Moore’s point of view is aligned with the Brady Campaign which lobbies for stricter gun control laws. James S. Brady was the former press secretary to President Reagan, who was grievously wounded as a collateral damage when during the assassination attempt at President Reagan. Ever since this near fatal incident, Brady has campaigned nationwide for legislations that would bring down free access to arms. To a limited extent, Brady was successful when President Bill Clinton passed the Brady Handgun Violence Protection Act (commonly called the Brady Bill). One of the main changes brought about by the act is in thorough background checking of the customer before a gun is being sold. It was estimated that about 2 million applications have since been filtered by the set criteria. But despite this legislative success, enforcement has continued to be a problem.
Coming back to Michael Moore’s documentary, the film implicitly suggests some remedial measures to address this most pressing problem in American society. In the film, the last section shows a rare interview with the elusive NRA president. It exposes the ignorance and narrow motives of bodies such as NRA and the various corporations that constitute it. It is high time that the public wakes up to the pathetic condition our society has fallen into. We need to put pressure on the government to make radical changes to laws governing gun ownership. Even if a few innocent victims were unable to protect themselves due to lack of arms at their immediate disposal, there will be numerous more who will be saved for lack of guns at the hands of potential perpetrators of crime. Even banning any private ownership of guns can be mulled over. It is only through taking such drastic measures that our society can project itself as sane. It is only through these sweeping measures that the dismal homicide rate can be brought down to per-capita levels of European countries. The government can also think of curbing lobbying activities and activists. Looked objectively, lobbying interferes with representational democracy and promotes privates business interests. Hence by restricting lobbying, the power of organizations like the NRA will also be brought under control.