Bowling for Columbine

"It was the morning of April 20, 1999, and it was pretty much like any other morning in America. The Farmer did his chores. The milkman made his deliveries. The President bombed another country whose name we couldn't pronounce. Out in Fargo, North Dakota, Cary McWilliams went on his morning walk. Back in Michigan, Mrs Hughes welcomed her students for another day of school. And out in a little town in Colorado, two boys went bowling at 6 in the morning. Yes, it was a typical day in the United States of America."

"This was my first gun. I couldn't wait to go out and shoot up the neighborhood."

"Well, here's my first question. Do you think it's kind of dangerous handing out guns at a bank?"

"What if I had a spear?"

"Suddenly, our children had become little monsters."

"The media, the corporations, the politicians... have all done such a good job of scaring the American public, it's come to the point where they don't need to give any reason at all."

"I left the Heston estate atop Beverly Hills and walked back into the real world. To an America living and breathing in fear. Where gun sales are now at an all record high. And where, in the end, it all comes back to 'Bowling for Columbine'."

"Yes, it was a glorious time to be an American."

"Thank you for not shooting me Nathan Tucker."

""Have you ever been adjudicated mentally defective? Or have you ever been committed to a mental institution?" Well, I've never been committed to a mental institution. What does that mean, have I "ever been adjudicated mentally defective"?"

"Oh, with a crime. Okay, so if I'm just normally mentally defective but not criminal..."

"[Amazed at how Canadians do not lock their front doors (in the day time) after opening them in Toronto] As an American, I gotta say this all seemed kind of strange. Until I looked up at the TV in the bar and noticed what they watched for their evening news. They're friends of ours. We'll certainly listen to them courteously and carefully, but you don't just make war just 'cause someone says so. The Canadians weren't being pumped full of fear. And their politicians seemed to talk kind of funny."

"You don't need no gun control. You know what you need? Bullet control. I think all bullets should cost $5000. You know why? If a bullet cost $5000 there'd be no more innocent bystanders. People would stop and go, "Damn, he musta done something! Shit, they put $50,000 worth of bullets in his ass!""

"And people would think before they killed somebody if a bullet cost $5,000. It'd be like, "Man, I will blow your fuckin' head off...if I could afford it! I'm gonna get another job, start saving some money, and you a dead man! You better hope I can't get no bullets on layaway!""

"If more guns made people safer, then America would be one of the safest countries in the world. It isn't. It's the opposite."

"Are we a nation of gun nuts or are we just nuts?"

"One Nation Under The Gun"