An Unholy Alliance

An unholy alliance of gun prohibitionists, politicians, and certain church groups is pushing a so-called documentary called “Trigger: The Ripple Effect of Gun Violence” that will air on certain NBC owned and affiliated stations. The documentary is part of the Horizons of the Spirit series which airs on that network. The documentary is presented by the National Council of Churches and was produced by the Presbyterian Church USA.

The documentary features such gun control luminaries as Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D-NY), Colin Goddard, and Dr. Garen Wintemute talking about how “gun violence” (sic) impacted their lives.

In the United States more than 30,000 people are killed every year by gun violence and the disaster caused by gun violence is seen in almost every community. We may hear briefly about the victims and survivors of these shootings, but what happens after the media attention moves on and the wider public becomes numb to “just another shooting”? Drawing upon conversations with lawmakers, emergency room chaplains and surgeons, survivors and victims” families, former ATF officials, police officers, community leaders and others, “Trigger: The Ripple Effect of Gun Violence” shares the story of how Gun Violence impacts individuals and communities and examines the “ripple effect” that one shooting has on a survivor, a family, a community, and a society.

 The trailer to “Trigger” is below:

Trailer for “Trigger: The Ripple Effect of Gun Violence” Coming to NBC from Trigger Documentary on Vimeo.

Gun prohibitionists such as the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence and Timothy Johnson of the Media Matters for America have been pushing the documentary today and are pointing people to a sample script/letter that they are asking be sent to program managers at local NBC affiliates. The script is being hosted on a Presbyterian Church USA website.

Dear Station or Programming Manager,

I am a viewer living in your market area, and I care about the issue of gun violence.

I am aware of an upcoming program titled Trigger: the Ripple Effect of Gun Violence, which is part of the NBC Horizons of the Spirit series. The documentary is free and can be aired from November 11th through May 2013.
I have been told that the technical information and blurb about the program is on the NBC Universal APT system (Affiliate Partnership Tool) that every NBC affiliate station has access to.

Trigger is timely, considering the many acts of gun violence that have happened across our nation. It is not a politically driven documentary, but rather it is a documentary that allows people affected by gun violence to share their stories of how one shooting has impacted a survivor, a family and a community — after the shooting incident is no longer on the front pages or on the news channels.

This documentary explores the issue of gun violence through a multifaceted lens of family members, law enforcement, hospital personnel and clergy, to help build an understanding of the ripple effect. It will hopefully encourage awareness and conversation about how our communities can help.

Will you please schedule the showing of Trigger at a time that is convenient for viewers? It would be good to air it more than once to allow as many people to view it as possible during the 6 months it is available.

Thank you for your time and your consideration.

To say this is not a politically driven documentary is absurd. When you have leading gun control advocates and politicians such as Carolyn McCarthy who has made her career on gun control as stars of a documentary, it is political.

I don’t belong to a church that is a member of the National Council of Churches nor am I a Presbyterian. If, however, you are a Presbyterian (PCUSA) or belong to one of the NCC member churches, you might want to make your views on this documentary known within your own denomination. You could ask just how much of your weekly offering went to produce this agenda driven political piece which seeks to hamper you in protecting your own family. I’m sure you can think of other questions to ask.