by a panel discussion at 8.30pm and a reception at 9.00pm.

It has being screened at the  Denver Film Society SieFilm Center, 2510 E. Colfax Avenue, Denver.

Find out more at www.makingakilling.com

Podcast: Play in new window | Download