'Weapons:' Sobering and Realistic Portrayal of How Easy Access to Guns Has Impacted America's Urban Neighborhoods

'Weapons:' Sobering and Realistic Portrayal of How Easy Access to Guns Has Impacted America's Urban Neighborhoods

PARK CITY, Utah, Jan. 18 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Leaders of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence say a film to be debuted this weekend at the Sundance Film Festival here realistically and violently depicts a trend playing out more and more often in America's cities: Incidents of gun violence brought on by scenarios that used to lead to lesser confrontations.

The film, "Weapons," was written and directed by Adam Bhala Lough and stars Nick Cannon and Paul Dano. Rob Fried of Fried Films is producer, along with Pantry Films.

"Don't take your young children to see this film, but see it for the sake of your children," said Paul Helmke, President of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence and a former three-term Mayor of Fort Wayne, Indiana. "Weapons is captivating and in-your-face. It is a disturbingly real look at how disputes that used to end in fistfights outside the locker room now end in gunfire in the playground."

Across America, police leaders are talking about a rise in violence over smaller and smaller matters - one could call them trivial killings. People are getting shot over dirty looks, or looking at someone's girlfriend the wrong way. They tell the police they were 'disrespected' or that someone was 'mean mugging' them.

Last year, the New York Times published a story on the trend, by Kate Zernike of the Washington, DC bureau:

"While violent crime has been at historic lows nationwide and in cities like New York, Miami and Los Angeles, it is rising sharply here and in many other places across the country. And while such crime in the 1990's was characterized by battles over gangs and drug turf, the police say the current rise in homicides has been set off by something more bewildering: petty disputes that hardly seem the stuff of fistfights, much less gunfire or stabbings." (New York Times, February 12, 2006)

On an almost daily basis in cities across America, slights over respect are leading to gunfire:

* In the recent fatal shooting of a Tacoma, Washington high school
shooting, Police spokesman Mark Fulghum said "one of the rumors that's
out there is that he (the killer) felt disrespected in some way."
* A religious leader in Denver said the shooting of Broncos cornerback
Darrent Williams was likely brought on because "someone may have felt
disrespected. The shooting wasn't random."
* A motorist in Minneapolis was shot in the head and killed December 10,
police said, by another man who police said felt "disrespected."
* In California, 21-year-old Johnny Denang was arrested just after
Christmas for shooting two people he had an argument with in a bar in
San Leandro. According to the Oroville Mercury-Register newspaper
"Deneng told police he had felt disrespected."

In the film, two angry teens secure a handgun from a gun trafficker to use to seek revenge.

"Weapons is not a film specifically about the gun issue, but it is a film about the role guns play in urban violence in America today," Helmke said. "I believe this violence is increasing because we have made access to guns too easy in our country. Regardless of one's view on how best to reduce gun violence, however, this is a powerful film."

As the nation's largest, non-partisan, grassroots organization leading the fight to prevent gun violence, the Brady Campaign, working with its dedicated network of Million Mom March Chapters, is devoted to creating an America free from gun violence, where all Americans are safe at home, at school, at work, and in our communities.

CONTACT: Peter Hamm of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, +1-202-898-0792

Source: Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence

CONTACT: Peter Hamm of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence,
+1-202-898-0792

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