IN GUNS WE TRUST (2026) — TRANSCRIPT
A feature documentary by Josh Janssen, with Tommy Jackett. ingunswetrustfilm.com/transcript/
Times are from the film (picture-locked cut, 76 minutes). People are named as the film credits them; children are not named: [name].


SCENE 1  0:11  THE RANGE  (Atlanta, Georgia)

    [An outdoor dirt range, three paper targets against a red earth berm and pines. A line of shooters. In front, a boy in a teal shirt, safety glasses and ear defenders holds a black semi-automatic pistol. A bearded instructor in a black PURPOSE OVER POPULARITY shirt stands at his shoulder, hands on him like a coach.]
    ON SCREEN: ATLANTA, GEORGIA
0:15  RANGE INSTRUCTOR: Present. Safety off.
0:20  KEVIN DIXIE: There you go.
0:20  RANGE INSTRUCTOR: Fire. Safety back on.
0:26  KEVIN DIXIE: There you go.
0:27  RANGE INSTRUCTOR: Compress, ready, rest. All right, we're gonna take our mags out of our pocket.
    [Further back, Josh and Tommy stand and watch. The shots make them flinch.]
0:41  KEVIN DIXIE: There you go, there you go, there you go.
0:43  RANGE INSTRUCTOR: All right, we all have hot guns. We're all live. Safety off. Just go crazy. Make sure you're hitting that red stop sign. All right, give me three shots on go. Three, two, one.
    MUSIC: Enter the Cowboy — ALTR
1:03  KEVIN DIXIE: Good. Nope, fix that grip. Good. Okay, now your slide's to the rear. What does that mean for you?
1:11  A BOY: I'm out of ammo.
1:13  RANGE INSTRUCTOR: All your shots have been—
1:13  A BOY: Let me get three more.
1:15  RANGE INSTRUCTOR: Last one. Lock in.
1:15  KEVIN DIXIE: Go. Okay, you're up.
    [The slide locks back. All his shots hit. He fires three more; dust kicks up behind the target.]

SCENE 2  1:24  TWO AUSTRALIANS WHO LOVE AMERICA  (United States)

    [Josh and Tommy look up at an American flag and a black POW/MIA flag. Then the country they already love: a flag ceremony, a Girl Scout hauling a flag up a pole, a crowd outside the National Center for Civil and Human Rights, the two of them laughing in the sun.]
1:24  JOSH JANSSEN (V.O.): My name's Josh, and this is my best mate Tommy. And for as long as we both can remember, we've loved America. As Australians, we love their food, their movies, and their bigger-is-better attitude.
1:41  TOMMY JACKETT: Just said, yeah, America. Love it.
1:43  JOSH JANSSEN (V.O.): But one thing we've never understood is their gun culture.

SCENE 3  1:46  PANTS ON, GUNS ON  (United States)

    [Opening titles over a man settling a rifle on a bipod at a bench.]
    ON SCREEN: RETHINK FILMS PRESENTS
1:49  MAN IN A PRO GOD, PRO LIFE, PRO GUN SHIRT: When I get up in the morning, my rule is pants on, guns on. So my gun goes everywhere I go.
    ON SCREEN: IN ASSOCIATION WITH FULL STACK FILMS
    [An older man in a camo cap by the open door of his pickup, and again on a mobility scooter, his shirt reading PRO GOD, PRO LIFE, PRO GUN.]
1:54  YOUNG MAN WITH A BACKPACK: You say you're from Australia?
1:56  TOMMY JACKETT: Tommy.
1:56  JOSH JANSSEN: Josh.
1:56  YOUNG MAN WITH A BACKPACK: Nice to meet you.
1:57  JOSH JANSSEN (V.O.): Most Australians, including myself, don't understand or relate to America's obsession with guns.
    ON SCREEN: A JOSH JANSSEN FILM
    [On a sunny street, a young man in a white T-shirt opens his backpack and takes out a handgun the way you'd take out a wallet. Josh and Tommy lean back.]
2:03  YOUNG MAN WITH A BACKPACK: I mean, I've been carrying since I was, like, thirteen, bro.
    ON SCREEN: FEATURING TOMMY JACKETT AND JOSH JANSSEN
2:09  TOMMY JACKETT: Wow.
2:09  JOSH JANSSEN (V.O.): Can we make a documentary that shares a unique perspective beyond what we see in the headlines?

SCENE 4  2:15  THE COUNTRY TALKS AT ONCE  (United States)

    [A burst of voices from the road: a woman on a city street, a man in a wheelchair who shows where he was shot, three men by a river, a bearded man at an indoor range, a woman under city lights at night, a man under a bridge, a man leaning out of a car window.]
2:15  WOMAN ON A CITY STREET: Every single woman that I know owns a firearm.
    ON SCREEN: EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS COLLIS TA'EED, NAYSAN NARAQI, JOSH JANSSEN
2:18  MAN IN A WHEELCHAIR: Yes, I've been shot before. .357 hollow point.
2:22  OTHAL BRAND: And I said, I'm really sad to say, I'd probably give up my Bible before I give up my gun.
2:28  SHAWN WOOD: We call that the sound of freedom.
2:30  WOMAN AT NIGHT: We heard gunshots. Like, we live right here.
2:33  MAN IN A HOODIE: In my mind, there's only two things that guns are used for: hunting and killing.
2:38  MAN IN A CAR: Documentary about guns, right? Yeah. My son said to use the guns wisely. "Okay, Dad."
2:42  JOSH JANSSEN: What does that mean, exactly?

SCENE 5  2:45  THE ARGUMENT FOR NOT KNOWING  (Melbourne, Australia)

    [A towering animatronic cowboy against a blue sky. The title.]
    ON SCREEN: IN GUNS WE TRUST
    [Then quiet. The Melbourne skyline at dusk from the air, and an overcast beach where Tommy and Josh walk and talk.]
    ON SCREEN: MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA
2:58  TOMMY JACKETT: What are you most excited about?
3:00  JOSH JANSSEN: I think it's, like, doing this topic justice. I think I don't know enough, and I feel like that's been a stress, which is, like—
3:08  TOMMY JACKETT: Yeah.
3:09  JOSH JANSSEN: I think that people would call out and say, "Oh, you don't know what you're talking about. Why do you think that you're in a position to make this documentary?"
3:19  TOMMY JACKETT: Yeah. I mean, who is best placed to make a documentary on something like this? I think the fact that we're so removed from that environment, I don't feel like I have a stance on guns, because we don't have them in our lives like Americans do.
    MUSIC: Get Set — Taxiride feat. TTSAR
    [Tommy puts an arm around Josh. They stand looking at the water.]
3:35  JOSH JANSSEN: Yeah, it's crazy to think that in a couple of weeks' time we'll be in the car, driving on the wrong side of the road, upside down.
3:44  TOMMY JACKETT: Yeah, on the way to the airport right now.

SCENE 6  3:45  ARRIVAL  (Los Angeles, California)

    [Tommy in a car on the way to the airport; the two of them down a jet bridge; a jet coming in low to land. Out of the terminal with their bags, towards a black Ram pickup. Josh goes for the driver's door; Tommy ends up at the wheel.]
    ON SCREEN: LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA
3:59  JOSH JANSSEN: It's got, like... It's a big American car. That's all I know. I'll drive.
4:06  TOMMY JACKETT: Wrong side. I'm driving. Yeah, dude, it's chaos here. Thank you.
4:10  JOSH JANSSEN: Thank you.
4:10  TOMMY JACKETT: She's nervous about you driving.
4:13  JOSH JANSSEN: Nervous?
4:14  TOMMY JACKETT: I'm nervous. Oh, this is a Cybertruck.
    [A silver Cybertruck passes. The Ram drives out under a landing plane; Los Angeles from the air; the Hollywood Roosevelt sign.]
4:16  JOSH JANSSEN: No, bro, he just stuck his finger up.
4:18  TOMMY JACKETT: Did he?
4:19  JOSH JANSSEN: Come on, man.

SCENE 7  4:29  SAMMY'S TOUR  (Hollywood, Los Angeles)

    [A yellow open-sided tour van. At the wheel, an older man with grey hair, sunglasses and a headset mic. Josh, in a green cap and glasses, and Tommy sit behind him. The Hollywood Sign, the Beverly Hills sign, big houses, a red Lamborghini, the light going from gold to dusk.]
4:30  SAMMY DORIAN: Welcome to Hollywood, everybody. My name is Sammy, and we're heading to Beverly Hills.
4:35  JOSH JANSSEN (V.O.): We're starting the journey in Los Angeles, home of the world's biggest movie stars and storytellers. Being outsiders telling a story so foreign to us, I'm a little skeptical, but my mate Tommy is a little bit more relaxed about the whole thing.
4:51  SAMMY DORIAN: On Vine, you see stars going up and down. This is the Walk of Fame. Gary Oldman, Laurence Fishburne.
5:00  TOMMY JACKETT: Whoa!
5:00  JOSH JANSSEN (V.O.): To get over the jet lag, we've booked a Hollywood bus tour to find our bearings.
5:06  SAMMY DORIAN: Now, this is a very famous hiking trail called Runyon Canyon. We saw a big number of famous people here.
5:12  JOSH JANSSEN: Cool car!
5:13  SAMMY DORIAN: Those guys are not famous. Don't look at them. It's a rental.
5:19  TOMMY JACKETT: Sammy, what do you love about America?
5:22  SAMMY DORIAN: There's something new every day. That's the good thing about America.
5:26  JOSH JANSSEN: Where do you think is the best place we should go to experience guns?
5:32  SAMMY DORIAN: My son owns an arsenal. You don't want to see that.
5:35  TOMMY JACKETT: Oh, really?
5:36  SAMMY DORIAN: Really, yeah. He has M4s, he has an AK-47, as if he's going to war or something. There you go, another guy racing.
5:47  TOMMY JACKETT: And so do you think your son feels safer having the arsenal, or—
5:50  SAMMY DORIAN: He feels safer, yes. Depending on the area where he lives, everyone is armed. Everyone has a gun, for example, right? They don't walk around with guns, but they have them.
5:59  JOSH JANSSEN: What do you think about the Second Amendment?
6:01  SAMMY DORIAN: This is when people thought that they can carry guns and to protect themselves and their properties, but it's actually to protect the country, right? You can be civilians employed by the government to do a job for them. I may go in detail.
    MUSIC: Corals Under the Sun — Yehezkel Raz
    [Sammy holds up his phone: a photo of himself in military kit, holding a rifle.]
6:21  SAMMY DORIAN: I served with the US military in Iraq. I'm a civilian. They pulled me out of Hollywood and they put me in a war zone. '06, '07.
6:34  JOSH JANSSEN: And so that was when you were a contractor?
6:37  SAMMY DORIAN: Exactly.
6:39  TOMMY JACKETT: Did it change you at all, that experience?
6:41  SAMMY DORIAN: Very much. Yes, PTSD. It almost got me for a few months, but then I got out of it. A lot of my friends killed themselves. My captain shot himself in New York. Scarface filming location on the right.
7:02  JOSH JANSSEN: Sammy, when you were going through that PTSD, did you have a gun at your house?
7:10  SAMMY DORIAN: Yes, I did. But I never used it. But a lot of people did.
    [Traffic at dusk through the van window. Josh and Tommy have gone quiet.]
7:20  JOSH JANSSEN (V.O.): We weren't expecting to have such a personal conversation with Sammy. By talking about suicide and the negative side of firearms so quickly, were we entering the conversation at a depth we weren't prepared for?

SCENE 8  7:33  TEACH PEOPLE, OR HEAR PEOPLE  (Santa Monica and UCLA)

    [A man in a suit at a desk of law books.]
7:33  ADAM WINKLER: Americans are very divided on the issue of guns. For many people, guns are just something that wreak havoc on our societies, that result in death and destruction. I think for other Americans, guns are really about self-defense. They feel insecure in their homes. They feel like they could be victims, and they don't want to be victims. If they have a gun, they know that they are strong individuals who can stand up to anyone.
    ON SCREEN: ADAM WINKLER — PROFESSOR AT UCLA · AUTHOR OF "GUNFIGHT: THE RIGHT TO BEAR ARMS IN AMERICA"
    [Santa Monica at sunset: the pier, the sand, palms. Josh and Tommy stop people on the beach.]
8:04  WOMAN ON THE BEACH: What is the gist of this documentary? Is it pro-gun? Is it anti-gun?
8:08  TOMMY JACKETT: In Australia, we have very strict gun laws. There's not even the thought in their mind of guns in Australia.
8:13  WOMAN ON THE BEACH: Yeah.
8:13  TOMMY JACKETT: We don't have to consider it day to day. Do you think you can be in the middle on guns as an American?
8:18  WOMAN ON THE BEACH: No. No, I really don't.
    [The man in the PRO GOD, PRO LIFE, PRO GUN shirt again, on his scooter with a small black dog, a Trump 2024 cap.]
8:24  MAN IN A PRO GOD, PRO LIFE, PRO GUN SHIRT: The right to bear arms is absolutely essential to being an American. There's a lot of good people out there. There's a lot of people that are kind of nuts. But the thing of it is, when they talk about taking away guns, whatever, the people that they're talking about taking the guns away are the honest people. It's totally against the Constitution of the United States, and they know it. They know it.
    [Two young women on a wall, the pier behind them.]
8:46  JOSH JANSSEN: Have you ever shot a gun?
8:47  YOUNG WOMAN ON THE BEACH: No, I'm very anti-gun. It's just not my thing.
8:52  ADAM WINKLER: Is your goal here to take guns away from people? Is your goal here to teach people, or is your goal here to hear people? If your goal is to hear people, it's not for you to push them to think differently, but rather try to get to the heart of the depths of their own views, rather than being challenged to think differently about their perspective.
    [Josh and Tommy walk the sand towards the Ferris wheel.]
9:10  TOMMY JACKETT: I feel like, from where we're from, we're not thinking about guns, so I feel like I'm neutral at this moment. You think by the end of it we're gonna be still feeling like that?
9:21  JOSH JANSSEN: I mean, that's the journey we're going to be on. I'm really interested in getting every part of this conversation, so we can walk away and say we've made an honest film.
    MUSIC: Golden Plains Forever — Benjamin Esterlis

SCENE 9  9:36  DUTCH MERRICK, HOLLYWOOD ARMOURER  (Los Angeles)

    [Los Angeles from the air. Josh drives; Tommy gets out at a warehouse. Inside, a man in a black polo walks the floor of a prop workshop.]
9:36  JOSH JANSSEN (V.O.): We want to talk to all different types of people from across the US, but before we hit the road and start filming, we want to have a base level of firearm safety knowledge. So we signed up for training with renowned Hollywood armorer Dutch Merrick.
9:53  DUTCH MERRICK: Good morning.
    ON SCREEN: DUTCH MERRICK — FILM & TV ARMOURER AND PROP MASTER
9:54  TOMMY JACKETT: Morning.
9:54  DUTCH MERRICK: You must be Tommy or Josh?
9:56  JOSH JANSSEN: Josh.
9:56  DUTCH MERRICK: Josh, very nice to meet you. I'm Dutch.
9:58  TOMMY JACKETT: Dutch, nice to meet you, mate.
9:59  DUTCH MERRICK: Such a pleasure. Thanks for making it all the way out to Los Angeles. Are you ready to learn?
10:02  JOSH JANSSEN: Yeah.
10:02  DUTCH MERRICK: I love it. So the goals of this course are to learn the best practices for motion picture firearms use, provide you hands-on experience, first person, to build your confidence around firearms on set and off. So that you'll be a good, confident shooter, and you're accurate, and it makes it fun and safe, and you'll be like, "Oh, I really like guns. This was a lot of entertainment." So here's a chance to get to know you in thirty seconds. If you wouldn't mind standing right here, Josh.
    [Josh stands, smiles nervously, and comes to the front. Dutch shakes his hand and pats his back.]
10:27  JOSH JANSSEN: The last time I did this, I had a panic attack. I had to do it at a first aid course.
10:33  TOMMY JACKETT: Josh, you can do this. I have faith in you.
10:35  DUTCH MERRICK: Just stand right here. All you got to do is just tell us a little bit about your background with firearms.
10:39  JOSH JANSSEN: Experience with guns? No experience with guns. I'm from Australia. And I'm looking to come away with an understanding from a safety perspective, but also having some fun, too. Yeah. So safety and fun.
10:55  TOMMY JACKETT: You did great, right there.
10:57  JOSH JANSSEN: Thank you.
10:58  TOMMY JACKETT: I'm Tommy. My gun experience is that I watch a lot of movies, so I know what I see, but I don't know physically, because I don't have access to them like that.
11:07  DUTCH MERRICK: So you've been entertained by them, but you have no sense of how to really use them safely.
11:12  TOMMY JACKETT: The problem is, I think, Dutch, that I can, because I watch the movies.
11:15  DUTCH MERRICK: That's one of the problems of our industry. All right, well, we're going to break you of that, and we're going to give you genuine skills. Now we get to delve into my world: studio armorers.
    MUSIC: Escape — Resovibe
11:25  DUTCH MERRICK: So this is what prop masters and armorers do behind the scenes that the real world never gets to see. We're going to deal with blanks, dummies, blank-adapted guns, blocking scenes, actors blowing up, and then we'll actually have a chance for you guys to be in a scene doing gunfire, getting hit, explosions. It's going to be really exciting. You with me?
    [On the table, brightly coloured prop guns and a Prop Gun Set Safety cap. A poster: the three golden rules.]
11:41  TOMMY JACKETT: Hang on, who's getting hit, Dutch?
11:42  DUTCH MERRICK: We're going to toss for it.
11:43  JOSH JANSSEN: We'll see.
    [A blank cartridge is lit in a metal dish. Dutch with a silver revolver, then a yellow-and-blue prop pistol.]
11:45  DUTCH MERRICK: That creates pressure, setting the hammer, and it's dropping the hammer. Take your thumb and touch your middle finger. Remember what Dutch said: marry your thumb.
11:55  JOSH JANSSEN: Really?
11:57  TOMMY JACKETT: But don't you shoot with—
11:58  DUTCH MERRICK: You focus on you. Pull the trigger and nothing happens, it's a misfire. This guy is going to have a hang fire.
    [On a monitor, a video: a man's gun clicks, he lowers it, and the delayed round goes off and blows his hat off.]
12:04  TOMMY JACKETT: Oh, geez.
12:05  DUTCH MERRICK: There's his hat. Is that crazy? What do you call this?
12:09  JOSH JANSSEN: A bullet.
12:09  DUTCH MERRICK: The case, the bullet, the primer, the powder, is a cartridge. There's a thing called snap caps. Isosceles triangle, so it's a soft landing pad.
12:17  JOSH JANSSEN: Why are my thumbs so different?
12:18  DUTCH MERRICK: About three-quarters of an inch shorter than yours.
12:20  JOSH JANSSEN: You're doing great, mate.
12:22  DUTCH MERRICK: That, gentlemen, is your dominant eye. You're steady as a fucking rock. Do not rely on safeties at any time. Remind me what they are, Tommy.
12:30  TOMMY JACKETT: Primer, cap, powder, charge. Case, bullet.
12:32  DUTCH MERRICK: You're learning already. Take aim. On the exhale, press the trigger. So you're not going to know when it's going to come up.
12:40  JOSH JANSSEN: So this is Russian roulette?
12:41  DUTCH MERRICK: In a way, but it's not, because that's about killing yourself.
    [Ear protection on. Josh and Tommy take turns firing revolvers loaded with blanks down the workshop.]
12:46  JOSH JANSSEN (V.O.): Even though we're shooting blanks, it feels like the real thing. In the back of my mind, there's a comfort of being in the safe hands of Dutch. It's beginning to sink in that on the road, things won't be as controlled, and the risk will be real.
13:05  DUTCH MERRICK: Nailed it. Now that you guys know how to shoot, you fired the guns, we're gonna go do an action scene. You guys excited?
13:10  JOSH JANSSEN: Yeah, great.
13:11  DUTCH MERRICK: Nice. All right, take your pistols.
    MUSIC: Desert Highway — Bradley Parker
13:12  TOMMY JACKETT: Awesome.
13:13  DUTCH MERRICK: Gear up outside.
13:14  JOSH JANSSEN: Awesome.
13:14  DUTCH MERRICK: First and foremost, thank you guys very much for being here today. You want to get some shit done, pick up the phone and call Hollywood, right? You're gonna fall back against the container. Go ahead and grab it and point it in that direction. Camera's rolling and set. Camera set, and action!
    [Outside: shipping containers, a pickup, a slate. Fake blood is dabbed on Tommy's shoulder. Dutch, in a police uniform for the scene, blocks the action.]
    MUSIC: The Car Chase — Martin Puehringer
    [An actor comes out of a container firing. Josh leans out of the pickup with a silver revolver. Tommy takes the hit, blood blooming on his white T-shirt, and goes down in the dust.]
13:35  DUTCH MERRICK: Three, two, one. Cut!
13:43  CREW: Cut! Yeah!
13:44  DUTCH MERRICK: Check our actors. Everybody all right? Take the gun.
13:47  JOSH JANSSEN: Tommy, you good?
13:49  JOSH JANSSEN (V.O.): Performing with Dutch was a lot of fun. It felt familiar to what we see in the movies, but at the same time detached from the reality of firearms in the real world.
13:59  ACTOR IN THE SCENE: Yeah, I got all that Aussie blood on me, mate. That was a fair dinkum effort you did there.
    [The actor who played the shooter, in fake blood, tries an Australian accent.]
14:03  DUTCH MERRICK: Well, I'm so glad you guys came all the way out here from Australia. I want to give you guys something to remember the occasion. Yeah, we got Prop Gun Set Safety hats for you.
14:11  JOSH JANSSEN: Yes, thank you so much.
14:12  DUTCH MERRICK: And when you talk to the regular shooters out there in America, you tell them you went to Hollywood, because "reel", R-E-E-L, "reel men shoot blanks."
    MUSIC: Desert Highway — Bradley Parker
14:19  DUTCH MERRICK: He actually does shoot blanks.
14:22  TOMMY JACKETT: I had a vasectomy.
14:23  DUTCH MERRICK: Oh, yeah, we'll get you the T-shirt.
14:25  JOSH JANSSEN: We'll get you the T-shirt.
14:26  DUTCH MERRICK: That's perfect.
14:27  JOSH JANSSEN: Thanks, guys.

SCENE 10  14:28  IN-N-OUT, THEN AUTUMN  (Los Angeles)

    [A silver pickup; the In-N-Out sign. Josh and Tommy at an outdoor table with burgers and shakes.]
14:31  JOSH JANSSEN: I reckon this completely removes any jet lag left. Did you get Diet Coke as well?
14:35  TOMMY JACKETT: Yeah. Is this what you wanted? Like, this size?
14:38  JOSH JANSSEN: Uh-huh. Oh, that's good.
14:42  TOMMY JACKETT: We're going to see so much of America. What are you looking forward to?
14:46  JOSH JANSSEN: I reckon I'm looking forward to having a reason to have conversations that normally I would just feel like I was being nosy. So because we have the cameras, I feel like maybe I don't feel so intrusive. Yeah.
15:02  YOUNG MAN AT IN-N-OUT: Oh, really? Yeah.
    [A young man with blond hair walks up to the table. The sound recordist grins.]
15:04  TOMMY JACKETT: Dude, you can come over.
15:04  YOUNG MAN AT IN-N-OUT: Dude, are you guys, like, famous?
15:06  JOSH JANSSEN: Come, come over. Do you want to be famous?
15:08  YOUNG MAN AT IN-N-OUT: All right, it's gotta be quick, though.
15:09  JOSH JANSSEN: We gotta talk. Talking about guns.
15:12  YOUNG MAN AT IN-N-OUT: Guns? Like this type right here?
15:13  TOMMY JACKETT: Yeah, nah, a bit more lethal than that.
15:16  YOUNG MAN AT IN-N-OUT: Oh, damn. Wait, where are you guys from?
15:18  JOSH JANSSEN: Australia.
15:19  YOUNG MAN AT IN-N-OUT: Australia?
15:20  TOMMY JACKETT: Yeah.
15:20  YOUNG MAN AT IN-N-OUT: You guys don't have guns over there?
15:22  JOSH JANSSEN: Uh, not really.
15:23  TOMMY JACKETT: Yeah, it's a different— it's a different world over here.
    [A plane over the In-N-Out sign. They lean on a fence and watch jets land. The sky goes grey over Santa Monica.]
15:29  JOSH JANSSEN (V.O.): Tomorrow is the seventh anniversary of the Las Vegas country music festival mass shooting. Autumn, a mum, wife and history teacher who attended the festival, agreed to meet us before we head to Las Vegas for the memorial.
    [A park bench. A woman in a beige jacket with two dogs, one a beagle.]
15:42  JOSH JANSSEN: Hi! How you going?
15:45  AUTUMN BIGNAMI: I'm good.
15:46  JOSH JANSSEN: I'm Josh.
15:47  AUTUMN BIGNAMI: Hi.
15:47  JOSH JANSSEN: Lovely to meet you.
15:48  AUTUMN BIGNAMI: Nice to meet you. So my husband and I were actually at the concert. We were at the Route 91 concert. It was our second year. We had gone the year before. Last performer, everyone's still hanging out, having fun, and then the shooting started.
    ON SCREEN: AUTUMN — SCHOOL TEACHER, MOTHER OF THREE AND SHOOTING SURVIVOR
16:02  AUTUMN BIGNAMI: We didn't know at first that that's what was going on. We heard the noises and thought maybe someone had fireworks. There was this, like, pop, pop, pop sound, and I was actually hit. So I was shot in the face. So I fell to the ground. The noise happened again, and I got shot again, for a second time, in the back. This one was just off my spine, and it came out the side. So it lacerated my liver, collapsed my lung, and I had this thought of, like, I'm never gonna see my babies again. Like, that was sort of what was going on in my head. Before we got to first aid, I was shot again in the hand, and finally made it into the first aid station, and they bandaged me all up. So I think that definitely helped. Saved my life that night.
    MUSIC: No One Is Out Here — Yehezkel Raz
16:55  AUTUMN BIGNAMI: I woke up five days later. Now my brain has this thing. I'm sitting somewhere, like, it happened once at my daughter's school. I will picture what a shooting looks like right then, with everything that's around me.
    [A ROAD CLOSED sign. Children in costume walk a suburban street with their parents, up to a decorated porch.]
17:18  AUTUMN BIGNAMI: It was Halloween time. They were doing the Halloween parade. And in my brain, I saw what a shooting would look like with the kids running in the Halloween costumes. And it was so intense that it levelled me. Like, I ran from where I was. I found a mom that I barely knew, and I collapsed into her arms, because I couldn't deal with the image that was going on. And that's the kind of thing that— the type of trauma that I went through does to your brain.
    [Yard decorations: Michael Myers, an alien with glowing eyes, The Nun.]

SCENE 11  17:52  ONE OCTOBER, SEVEN YEARS ON  (Las Vegas, Nevada)

    [A radio on the drive in. A flag hung between the raised ladders of two fire trucks.]
17:55  RADIO HOST: And today, of course, we remember seven years ago, the seventh remembrance of October 1st. And this morning, there will be a sunrise remembrance ceremony at 7:30 at the Clark County Government Center.
    ON SCREEN: LAS VEGAS, NEVADA
    [Sunrise at the Clark County Government Center. Blue shirts with surnames across the back. An Eagles jersey, number 58. People holding each other. Josh and Tommy stand in the crowd and say nothing.]
18:10  SHERIFF KEVIN MCMAHILL: Good morning. My name is Sheriff Kevin McMahill, and every year I'm humbled by the community outpouring of support on One October. It's been seven years since the Route 91 Harvest Music Festival, but it feels like yesterday to those of us who lost loved ones, those that survived, and those that responded that night in 2017. I can tell you why so many first responders are haunted by One October. It's because we could not help everyone that night. Fifty-eight people died. So many people were injured, physically and emotionally, and that's extremely painful for us to live with. This sunrise ceremony has become a source of comfort for all of us, but I especially want to acknowledge those of you who will never see your loved ones again. We grieve with you this morning, as we have every single day for the last seven years.
19:08  PRAYER LEADER: Lord, we thank you for the family and friends that are here today, representing loved ones that have been lost. Give us your peace, the peace that passes all understanding, and we ask this in your name.
19:19  THE CROWD: Amen.

SCENE 12  19:25  THE BARBERSHOP  (Las Vegas, Nevada)

    [A strip-mall barbershop. Josh is in the chair; Tommy waits in the next seat. The barber wears an LA cap and glasses.]
19:29  COREY ERNEST: How has your journey with this been so far?
19:31  JOSH JANSSEN: Yeah, well, we were going to do a machine gun experience yesterday.
19:36  COREY ERNEST: Uh-huh.
19:36  JOSH JANSSEN: But then we found out that it was the anniversary of the Route 91.
19:42  TOMMY JACKETT: Yeah, yeah.
19:43  JOSH JANSSEN: And so it didn't feel right.
19:44  COREY ERNEST: I understand. I understand.
19:47  TOMMY JACKETT: What was Las Vegas like at that time, when it happened?
19:50  COREY ERNEST: My father worked as a security guard in UMC, which is an emergency center here in Las Vegas. So, like, the only trauma center that's closest to the Strip. So he called me in a panic and was like, "What are you doing?" I was like, "I'm sleeping, man. What's going on?" And then I go— I actually started looking at my phone and I see the news feed, and I'm like, "What the hell is going on?" I don't know. It's just a lot, and it's just a lot to take in, because it's, like, something that happened so close, you know? You know what they say? Guns don't kill people. People kill people.
20:17  TOMMY JACKETT: So what do you think of that statement?
20:20  COREY ERNEST: I feel like it's true, honestly, in my opinion. I mean, guns, weapons have always been there from the beginning of time. It's just the people that are using these weapons is what it really comes down to.
    MUSIC: Spin the Wheel — Analog Zoo
20:35  JOSH JANSSEN: All right, awesome.

SCENE 13  20:40  FIRST LIVE ROUNDS, WITH MIKE SODINI  (Nevada desert)

    [Highway from the air. A hotel car park, the crew loading up. Mike Sodini's T-shirt reads: The intersection of guns and mental health.]
20:41  JOSH JANSSEN (V.O.): The argument that it's people, not guns, that kill sort of makes sense. But should every person have the right to own a firearm? Michael Sodini, a Nevada local, grew up in the firearm business.
20:54  MIKE SODINI: I'm gonna take you out to the desert. We're gonna go a little south down the 15.
20:58  JOSH JANSSEN: Geez, they drive quick.
20:59  JOSH JANSSEN (V.O.): He heard about our documentary and invited us to shoot in the desert with him.
    [Off the highway, across open desert, to a line of parked trucks.]
21:08  TOMMY JACKETT: How you feeling?
21:10  JOSH JANSSEN: Good.
21:10  TOMMY JACKETT: It's kind of, like, exciting.
21:12  JOSH JANSSEN: Yes.
21:13  TOMMY JACKETT: Also a little bit scary. Unknown.
21:15  JOSH JANSSEN (V.O.): It'll be the first time Tommy and I fire live ammunition.
21:19  MIKE SODINI: I feel bad, because they're super nervous.
21:23  JOSH JANSSEN (V.O.): Michael founded a not-for-profit called Walk the Talk, specifically designed to address mental health and gun ownership.
    [At a tailgate, a bearded instructor in a Walk the Talk Academy shirt assembles a rifle.]
21:30  MIKE SODINI: The AR-15 is just a plain Jane American M4. People think this is a silencer. This is a suppressor. Because of Hollywood, a lot of people think suppressors are used for assassins, but most people use suppressors so their hearing doesn't go. For the many reasons people shoot: sport shooting, therapy, right, things like that. Over time, your hearing gets bad just because it's so loud. You know, I understand that Hollywood, the stories that are told, the John Wicks, they all use firearms, right?
    [Someone fires, off camera. Both of them jump.]
22:06  JOSH JANSSEN: Jesus Christ. I guess that's going to happen a lot.
22:10  TOMMY JACKETT: Yeah.
22:12  JOSH JANSSEN: We're going to stop jumping at some point.
22:14  TOMMY JACKETT: In my mind, I think I'm not going to flinch. And then I just can't help it. It's, like, a— it is a natural response, right?
    [Electronic ear defenders go on.]
22:25  MIKE SODINI: Oh, great, the switch is in the back.
22:27  JOSH JANSSEN: Oh, wow, it's got a microphone. Hello, testing, one, two, one, two. Hello. And you turn that off when we shoot?
22:36  MIKE SODINI: No, you keep it on. Yeah, and that's it.
22:39  JOSH JANSSEN: Oh, I love that. It sounds like we're—
22:42  TOMMY JACKETT: You're talking—
22:42  JOSH JANSSEN: Stepping on Doritos. He's yelling.
22:48  TOMMY JACKETT: 'Cause they're not loaded. Nothing's loaded yet.
22:51  MIKE SODINI: Nothing is loaded right now, but the gun can't hurt you unless you do something silly with it.
22:56  TOMMY JACKETT: The basics are good when you've never shot a gun like this before.
23:00  MIKE SODINI: Okay, so get in your stance.
    [Josh steps up to the line with a pistol. Mike at his shoulder.]
23:04  JOSH JANSSEN: Um, yep.
23:04  MIKE SODINI: Get comfortable. Breathe. Smooth. Slowly pull the trigger. Aim. Did you rack it?
23:17  JOSH JANSSEN: Yes. Okay, what's "rack it"?
23:19  MIKE SODINI: One in the chamber. Okay, cool. You fired your first shot.
    [Tommy's turn. Two hands on the pistol, the instructor beside him.]
23:46  MIKE SODINI: You're done.
23:47  JOSH JANSSEN: Can we go check?
23:49  MIKE SODINI: You want to check?
23:50  JOSH JANSSEN: Yeah.
23:50  TOMMY JACKETT: Okay.
23:51  JOSH JANSSEN: I mean, here we go.
23:53  TOMMY JACKETT: That is so satisfying.
    [Down at the target, a hand points to a tight cluster of holes, one dead centre.]
23:56  MIKE SODINI: Can't do better than that on your second shot ever. How do you guys feel?
24:02  TOMMY JACKETT: It's a bit addictive. I want to keep going.
24:04  JOSH JANSSEN: I feel a lot more in control when I've got it.
24:08  MIKE SODINI: Why don't we just now kind of move up to some bigger calibers, so you can feel the difference, and see how comfortable you guys are now that you got your first shots out of the way.
24:16  TOMMY JACKETT: I'm gonna frame that.
24:18  MIKE SODINI: I'll tell you what, we're gonna start off with this. The gun companies now are starting to provide the WTTA free and anonymous mental health screenings. If you're ever feeling out of sorts, or even if you don't feel out of sorts, you can take a mental health screening to see where you are.
    [Mike holds up a small card: a mental health screening.]
    [The instructor fires a rifle downrange.]
24:34  TOMMY JACKETT: Whoa!
24:36  JOSH JANSSEN: Geez!
24:37  MIKE SODINI: These companies are starting to change the way things are done. You would never saw that six years ago.
24:42  JOSH JANSSEN: And so the mental health stuff, Mike, how did you get into that?
24:46  MIKE SODINI: My family owned one of the largest gun importers in the United States. I really didn't understand, like, the importance of the Second Amendment. I didn't understand some of the nuance of firearms culture. In my mind, I was always like, they do not do a good job of relating to the non-gun person. 2009, the president of my company took his own life with one of our firearms. He, uh, he went through crisis, went to our warehouse, took— got one of the firearms, went back to his house, and felt that that was his only way to get out. How do you work with the mental health community on the things you can agree upon, to get people help? And that was the lightbulb moment. You know, now here we are six years later, and we're completely changing our culture. You know, now gun owners are coming forward talking about mental health, you know, because we're bringing two worlds that notoriously blamed each other, stood on opposite sides, you know what I mean? Now we're coming together. Okay, what can we do? You know, how do we save lives? How do we get people help? You know, to me, that's what it's all about. Yeah, getting people help.
25:50  JOSH JANSSEN: Thanks for sharing.
25:51  MIKE SODINI: Yeah. All right, let's have some more fun.
25:56  RANGE INSTRUCTOR: This is an AK-47, chambered in 7.62x39. It's a semi-automatic rifle. You're only going to fire one round for every time you pull the trigger.
    [Tommy fires the AK.]
26:08  TOMMY JACKETT: Oh my God, my ears are ringing.
26:16  MIKE SODINI: All right, so what else are we shooting? What are they shooting now?
26:18  TOMMY JACKETT: Shoot a couple more big guns, and then the John Wick shotgun.
26:21  JOSH JANSSEN: Yeah, great, you can do that.
26:23  TOMMY JACKETT: John Wick is one of my favorite movies. All four of them.
    MUSIC: Ganymede — Yehezkel Raz
    [Tommy with the shotgun, the instructor bracing his shoulder. The recoil walks him backwards.]
26:33  JOSH JANSSEN: Whoa!
26:34  RANGE INSTRUCTOR: One more. Remember, you haven't cycled it yet, so— Okay.
    [Sunset. The three of them at the tailgate of a pickup.]
26:47  JOSH JANSSEN: What does the Second Amendment mean to you?
26:49  MIKE SODINI: The Second Amendment means everything to me. You know, it represents freedom. I think the Second Amendment holds up the First Amendment, and all the amendments make this great country. Regardless, if you waved a magic wand and you got rid of every gun in the United States, we still have issues. We still have violence issues, and we're not getting to the root cause of violence, and that's what we got to do. I think people need to always keep in mind that you may be the biggest threat, and that's why responsible gun ownership is so important. You could take ten people that have schizophrenia, you could take ten people that have bipolar disorder, you can hand them a firearm and say, "This is yours," and they will go their whole life without hurting anybody, like, not a fly. I could come home and catch my wife in bed with my best friend and snap, right? That's not a mental illness. That's an emotional reaction. So we got to get rid of the stigma of mental health, and we got to get rid of the stigma of gun ownership, that all gun owners, you know, they can't go through mental health issues. We can. We're humans.
27:51  JOSH JANSSEN (V.O.): As a firearms importer, Michael has a lot to gain from people buying guns. And as a filmmaker, I was skeptical that tackling mental health was simply a commercially driven endeavor. But as we spent more time with him, we felt a sincerity to his work. He is leaning into uncomfortable conversations, and wanting to see less harm caused from the guns his family sells. We left our time with Michael conflicted. On the one hand, we had a lot of fun, but there was no doubting that in the wrong hands, with the wrong intentions, real harm can be done.
    [Mike hugs Tommy. The truck pulls back onto the highway through the desert.]

SCENE 14  28:30  SIXTY PERCENT  (Interview)

    [A woman in a blazer, interviewed against a plain background.]
28:30  KATHERINE SCHWEIT: The gun culture that we have has changed over time. When I started in the FBI, I was working counterintelligence and national security matters, but when the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting happened, then I was tagged to create what became the FBI's Active Shooter Program. My role was to create a team of people to train the 800,000 law enforcement to say, "What do you do when a shooting occurs?", to reduce the number of deaths if a shooting is underway. I think it's important to always step back and look at the facts. Sixty percent of the firearms deaths in the United States are suicides. It changes your perspective about the risk of having a firearm in your house.
    ON SCREEN: KATHERINE SCHWEIT — FORMER PROSECUTOR AND RETIRED FBI SPECIAL AGENT · LED THE FBI'S ACTIVE SHOOTER PROGRAM
    [A truck moves through a desert valley at dusk.]

SCENE 15  29:15  GINA AND RAY AT THE GUN SHOP  (St George, Utah)

29:15  JOSH JANSSEN (V.O.): To understand why people buy guns, we decided to visit a gun shop on the border of Utah and Nevada. When we walked in, we didn't expect to see Gina at the counter.
    ON SCREEN: ST GEORGE, UTAH
    [A black, windowless shop. Stickers on the glass case: YOUR CHOICE! GUN OWNER / VICTIM. THESE COLORS DON'T RUN, THEY RELOAD. GUNS AND COFFEE. A woman with short grey hair, in pink, earplugs around her neck, unrolls a paper target on the counter with a young clerk in a grey shop shirt. Behind them, the owner: long grey beard, black cap.]
29:35  GINA MCCOMB: Right, I shot the .380 and I shot the 9. I found recoil. Yeah, my hands prove it.
29:42  GUN SHOP CLERK: So we can help you find, like, a good middle ground. Yeah, so that way you can get something that not only works, but that you like shooting it, that's comfortable, and most importantly, reliable.
29:52  JOSH JANSSEN: When did you fire your first gun?
29:55  GINA MCCOMB: It was Monday.
29:57  JOSH JANSSEN (V.O.): It was striking to see someone decide to buy their first gun later in life. We were curious: why now?
30:04  GINA MCCOMB: The trigger point is the crime rate in the United States. It's getting out of hand. We all know why. I don't want to say it on camera, because people will get insulted, but, yeah, it's self-defense. Because even in a small town like here, it's gonna—
    [More stickers: CARRY WITH CONFIDENCE. TRUMP 2024. IN TRUMP WE TRUST. A man in a camo cap and a skulls T-shirt holds a camouflage rifle at the counter.]
30:29  TOMMY JACKETT: How about you, Ray? Have you ever had to pull your gun, or—
30:34  RAY ERICKSON: In Vegas, of all places.
30:37  TOMMY JACKETT: Would you mind sharing what happened?
30:40  RAY ERICKSON: Well, me and my wife went up to take a picture at the Las— Welcome to Las Vegas sign, and some big guy got all upset for whatever reason and started attacking my wife, and I walked up to him. And he started to swing at me, so I pulled out my pistol. I said, "Another move, you're dead." And he started yelling and screaming, "Gun, gun, gun!" And everyone started clapping. He backed off. Put my gun away, and he got in his car and he left. So. But there are others like that. Haven't had to shoot anybody with it yet as a civilian, which is good. I'm trying to keep it that way. But I'm not going to be a victim, or my wife, or my grandkids. So everywhere I go, I carry.
31:26  JOSH JANSSEN (V.O.): There was something endearing about Ray, even the way he told his story. But there was no doubt that what he was saying was actually frightening.
    [Ray types into a laptop at the counter: the background check. The bearded owner watches.]
31:35  RAY ERICKSON: Do you like caps?
31:37  TOMMY JACKETT: All caps?
31:37  JOSH JANSSEN: No.
31:38  RAY ERICKSON: Okay.
31:39  SHAWN WOOD: We do get a lot of first-time gun buyers here, too, that want to purchase their first firearm and get trained with it, and that's our biggest focus right now. I don't want to just sell you a firearm. I want to train you with it. You know, that's our biggest goal here. Your turn. If anyone has any questions about his approval, all they have to do is look up that number right there, and it'll tell you all the information about it.
32:00  TOMMY JACKETT: So Ray passed?
32:01  SHAWN WOOD: He passed. Good job.
32:02  TOMMY JACKETT: Well done, Ray.
32:04  RAY ERICKSON: All right. Thank you.
32:06  TOMMY JACKETT: Hey, Ray, can I touch your gun?
32:08  SHAWN WOOD: Just check it. Make sure it's not loaded. Pull the— there you go. The release is right there, of course. Push that straight down. There you go.
    [Ray's new handgun on a mat printed with a flag and rifle silhouettes.]
32:16  RAY ERICKSON: Oh, what I do is, I pulled it out, because I carried it back here. I stepped back and told him, "Back off."
    MUSIC: Wild West — ALTR

SCENE 16  32:28  MYCHAEL WALLER: THREE TIMES  (Nashville, Tennessee)

    [The Rowdy's Range billboard. The truck out on a rural road, past houses and a cemetery, Josh driving.]
32:28  NEWS AUDIO: Imagine this: you're at a bar and you're having a good time with your pals, and then all of a sudden two people come in and, uh, well, it's an armed robbery. So luckily, one patron had a gun himself. One offender was shot multiple times.
32:43  JOSH JANSSEN (V.O.): Many people talk about the importance of owning a firearm for their own personal safety. So we're on our way to Tennessee to meet with Mychael, someone who has become a poster boy for the Second Amendment after killing three people in self-defense.
32:59  TOMMY JACKETT: His Instagram bio reads, "Son of the Most High, husband and father of four." And he says, "Self-defense shooting survivor times three." How do you get in three self-defense situations?
    [Josh holds up his phone: an Instagram profile.]
33:13  JOSH JANSSEN (V.O.): I wonder if there's any regret.
33:15  JOSH JANSSEN: Once you shoot someone, there's no going back.
    ON SCREEN: NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE
    [Four men walk a path at a clay-shooting ground. A sign: CROSS CREEK CLAYS, THINK GUN SAFETY. An older instructor in a camo cap and a vest lettered CALABRACE. Mychael in a plaid shirt and sunglasses.]
33:22  JOSH JANSSEN (V.O.): Mychael was gracious enough to agree to meet us. We suggested we could go clay shooting to hear more about his story.
33:29  JOSH JANSSEN: Okay.
33:30  JOE CALABRACE: Okay. Who's first?
33:31  JOSH JANSSEN: I reckon Mychael can go first. You can do the honors.
33:34  JOE CALABRACE: Now, once— when that comes out, I just want you to follow it right to get in front of it, pull the trigger. Okay? On your call.
33:42  MYCHAEL WALLER: Pull.
    [He fires, and hits.]
33:48  TOMMY JACKETT: He's good.
33:50  JOE CALABRACE: All right, we'll try B. Okay.
33:53  MYCHAEL WALLER: Pull.
33:54  TOMMY JACKETT: Damn, you're good.
33:56  JOE CALABRACE: That's a nice move.
34:00  MYCHAEL WALLER: Pull.
34:03  TOMMY JACKETT: Sharpshooter.
34:05  JOE CALABRACE: You're really good at this, but the thing you need to do is relax, okay? Because, you know, especially with guys that, you know, hit the gym a lot, you're like, "Okay, let me—" and you're so tight that you can't move fluidly. Everything's a jerk, okay?
34:19  MYCHAEL WALLER: So I'm used to, like, just training for, like, defensive shooting, so this is— I do clay shoot, but it's a little bit different, like you say.
34:28  JOE CALABRACE: Oh, a lot different.
34:29  MYCHAEL WALLER: It's different. Oh my gosh, it definitely is.
34:30  JOSH JANSSEN: In a self-defense circumstance, do you ever, like, aim at the legs, or just try and disable them, rather than killing?
34:36  MYCHAEL WALLER: No. I shoot to stop them. So in both situations, I just shot to stop them. When they stop moving, I stop shooting.
34:44  JOE CALABRACE: You can't instinctively shoot and determine, "Well, I'm going to shoot him in the leg." No, you just shoot him to stop him. If I'm here, [unclear], and James is coming at me, guess what? He's getting the first one in the torso and the second one to the brain. I'm double-tapping his ass.
34:59  JOSH JANSSEN: In those situations, what was the environment?
35:04  MYCHAEL WALLER: First one, I was walking with my five-year-old son. His name's MJ, Mychael Waller Jr. We were in Chicago, we lived at the time, and I was going home. And as I was walking with him, a Latino male approached me in the alley, around 3:40 in the afternoon, so it was broad daylight, kind of looked like this. And, you know, pulls out a gun, starts throwing up gang signs. And as he started approaching me, I then go to shield my son behind me, and I go for my firearm. And when he sees my firearm, he opened fire, misses, and I returned fire, hitting him. And we just are, at that point, we're just exchanging gunfire. We're in a gunfight. It feels like forever, but it's happening within seconds. He lifts his head up. When he lifts his head up, I take a shot at his head, and he goes down.
35:55  JOSH JANSSEN: And how did you sort of deal with the weeks and months after, especially with your son being around?
36:03  MYCHAEL WALLER: I think what helps me every time, every night I think about it, is just knowing that my son's okay. That kind of helps me get through, you know, those moments, you know. And now my wife and children, they really help me, you know, keep pushing through, because it gets hard at times, you know, taking life. But it was either our lives or his. So it was a pretty easy choice to make.
36:29  TOMMY JACKETT: Joe, does this resonate with you?
36:32  JOE CALABRACE: Oh my gosh, yeah. I guess the twenty years I spent in the military, everything, any emotion you had was stifled. That's what he's describing. It's just, look at our movies in America, okay? Well, how does the good guy save the good people? He shoots them, you know? But yet we take the gun and we turn it into this weapon of destruction. No, it saves lives. He'd be dead. Him and his son may be dead right now, you know, if he wasn't carrying, you know.
    MUSIC: Afternoon Mist — Yehezkel Raz
37:07  TOMMY JACKETT: Yeah.
    [Mychael racks his shotgun. The law library again.]
37:08  JOE CALABRACE: Now, just make sure it's unloaded.
37:10  JOSH JANSSEN: Yep.
37:10  JOE CALABRACE: And then put it in a rack.
37:11  JOSH JANSSEN: Cool.
37:12  JOE CALABRACE: Next victim.
37:14  ADAM WINKLER: For most of American history, courts generally thought that the Second Amendment was about protecting militias, and didn't have much to do with an individual right to bear arms. But there was always a contesting view. There was always a dissenting view about the Second Amendment, that it did protect an individual right to bear arms. Over time, that view became more and more popular. In the 1970s, that view became paramount. It became almost exclusively about a right of personal self-defense.

SCENE 17  37:46  DRAGONLAND  (Colorado Springs, Colorado)

    [A silver Ram on a desert highway. A dirt road and hand-painted signs: WELCOME TO DRAGONLAND U.S.A. DRAGON GUNS & AMMO, CLASS 7 LICENSE DEALER.]
37:46  JOSH JANSSEN (V.O.): There are many different reasons why people own firearms.
37:50  JOSH JANSSEN: Shooting range, next left.
37:52  JOSH JANSSEN (V.O.): But for the most armed man in America, Mel Bernstein, aka Dragon Man, raises the question: can one individual own too many guns?
38:03  JOSH JANSSEN: Is that his shooting range? His shooting range, do we think?
    ON SCREEN: DRAGONMANS, COLORADO SPRINGS
    MUSIC: Can Try — Yotam Ben-Or
    [Mel Bernstein, in a tank top, fires a belt-fed machine gun from the hip. Josh and Tommy plug their ears.]
38:12  JOSH JANSSEN: Yeah! Now what's more fun than that?
38:18  MEL BERNSTEIN: Cut.
38:22  TOMMY JACKETT: Yep.
    [The store: a wall of guns, a flag made of gun parts, a sign on the door: DO NOT ENTER THIS STORE WITH A FIREARM.]
38:24  MEL BERNSTEIN: Excuse me. Beep beep, beep beep, coming through. People say over 6,000 guns in my name. Everything's legal with the right paperwork.
38:34  JOSH JANSSEN: Do you like doing paperwork?
38:35  MEL BERNSTEIN: Uh, well, my daughter does all the paperwork. I just buy everything. But, uh, being a Class 7 dealer— see, it goes from Class 1 to Class 7. Class 7 is the highest FFL license a citizen could obtain. So I reached that level.
38:52  JOSH JANSSEN: Amazing. Yeah. Is it sort of like black belt of the gun world?
38:54  MEL BERNSTEIN: It's everything. I could call up today and get ten cases of dynamite delivered tomorrow morning.
38:58  JOSH JANSSEN: When you were talking, I was thinking about the Second Amendment.
39:01  MEL BERNSTEIN: Yeah.
39:02  JOSH JANSSEN: How important is that?
39:04  MEL BERNSTEIN: Very important. You know, if we lose that, we lose everything. You know, even when I was young, my dad used to take me upstate New York, you know, hunting and stuff. And I really don't like killing animals, you know, but, you know, we target practice and all that.
39:17  TOMMY JACKETT: What are the similarities in the gun lovers that you see?
39:21  MEL BERNSTEIN: Well, they're really basically 98% all good people.
39:25  MELISSA FLANELL (O.S.): Was it going to be more about, like, mental health?
39:27  JOSH JANSSEN (V.O.): Off camera, we noticed Dragon Man's daughter Melissa getting frustrated with some of our questions.
39:33  MELISSA FLANELL: It just seems like the questions are leading, like, you know, you're trying to get him to say things, or something towards a certain type of political side. You could leave some things in there that he says. You could leave a lot of things out that he says.
39:45  JOSH JANSSEN: What's the biggest risk for you, do you think?
39:48  MELISSA FLANELL: Just satisfying the beliefs of those people who think that we shouldn't have guns.
39:51  MEL BERNSTEIN: Yeah, yeah, okay.
39:53  TOMMY JACKETT: Melissa, can I ask you a question? Do you think you can talk about guns without talking about politics?
39:59  MELISSA FLANELL: Uh, right now, no. In the '90s, you could. The media has made it a huge political thing.
40:04  TOMMY JACKETT: Yeah.
    [The military museum. Mel leads a tour group through rooms of uniforms, vehicles and racked weapons.]
40:05  MEL BERNSTEIN: How you doing there? Thanks for coming to see my military museum. I'm the Dragon Man. Probably going to take about two hours, so you guys are really going to get a lot of information, you know, if you listen up.
40:15  TOMMY JACKETT: Are these real guns, Mel?
40:16  MEL BERNSTEIN: Uh, yeah, nothing says Toys "R" Us. .78 caliber. That's a big slug.
40:21  TOMMY JACKETT: Wow.
40:22  MEL BERNSTEIN: .58 caliber right here. Blunderbuss. And if that thing hits you, your head's coming off. This is the Enfield bolt-action. This is as close as you get to the gun that killed Lincoln.
    MUSIC: Wave After Wave — Bradshaw
40:33  MEL BERNSTEIN: He died the next day, April 15th, 1865. Okay, guys, at least once a month, I like to tell people about Terry, my late wife. Uh, this is her memorial right here. In 2012, we were filming for the Discovery Channel. I was supposed to have my own show called Dragon Tales, you know, and the very last episode, all we had to do was hold the machine guns and walk through the smoke. And one of the smoke bombs took off and went right through her. She was right next to me, and she died right out here in the shooting range. And she really did a lot, you know, to get this museum going. So we don't want her to be forgotten. Her name was Terry Flanell. All right, thanks for listening. Okay, the next room here is World War I.
    [A memorial wall: framed photographs of a woman, flowers.]
    [Outside, with Melissa.]
41:23  TOMMY JACKETT: People grow up and their parents have businesses, and not everyone wants to go into the family business. What was that decision for you like?
41:31  MELISSA FLANELL: Um, I didn't have a choice. I mean, I had a choice. My mom passed away very abruptly, and my dad did not know how to do a lot of the paperwork side of things. So the reason why I stay is, I do love firearms. I could do this anywhere. It's the museum that keeps me here. There's so much history in that museum that people need to learn about. And if it's not here to be seen by people, it needs to go on to another museum, because there's history throughout the world that people need to remember.
42:01  JOSH JANSSEN: How often do you think about your mum?
42:04  MELISSA FLANELL: Every day. Yeah, so being here keeps me closer to her. And someone has to watch my dad. He's got—
42:16  JOSH JANSSEN (V.O.): Dragon Man and his daughter Melissa didn't need to open their doors to our cameras, but they did. Beyond the character of Dragon Man, we did get to see a side that is Mel Bernstein: that's kind, that's generous, and just so happens to have an obsession with guns.
42:33  JOSH JANSSEN: Thank you so much for being so generous.
42:34  MEL BERNSTEIN: Oh, yeah, yeah.
42:35  TOMMY JACKETT: That was amazing.
42:35  MEL BERNSTEIN: Yeah, my pleasure.
42:36  TOMMY JACKETT: Thanks, Mel.
42:36  MEL BERNSTEIN: Yeah, you're good guys.
    MUSIC: Miss Lindy — Larry and the Lamplighters

SCENE 18  42:42  THE SHERIFF IN THE DINER  (Waco, Texas)

    [A red roadside diner, Coca-Cola signs inside. Josh and Tommy at the counter.]
    ON SCREEN: WACO, TEXAS
42:47  JOSH JANSSEN: What have you thought of Texas so far?
42:50  TOMMY JACKETT: People are so friendly. Weather's very hot.
42:53  JOSH JANSSEN: Yes.
42:54  TOMMY JACKETT: And it seems like they're running their own show.
42:57  JOSH JANSSEN: What do you mean?
42:57  TOMMY JACKETT: Like, Texas is Texas.
42:59  JOSH JANSSEN: Yeah.
43:00  DINER CUSTOMER: What's up, Parnell?
43:03  TOMMY JACKETT: Oh, look, he's got a gun on his hip.
43:05  JOSH JANSSEN: You see?
    [An older man in a cowboy hat at the jukebox, a pistol on his belt.]
43:09  TOMMY JACKETT: That's the first person, like, person in public that we've seen with a gun on their hip. He looks like a real cowboy.
43:15  JOSH JANSSEN: Maybe he's a sheriff.
43:19  TOMMY JACKETT: I like it. Is it too much to ask him about his gun?
43:21  JOSH JANSSEN: Yeah, I think so. Too much?
43:25  TOMMY JACKETT: Excuse me, sir.
43:28  SHERIFF PARNELL MCNAMARA: Yes, sir.
43:28  TOMMY JACKETT: Are you the sheriff?
43:29  SHERIFF PARNELL MCNAMARA: Yes, sir.
43:30  TOMMY JACKETT: Tommy.
43:31  SHERIFF PARNELL MCNAMARA: Nice meeting you.
43:32  TOMMY JACKETT: And this is my friend Josh.
43:33  SHERIFF PARNELL MCNAMARA: Josh, how are you doing? I'm Parnell.
43:35  TOMMY JACKETT: We're from Australia, making a documentary about the Second Amendment.
43:39  SHERIFF PARNELL MCNAMARA: I'm a big Second Amendment guy. Yeah, I think every honest citizen ought to be able to carry a firearm.
43:46  JOSH JANSSEN: Um, and so you're dealing with civilians with guns. Does that complicate what you have to do? How do you stay safe?
43:54  SHERIFF PARNELL MCNAMARA: Absolutely not. No. I'd like to see you, and you, and everybody in here that's law-abiding have a firearm.
44:01  TOMMY JACKETT: Yeah, that's what I—
44:02  SHERIFF PARNELL MCNAMARA: See that silver Ram out there? If you want to, I'll let you blow the siren.
44:06  TOMMY JACKETT: Oh, I'd love that.
    [Outside, the sheriff's silver Ram. The siren goes.]
44:15  TOMMY JACKETT: Turn it up.
44:18  JOSH JANSSEN: I love it. That's great.
44:22  SHERIFF PARNELL MCNAMARA: You guys want to get some pictures of y'all with some Thompson submachine guns?
44:28  TOMMY JACKETT: Yeah. Have you got a stash?
44:30  SHERIFF PARNELL MCNAMARA: I got a stash.
44:31  JOSH JANSSEN: Well, this escalated quickly, didn't it?

SCENE 19  44:33  TWIN TOMMY GUNS, AND A LIVE ROUND  (Waco, Texas)

    [The McLennan County Sheriff's Office, 901 Washington. Inside, the sheriff opens a gun cabinet.]
44:34  JOSH JANSSEN: I can't believe we're doing this.
44:36  SHERIFF PARNELL MCNAMARA: These are twin Tommy guns, 1928 model. Thompson submachine guns. Look at that right there. Very rare. It is stamped "Tommy gun".
44:50  TOMMY JACKETT: Oh, wow.
44:51  JOSH JANSSEN: Look at you.
44:51  SHERIFF PARNELL MCNAMARA: Oh, yeah.
44:52  TOMMY JACKETT: Well, that's my nickname.
44:53  SHERIFF PARNELL MCNAMARA: These were appraised around $45,000.
44:56  JOSH JANSSEN: Do you take it out to the range?
44:58  SHERIFF PARNELL MCNAMARA: Oh, yeah. I don't have any gun that I won't shoot. These are double-barrel 10-gauge Magnums. It has a very tranquilizing effect on the scumbags when you point it at them.
    [Tommy poses with a Tommy gun in each hand while someone takes a photo. The sheriff holds the shotgun. Then a scoped rifle comes out of the cabinet.]
45:17  TOMMY JACKETT: We've been learning about firearms, and just how dry firing, right, is not good for the gun. Can I dry fire this, or—
45:25  SHERIFF PARNELL MCNAMARA: Go ahead and dry fire it. Hang on a second. Yeah, go ahead.
45:34  TOMMY JACKETT: Is this the Colt?
45:37  SHERIFF PARNELL MCNAMARA: Yes.
45:37  TOMMY JACKETT: Wow. Can I?
45:38  SHERIFF PARNELL MCNAMARA: Yeah, sure. Got to take it off safety. There you go. Push it forward.
    [Tommy works the bolt. A live brass cartridge sits in the chamber.]
45:44  TOMMY JACKETT: Oh, there you go. Oh, there's a bullet in there.
45:47  SHERIFF PARNELL MCNAMARA: Okay, don't dry fire that one. Yeah, I thought—
    [Tommy laughs. The office: a wooden flag, a bronze cowboy firing his pistol at the sky, framed photographs.]
45:56  JOSH JANSSEN: Anyway, so I've heard there's a hog problem, and we're thinking about going hog hunting out of a helicopter. What do you think?
46:04  SHERIFF PARNELL MCNAMARA: Yeah, that's— by all means. We hate them. They multiply about every two months. They'll have twelve, fourteen, fifteen piglets, and then they just multiply like rats.
46:19  TOMMY JACKETT: And so, Sheriff, anyway, I've never taken a life with a gun before. Is there, you know, something I should feel bad about? I can't really work it out just yet.
46:29  SHERIFF PARNELL MCNAMARA: Killing a hog? Absolutely not.
    MUSIC: Twilight Rancher — Jenkins Mahoney Powell
46:33  SHERIFF PARNELL MCNAMARA: You're doing everybody a service to get rid of a pig. No, do not feel guilty. Absolutely, you should feel wonderful when you kill that first pig. And I'm serious.

SCENE 20  46:46  HOGS FROM A HELICOPTER  (Texas)

    [The truck on a road at dusk. A hangar door. Inside, a white Robinson R44, tail number N7195D, and a woman in purple.]
46:46  JOSH JANSSEN (V.O.): When we started on this journey, we wanted to challenge our own preconceived ideas and beliefs. Hunting is a big part of American culture, but we've never killed an animal before.
46:56  JOSH JANSSEN: Good morning.
46:57  GEORGIA TUCKER: Are y'all ready?
46:58  JOSH JANSSEN: Yeah. What do we need to just keep in mind?
47:01  GEORGIA TUCKER: Don't shoot the helicopter. Don't shoot the blades. Don't shoot the skids. The skid, what we land on and all that? Don't shoot those. Don't shoot your foot. If you're in the front seat, the pilot has controls right beside you, so try not to be all in his space, 'cause that'll affect how you're flying.
47:18  TOMMY JACKETT: Yeah, yeah.
47:18  GEORGIA TUCKER: If you're in the back seat, just watch. Yeah. Watch, and don't shoot the front person.
47:23  JOSH JANSSEN: Okay, great.
47:24  JOSH JANSSEN (V.O.): All right. With that being said, we're scared shitless, and we're being entrusted to shoot pigs out of a moving helicopter.
    [Out to the helicopter. Tommy in the front seat beside the pilot, who wears a stars-and-stripes helmet; Josh in the back with a rifle and the camera.]
47:34  DUSTIN JOHNSON: Can you see your red dot?
47:35  JOSH JANSSEN: Yeah, I can.
47:37  TOMMY JACKETT: Yep.
47:37  DUSTIN JOHNSON: All right, up front, let's check yours. Are you ready? Put your mag in. Just don't slam it that hard again. In the go of things, you might get jammed. Right now you're fine. Yep. Okay, like that you're loaded, and like that you're loaded.
47:52  TOMMY JACKETT: Okay. Man, it feels weird.
    MUSIC: Ride of the Valkyries — Richard Wagner
    [Take-off. The helicopter climbs over green country and a muddy river as the sun comes up.]
48:14  TOMMY JACKETT: Beautiful out here.
48:23  DUSTIN JOHNSON: Y'all just had the same music in your headsets I do. It makes it a lot more fun. I think there's a group of pigs over here.
48:33  TOMMY JACKETT: So what, you found a pig, is that right?
48:35  DUSTIN JOHNSON: Yes, he just found one. Just breaking out into the field now. You're gonna need to get in position. We're fixing to shoot these. See, take it off safety. We'll shoot one, just so you know. Okay. Shoot one.
    [A boar runs across a ploughed field. Down the rifle sight. Dust kicks up where the rounds land.]
48:44  JOSH JANSSEN: Sorry, I'll take off safety.
48:46  DUSTIN JOHNSON: Shoot him.
48:47  JOSH JANSSEN: Okay.
48:48  DUSTIN JOHNSON: Just like that. All right, all right, all right, all right, all right. Hold on. If I say "all right", quit shooting, okay?
48:52  JOSH JANSSEN: Yep.
48:52  DUSTIN JOHNSON: Not being a jerk. I just— there's a lot of pigs here.
48:55  JOSH JANSSEN: Yep.
48:55  DUSTIN JOHNSON: I want to kill as many as I can. All right. You gotta aim.
49:06  JOSH JANSSEN: All right, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Three, two, one. Hell yeah!
49:19  TOMMY JACKETT: Wow! Yeah! Beautiful! That was unbelievable! Yeah, this is wild. This is Texas, baby!
49:31  JOSH JANSSEN: Starting to feel a little motion sick. It's amazing you're able to text and fly at the same time. I always thought that helicopters naturally want to tip over.
    [The pilot texts with both thumbs while flying. Tommy, beside him, watches.]
49:49  DUSTIN JOHNSON: They do.
49:52  JOSH JANSSEN: What do you love most about America?
49:55  DUSTIN JOHNSON: I would definitely have to say freedom that we have. I guess we take it for granted. We can sleep with our doors unlocked last night if we wanted to. Nobody's going to come rob us. They're not going to come shoot us. What we can and can't do, and how safe America is compared to other countries. Well, hands down, I would say that has to be what I enjoy most about being here. Big-ass pig. Big-ass pig right here. Turning hard right.
50:23  TOMMY JACKETT: How would you feel if there was no guns for personal safety in this country?
50:26  DUSTIN JOHNSON: Even though I know I don't need it at night, it sure makes me sleep better knowing that I'm a fingerprint away from my pistol popping up. Hammer down. Kill him!
50:34  JOSH JANSSEN: Nice shot!
50:35  DUSTIN JOHNSON: Beautiful shot!
50:36  TOMMY JACKETT: One shot, JJ! That was unbelievable!
    [Coming in to land. On a shed by the hangar, a TRUMP 2024 flag and an Israeli flag.]
50:42  DUSTIN JOHNSON: The Trump flag is really flagging. Now that will be ideal. That's America right there. Did you get it?
50:51  JOSH JANSSEN: Got it.

SCENE 21  50:50  ARE WE BECOMING DESENSITISED?  (Texas)

    [Terry Black's Barbecue. A tray of ribs and sides. The two of them at an outdoor table.]
50:54  JOSH JANSSEN: Do you feel like we've become desensitized to the guns?
50:59  TOMMY JACKETT: Yeah, I mean, that moment at the sheriff's office, the live bullet. Like, while it is— there is a bit of, "Oh, wow." Yeah, I'm definitely feeling like we're becoming a lot more desensitized.
51:12  JOSH JANSSEN: Think about when we started, and we were, like, worried about where the crew was. And I think about everyone that we've spoken to, I've completely trusted. We're assuming that they have our best interests at heart, that they're thinking about the safety element.
51:28  TOMMY JACKETT: Yeah.
51:29  JOSH JANSSEN: We said at the start, "Oh, we don't really want to make a documentary that's filled with politics." Are we slowly becoming influenced to play into that exact narrative?
51:40  TOMMY JACKETT: Well, you see, you know, conversation with Melissa from Dragon Man. We didn't feel like we were being overly political.
    MUSIC: Cycles — Luke Atencio
51:50  TOMMY JACKETT: She actually said that you can't talk about guns without talking about politics.

SCENE 22  51:55  EVERY CORNER HAS A MURDERER  (Butler, Pennsylvania; Washington, DC; the Texas border)

    [The truck on an autumn road. Phone screens full of guns.]
51:55  JOSH JANSSEN (V.O.): Everywhere we look, we see guns. Since being on this road trip, our social media algorithms have morphed into everyday carry videos, body cam footage and self-defense tips.
52:07  KATHERINE SCHWEIT: When I started as a print journalist, it was everybody read their local newspaper, but now everybody gets their news from social media.
    [Butler, Pennsylvania. A highway overpass with a Trump sign. On a phone, footage of the rally. A water tower over an autumn town. A woman with a copy of the Butler Eagle.]
52:16  IRINA BUCUR: First few gunshots rang out like fireworks, but when they continued, people in the crowd at the Butler Farm Show venue dropped to the ground. A mother and father told their children to crouch down. A young man hunched over in the grass. Behind him, a woman started to pray.
52:31  KATHERINE SCHWEIT: What occurred in the United States didn't go out all over the United States in social media, but now it does. So people now think that every corner has a murderer.
    [Street corners, one city after another.]
52:40  MAN ON A CITY STREET: There was a shooting last night, right there. Saw a dude's head fucking blown off, like, two weeks ago.
52:46  TOMMY JACKETT: But the problem is everything is in small sound bites.
52:48  MAN IN A COWBOY HAT: Society has been conditioned to get everything in under a minute.
52:52  DANIEL PATINKIN: I don't care how many laws you pass, there's still going to be a ridiculous number of guns in this country.
52:57  WOMAN IN A WINTER COAT: This is a kind of place of fear.
52:59  KAMALA HARRIS: We're determined to live free from gun violence, and to protect our planet, and to shape the world they inherit.
    [A night crowd watching a rally speech on a big screen near a monument.]
53:09  TOMMY JACKETT: What do guns mean to you? Does it play a part of your life?
    [Three women in the crowd, one in an I AM AN AMERICAN T-shirt.]
53:12  WOMAN WITH SHORT GREY HAIR: No, it does not.
53:14  JOSH JANSSEN: What about for self-defense?
53:15  HER DAUGHTER: I registered, and I went and got a gun. A weapon that's registered legally.
53:20  WOMAN WITH SHORT GREY HAIR: I still cringe at it, but—
53:24  JOSH JANSSEN: It's a choice she made.
53:27  WOMAN WITH SHORT GREY HAIR: It's a choice she made.
53:28  ADAM WINKLER: Today, people feel that the threat is very real, even though the data show that the threat is much less significant today than it has been in a long, long time.
53:39  JOSH JANSSEN: Right where we are now is really where Trump was. Over there, that was where the shooter was?
    [A field in Butler. Josh and Tommy stand with a local where the rally was.]
53:45  MAN IN BUTLER: Yeah.
53:45  JOSH JANSSEN: It seems very close.
53:47  MOTHER AT THE MEMORIAL: We try to shelter our kids a lot from news and media, so, sure, it's come up sometimes. For example, if you hear a gunshot in the neighborhood, right? It seems like it's close by.
    [Washington. A family at the World War II Memorial, the mother with a baby in a carrier.]
53:59  JOSH JANSSEN: Do you own a gun?
54:01  MAN IN A BANDANA: I do. People that love access to guns would say that they feel safer having as many weapons as possible in their house.
54:09  TOMMY JACKETT: To protect themselves from whatever threat is outside.
54:13  JOSH JANSSEN: Do you feel safer with your gun?
54:15  MAN IN A BANDANA: Yes, but I also live in reality.
54:19  TOMMY JACKETT: So you're saying that your staff over this side are being shot at from over there?
    [The Texas border. Two men by the Rio Grande, with an older man in a blue shirt and sunglasses.]
54:24  OTHAL BRAND: The other side.
54:24  TOMMY JACKETT: Who by?
54:25  OTHAL BRAND: Cartel.
54:26  TOMMY JACKETT: America's got a gun problem. What do you think about that?
54:29  SHERIFF ROY BOYD: Doesn't matter if you're in church or if you're in prison, the problem is the same. Human beings.
54:34  CHRIS CABRERA: We've had gunfire back and forth. Something you train for, something you prepare for. You prepare for it, and you deal with it when it comes.
    [The border wall. An agent in black uniform.]
54:39  JOSH JANSSEN: I remember when I first came to the US, and I went and saw a movie at the cinema, and as I sat down, I straight away looked for my exit, which I'd never do in Australia. But I was thinking about the news, and around mass shootings. When you go to a place like this, were guns on your mind?
    MUSIC: When the Sunrise — Yehezkel Raz
54:59  WOMAN AT THE CINEMA: I usually don't admit to this. But, yeah.

SCENE 23  55:08  HALLOWEEN WITH FAMILY  (Charlotte, North Carolina)

    [An autumn road from the air. A family on a porch under a TRICK OR TREAT sign; a school bus on a quiet street.]
55:08  JOSH JANSSEN (V.O.): For the last month, all we've been talking about is guns, and we need time to collect our thoughts. With Halloween preparations underway, it's a good time for us and the crew to pause. My older brother James moved to the US for college and ended up marrying an American. They now live in North Carolina with my niece and nephew.
    ON SCREEN: CHARLOTTE, NORTH CAROLINA
55:36  JOSH JANSSEN: Were people dressed up at school today?
55:38  A CHILD: Yeah.
    [Pumpkins on a table in the yard. Tommy carves in a cowboy hat and badge, Josh in a Buc-ee's beaver onesie, a young girl watching.]
55:38  JOSH JANSSEN (V.O.): It's the first time Tommy and I are carving pumpkins. It feels about as American as shooting guns for the first time.
55:44  TOMMY JACKETT: [name], do you want to help? Your uncle needs help.
55:48  JOSH JANSSEN: And I also need help with my pumpkin, too.
55:51  JOSH JANSSEN (V.O.): I'm not sure if Americans feel this way, but whenever we do this sort of thing, we feel like we're in a movie.
55:58  JOSH JANSSEN: That looks cool. Yeah, and so now I'll cut it out. It's fun. Yeah, you spent more time on yours.
56:04  TOMMY JACKETT: It's not a competition. Oh, here we go.
56:09  JOSH JANSSEN: Down here is really nice.
    [Tommy holds up his phone: a video call home.]
56:12  TOMMY JACKETT: [name]! Oh, I miss you, [name]. We're going trick-or-treating around the neighborhood here. Put it back.
56:20  TOMMY'S FAMILY: Are you getting candy?
56:21  TOMMY JACKETT: I can't wait to see you. I'll bring you home some candy. I love you, [name]. Love you, [name]. Love you, [name]. Love you.
56:27  JOSH JANSSEN: Love you.
56:28  TOMMY JACKETT: Bye.
56:29  TOMMY'S FAMILY: Have fun. Bye. See you, Daddy. Bye.
56:32  TOMMY JACKETT: See ya.
56:33  JOSH JANSSEN: Let's go this way.
56:36  JOSH JANSSEN (V.O.): This suburban bubble feels disconnected from everything we've been exploring, but we can't shake our experience in conversations. It had me reflecting on the world my niece and nephew are growing up in.
    [Dusk. A man in his front yard, in a plaid shirt.]
56:48  JOSH JANSSEN: Do you have a gun?
56:52  NEIGHBOUR IN HIS FRONT YARD: Of course.
56:55  JOSH JANSSEN: What sort of gun have you got?
56:56  NEIGHBOUR IN HIS FRONT YARD: I got a .38 snub. Everybody got a gun. It's America, man. You gotta have a gun.
57:01  TOMMY JACKETT: In Australia, in fact, when my family came, they were very afraid, because it was July 4th and all the firecrackers. They were like— she was afraid that somebody was shooting. So I know in Australia it's a little different.
57:11  JOSH JANSSEN (V.O.): How does the American gun culture impact children? And what does the future of gun culture look like for the average American child?
    [Fog on a lawn. A pig mask, a chainsaw, Freddy Krueger. Yard horror for the trick-or-treaters.]
57:23  MAN IN A PIG MASK: So this would probably be, like, everybody's favorite. I don't know why. Like, even the little kids are super fascinated with body parts.
57:35  JOSH JANSSEN (V.O.): In the well-needed downtime, Tommy and I were asking these questions, and doing our own research.

SCENE 24  57:45  KIDS TO KINGS  (Atlanta, Georgia)

    [On a phone, an Instagram video: boys on a range.]
57:45  INSTRUCTOR: When we're done shooting, what do we do first?
57:47  A BOY: Put it on safe. You put it on safety.
57:49  JOSH JANSSEN (V.O.): We'd heard about a program just outside Atlanta, Georgia, not far from North Carolina, called Kids to Kings. They happen to use firearms as part of their practice to empower young boys.
    [A man in a FREEDOM T-shirt at a table, a holstered pistol in front of him.]
58:00  JOSH JANSSEN: And so is this gun loaded right now?
58:03  DEVIN PERKINS: Always one in the pipe. Yep, always. Um, it's just a, again, preparedness thing. Like, has this gun done anything during that amount of time that we've been sitting here talking?
58:14  TOMMY JACKETT: No.
58:14  DEVIN PERKINS: It's an inanimate object. It's not going to do anything unless someone removes it from this holster and then pulls the trigger. Anti-gunners blaming guns for situations, it literally makes no sense. And then on top of that, when something bad is done with a gun, do we not call people with guns to handle the person with a gun? So clearly it can't be the gun that's the problem. It's the person and their motives behind the gun that could be the problem. We got white kids shooting up schools. We got Black kids shooting up neighborhoods. We need to figure out why they're shooting at all, and stop that. And then we can get some real solutions and some more progress.
58:52  JOSH JANSSEN: We saw a video on Instagram of some kids shooting, and now we're speaking to you. Can you tell us the connection there?
58:59  DEVIN PERKINS: Oh, Kids to Kings. What we do is we mentor groups of boys in Atlanta, Georgia. They all come from Title I charter schools. So these are kids coming out of the worst areas of Atlanta, and we proactively teach them about guns the right way. I want you guys to go to Atlanta and see it, and y'all get to see firsthand the solution to anything that's going wrong in the Second Amendment community.
    [The dirt range from the start of the film: the berm, a tent, the bearded instructor in the PURPOSE OVER POPULARITY shirt, a line of boys in ear defenders.]
59:24  KEVIN DIXIE: Hey, what's going on?
59:25  JOSH JANSSEN: How you going? I'm Josh.
59:27  KEVIN DIXIE: Josh. Kevin.
    ON SCREEN: ATLANTA, GEORGIA
59:27  JOSH JANSSEN: Kevin, nice to meet you.
59:28  KEVIN DIXIE: Likewise, likewise.
59:30  A BOY: [name].
59:31  TOMMY JACKETT: [name]?
59:32  A BOY: [name].
59:32  TOMMY JACKETT: [name]. Nice to meet you, man.
59:35  KEVIN DIXIE: These young men are part of the Kids to Kings program. It's a nonprofit organization meant at— aiming to help enrich the lives of young men.
59:44  A BOY: The thing— what I like about Kids to Kings program is that we have more, like, experience with being around firearms, and knowing what to do and what not to do, and, um, being around other people, other Black kids like us, and stuff like that. Yes.
1:00:03  KEVIN DIXIE: Black people in America with guns gets an extremely bad rep. We're able to take the information and knowledge we have and not only educate young men and help them out, but change the narrative at the same time.
1:00:13  TOMMY JACKETT: You boys feeling all right?
1:00:15  THE BOYS: Yes.
1:00:15  TOMMY JACKETT: Feel nervous?
1:00:16  THE BOYS: No. No.
1:00:17  RANGE INSTRUCTOR: Help him with his ears. Yeah, he look kind of crazy right now. You gotta, uh, pull them. Extend them.
    [Kevin, to camera, the boys behind him.]
1:00:23  KEVIN DIXIE: You don't have to be what the world tells you that you're gonna be. I was supposed to be, by eighteen, either in prison or dead. That's what the environment said. And guns were a particular issue, because of the lack of knowledge and information and education around them. So, oddly enough, the first time I got with a gun by myself, I was around thirteen years old. And because of the different environmental factors, and a lot of mental health issues that were occurring at thirteen, which I didn't know about at the time— we didn't talk a lot about mental health 32, 33 years ago— first thing I wanted to do was kill myself. So I tried to commit suicide the first time I picked up a gun and was unmonitored by any adult. Just didn't know how to make the thing go off. I didn't know what the safety was, and it was on. I couldn't get the trigger to go back. And then two years later, I tried again with a lever-action gun, and I didn't understand how to get the lever to cock fully to get the gun in action. So after that, I realized that I was here for a purpose, and I was here for a reason. And the gun was the one thing that threatened me every day in my mind, that I thought was the way out, that was threatening my life and whatever God put me here to do. So I decided to take the power of the gun and turn it for good.
1:01:31  TOMMY JACKETT: These are pretty heavy conversations. I've got young children myself, and I, um— like, I hear you talk about suicide, and I've had some close friends commit suicide, and I find myself trying to shelter my kids from these things, these topics, and, like, you know, talking in front of these young guys, is that— are you finding this a benefit, them understanding the realities of this stuff, versus sheltering them from it?
1:01:58  KEVIN DIXIE: Absolutely, because they can hear me talk about it, and if they respect me, if I've built that kind of relationship, they feel comfortable saying, "This is a problem for me. I wanna talk about it now," where I didn't have that outlet. And I want them to know that they have opportunities vastly beyond what I've ever done.
1:02:12  JOSH JANSSEN: What would you like to do when you grow up?
1:02:14  A BOY: Be a SWAT officer.
1:02:16  TOMMY JACKETT: A SWAT officer?
1:02:18  JOSH JANSSEN: Yeah. Nice.
1:02:19  TOMMY JACKETT: Awesome.
1:02:19  JOSH JANSSEN: What makes you want to be a SWAT officer?
1:02:21  A BOY: I want to save people's lives.
1:02:25  TOMMY JACKETT: Yeah?
    [On the line. A boy with a pistol, Kevin's hands at his shoulders.]
1:02:26  RANGE INSTRUCTOR: All right, let's do it. Rack it. Slide it. Let's get one in there. All right, let's present.
1:02:30  KEVIN DIXIE: Now present up. Lean in at the waist. There you go.
1:02:33  RANGE INSTRUCTOR: Safety's off. Two to the— two to the middle stop sign and one to the top stop sign. Do it at your pace.
1:02:40  KEVIN DIXIE: Do it at your pace. Go. Take your time.
1:02:52  TOMMY JACKETT: When it fires, what does it make you feel inside?
1:02:56  A BOY: The anger that I had before, it calmed me down.
1:02:59  TOMMY JACKETT: You were a bit angry? What was making you angry?
1:03:02  A BOY: Like, I ain't get enough sleep, and I had woke up too early.
1:03:06  TOMMY JACKETT: I get it.
1:03:07  JOSH JANSSEN: Can relate to that.
1:03:08  TOMMY JACKETT: Can relate to that. What gun should I use?
1:03:11  A BOY: You use the one with the silencer. Yeah. You use this one. Like the tan AR.
1:03:16  TOMMY JACKETT: This one? The tan?
1:03:18  A BOY: Yes.
1:03:18  TOMMY JACKETT: Can I grab it, Kevin?
1:03:19  KEVIN DIXIE: Yeah, give me one second.
1:03:20  TOMMY JACKETT: It is a real sort of skill that you have to learn, to not sort of get excited and just grab one and put it in.
1:03:25  KEVIN DIXIE: I want you to actually keep mind of this. You know all these little .22 holes here?
1:03:28  TOMMY JACKETT: Yeah.
1:03:28  KEVIN DIXIE: I want you to pay attention to what happens when this thing is shot.
1:03:32  TOMMY JACKETT: And let's go in three, two, one. Okay? Three, two, one.
    [Tommy and the boy fire together.]
1:03:40  JOSH JANSSEN (V.O.): When we started on this journey, we wanted to remain as neutral as possible.

SCENE 25  1:03:45  MOON PIES  (Alabama)

    [A grocery store. Tommy sits in a shopping trolley; Josh pushes him down the juice aisle.]
1:03:46  JOSH JANSSEN (V.O.): There is enough polarising media that we didn't want to add to the noise.
1:03:50  TOMMY JACKETT: This is what my kids do.
1:03:53  JOSH JANSSEN (V.O.): But it's hard to not question whether America can improve their relationship to guns.
1:03:57  JOSH JANSSEN: Have you had a Moon Pie before?
1:03:58  TOMMY JACKETT: Never had a Moon Pie.
1:04:00  JOSH JANSSEN: We'll share one.
1:04:01  TOMMY JACKETT: Share a Moon Pie. You want to go the chocolate Moon Pie?
1:04:04  JOSH JANSSEN: Why not have both?
1:04:06  TOMMY JACKETT: Good point.

SCENE 26  1:04:07  THE AMMUNITION VENDING MACHINE  (Pell City, Alabama)

    [The checkout at Fresh Value. The cashier's name tag reads BLUE. By the registers, a white vending machine lettered AMERICAN ROUNDS.]
1:04:07  BLUE: And it tastes— the chocolate ones taste just like s'mores.
1:04:10  JOSH JANSSEN: Oh, yeah.
1:04:10  TOMMY JACKETT: Oh my God, I'm trying to work out what that machine is right there.
1:04:13  BLUE: It's for bullets.
1:04:14  TOMMY JACKETT: For bullets?
1:04:15  BLUE: Ammos. Guns.
1:04:16  JOSH JANSSEN: Boom, boom, boom.
1:04:19  BLUE: Start. You have to agree, of course.
1:04:21  JOSH JANSSEN: Okay, great.
1:04:24  BLUE: And then it asks you if you want your shotgun rounds, your rifle rounds, or your handgun rounds.
1:04:28  TOMMY JACKETT: Do you have a gun?
1:04:29  BLUE: I do have a gun.
1:04:30  TOMMY JACKETT: Which one do you have?
1:04:31  BLUE: Handgun.
1:04:32  TOMMY JACKETT: So let's get you some handgun bullets.
1:04:34  JOSH JANSSEN: Add to cart.
1:04:36  TOMMY JACKETT: Check out.
    MUSIC: Slow Drift — Laboz Slott
1:04:38  BLUE: We had some of the Pell City policemen come in and buy shotgun rounds.
1:04:41  TOMMY JACKETT: Really?
1:04:42  BLUE: They said the shotgun rounds in there are cheaper than what they buy from the stores that they buy from.
1:04:46  JOSH JANSSEN: Oh, amazing. Have you ever been to Australia?
1:04:49  BLUE: No. My favorite band's from Australia.
1:04:51  TOMMY JACKETT: Who are they?
1:04:52  BLUE: AC/DC.
1:04:53  TOMMY JACKETT: Ah, yeah. Acca Dacca.
1:04:55  BLUE: All right. Nice to meet you guys. Bye. Have fun.
1:04:58  JOSH JANSSEN: Thank you. Bye.
1:04:59  TOMMY JACKETT: Thanks, Blue.
    [Outside, a notice on a brick wall: NO FIREARMS OR WEAPONS PERMITTED ON THIS PROPERTY. Inside a school, a lockdown poster.]

SCENE 27  1:05:00  A SAFE PLACE WITHIN THE SAFE PLACE  (Alabama)

1:05:01  JOSH JANSSEN (V.O.): Is there a future that can see Americans safer, while honoring the freedom of gun owners and the Second Amendment? Outside of the obvious conversations we hear about gun control, what measures were actually being taken to keep people safe? A local entrepreneur in Alabama had invented a solution to help kids be safe in classrooms.
    [An elementary classroom: crayons, small chairs, THE WRITE STUFF on the wall. A man in a black polo takes hold of a handle on a white wall panel in the corner.]
1:05:22  KEVIN THOMAS: The RASER is what we have in here. It's called— that's an acronym for the Rapid Access Safe Room. The concept makes sense. We need to give them a safe place within their safe place, right? We will pull it, and it's just momentum.
    [The panel swings out and becomes a room. They step in. It goes dark.]
1:05:40  KEVIN THOMAS: Walk inside. Close the door. When time's up, you put the key in, and then you would unlock it, and then you would open it back up. But there's ballistics in this door as well. This is US Embassy-grade level locking system and doors.
1:05:56  TOMMY JACKETT: Oh my gosh.
1:05:56  KEVIN THOMAS: I mean, this right here, you're not shooting through this. You're not shooting through this.
1:06:02  TOMMY JACKETT: Kevin, how many kids can you fit in this room?
1:06:05  KEVIN THOMAS: In this classroom— it's an elementary classroom— the government square footage requirements is one square foot per child in an emergency situation, and that covers most of the national averages, which is 24 to 26 people per classroom. If you look at that right there, by the door, there is a list of thirteen things that you have to do in case of an active shooter. I'm not gonna ask my six-year-old grandson to engage anyone with a weapon.
    MUSIC: Perennial — Tony Anderson
1:06:33  KEVIN THOMAS: So our goal is to give them an opportunity to go home to dinner tonight with their family.
1:06:38  TOMMY JACKETT: I've got two children. I've got a seven-year-old who's at primary school like this. And I see this, and, like, I can't imagine as a parent what it would feel like to have to think about my son running into that.
1:06:52  KEVIN THOMAS: Right.
1:06:53  TOMMY JACKETT: What is that feeling like for you, understanding—
1:06:55  KEVIN THOMAS: Unless you're going to homeschool your children, this is going to be the environment that they're going to be in. So we need to make it as safe as possible, and as friendly as possible. I'm gonna find out why we have to have these things, but I'm gonna figure out how we can reverse this trend. This right here needs to be obsolete in twenty years. The reason this whole deal really started, Uvalde, Texas happened, right? And I don't ever tell this story, 'cause I can't get through it. So there's this girl. Her name is Miah Cerrillo, and she was one of the survivors in that classroom that day. And she was the little girl that took the blood from her friends and wiped it on herself, and played dead on that floor. She, uh, went through that experience. They were interviewing her, and her little sister comes running in and says, "I found it." And they said, "Found what?" And they said, "I found what would have saved our friends." And when her little sister showed her that, Miah looked at the reporter and says, "I will never go back to school unless that is in my classroom. That is the only thing that will save me. That would have saved my friends." And it's working, slowly but surely. I mean, I didn't even know y'all were gonna be here today, and y'all are here now, and we're gonna make another opportunity to get the word out, to do the right thing. Because I wanna spread the message bigger than just protecting kids. I just would soon address the bigger problem, so this does become less and less used for nothing other than a dry erase board.
    MUSIC: Fracture — Roary feat. Idyll
1:08:49  JOSH JANSSEN: Really appreciate it.
1:08:50  KEVIN THOMAS: Yep. It's fine.
1:08:51  TOMMY JACKETT: Thanks, man.
    [They hug him.]
1:08:52  KEVIN THOMAS: Yep.

SCENE 28  1:08:54  DRILLS, DATA AND THE CAPITAL  (Washington, DC)

    [In the car, then a living room: Katherine Schweit faces Josh and Tommy, who sit side by side in white chairs.]
1:08:54  KATHERINE SCHWEIT: We're making progress. We have 25 years of data now. In the last two years, the number of these types of shootings has gone down two years in a row. And that's the first time in 25 years.
    [Home video: Tommy's children practising a fire drill.]
1:09:06  TOMMY JACKETT: I've got a seven-year-old and a three-year-old, and my son, um, the drill that he has to do would be for a fire. That's about it. But in this country, there's the active shooter drill. Is this something that is beneficial, or is it impacting the children's psychology?
1:09:27  KATHERINE SCHWEIT: You know, I wrote a nice long book, and the only opinion that I have in the book that I say straight up, "This is my opinion, it's not based on fact," is I don't think teachers should carry guns. I think teachers have a very important job to do, and that's not a job they should worry about. But a gun in a school, from a security standpoint, should be based on a lot of factors.
    [Pennsylvania Avenue. The Capitol through the windscreen.]
1:09:49  JOSH JANSSEN: Who are the people in the middle? Are there more Americans that are in the middle on this, when it comes to guns, or is there a clear divide?
1:09:58  TOMMY JACKETT: And you have Kevin in Alabama with the bulletproof whiteboards, which really, these, as Kevin said, were Band-Aid fixes to a problem. And maybe this town is where the real solution to the real problem happens.
1:10:17  KATHERINE SCHWEIT: When we first started doing active shooter drills in the United States, a lot of schools weren't doing them the right way, so to speak, and they were traumatizing people and adults. I think that now there's a recognition that even active shooter drills are really safety drills. Whether it's a fire, or a tornado, or a hurricane, or an earthquake, or a shooter, the five-year-old just needs to be trained to be quiet, to listen, to follow instructions. That's what the training should be. That's safety training.

SCENE 29  1:10:47  WHAT A BULLET DOES  (Baltimore, Maryland)

    [Three men walk a Baltimore street into a café. Around a wooden table with mugs: a man with his surname stitched on his sleeve.]
1:10:49  DR JOSEPH SAKRAN: These bullets tearing tissue, pulverizing bones, liquefying organs, they're doing tremendous damage to the human body. If you're in a boat, do you know the wake that you see behind the boat? There's that primary injury that happens from, physically, the fragment, but then there's this blast effect that happens. The faster the boat goes, the larger the wake. That wake, or that blast effect, causes destruction to tissue. So imagine if you have a kid, right, who has a small— right, we know they have small abdominal cavities. And they're shot in the abdomen with an assault rifle. It pulverizes tissue. I mean, it can blow off limbs, but they're also causing trauma that persists for many years.
    ON SCREEN: DR JOSEPH SAKRAN — SHOOTING SURVIVOR · TRAUMA SURGEON, JOHNS HOPKINS
    [A long bridge over water at sunset, then the car, Josh driving.]
1:11:48  JOSH JANSSEN: There's two choices. One is that there is a positive future ahead, one that has hope. Or there's the second choice, which there is no hope.
    MUSIC: Obvious (slowed) — CHPTRS
1:12:00  JOSH JANSSEN: I just don't know how productive it is to assume that nothing can change.

SCENE 30  1:12:06  REMAIN HOPEFUL  (Washington, DC)

    [Autumn by the Reflecting Pool at sunset, her beagle, Harry, beside her.]
1:12:07  AUTUMN BIGNAMI: I do struggle a lot with the choices that are being made about our future, and about what we're continuing to allow to happen.
1:12:16  TOMMY JACKETT: Do you think Americans are desensitized to gun violence?
1:12:21  YOUNG MAN IN WASHINGTON: As soon as one bad thing happens, the next thing happens. So you're just— you don't know what to focus on next. So it kind of just takes away— there's so much bad going on that we never really focus on anything for too long. And it's very easy that the bigger issues get swept under the rug.
1:12:38  AUTUMN BIGNAMI: I do remain hopeful, and we have to be mature enough, and respect each other enough, to know that there's going to be some really intense differences that have to be able to be solved, in a way that doesn't involve more violence or more chaos.
    [The Washington Monument. A plane over the Lincoln Memorial.]

SCENE 31  1:13:01  A SHOOTING ON THEIR STREET  (Washington, DC)

    [Night. Josh and Tommy come down the stairs of a row house and out the front door onto a dark street. A Metropolitan Police car, lights turning. Officers with torches look at something on the ground.]
1:13:05  JOSH JANSSEN: Unbelievable, dude.
1:13:07  TOMMY JACKETT: I'll see if I can ask the police officer anything.
1:13:13  JOSH JANSSEN: We're an Australian documentary crew. We're staying just there. And so the fact that there's literally been a shooting out the front of our place is pretty mind-blowing to us.
1:13:24  TOMMY JACKETT: Any chance that we could get a comment about what's happened here?
1:13:27  POLICE OFFICER: I can't give any— those kind of official statements are way above my pay grade.
    [A neighbour, across the roof of a parked car.]
1:13:36  TOMMY JACKETT: Did you hear it?
1:13:37  NEIGHBOUR: Yeah, I did. It's tough. So it's tough for us, to living around here, but it's just almost fourth time now.
1:13:46  TOMMY JACKETT: Fourth time in this street?
1:13:47  NEIGHBOUR: This area. And up there, up here, up there.
1:13:52  JOSH JANSSEN: Do you feel surprised by this?
1:13:55  NEIGHBOUR: Yeah. We are not safe. That's how we feel.
1:13:59  JOSH JANSSEN: The more time you spend in the US, the higher chance, I guess, of that you are directly impacted.
1:14:07  TOMMY JACKETT: Yeah.
1:14:08  JOSH JANSSEN: Or that it happens on your street.
    [They stand in the dark. The lights keep turning. Black.]
    ON SCREEN: IN GUNS WE TRUST
    MUSIC: Enter the Cowboy — ALTR

SCENE 32  1:14:21  END CREDITS

    [The credits roll: the full cast in order of appearance, the crew, the music, the thanks, and the title with ingunswetrustfilm.com. No more dialogue.]