Gun Crazy

           Listening these many weeks to the gun debate within the gun culture brings to mind a little known 1950 film noir called “Gun Crazy.”

            It’s actually quite good, and if you get a chance you should watch it, whether you support or oppose guns and gun-control. The plot and its two main characters, Bart and Laurie, seem to capture the dichotomy within the ranks of the National Rifle Association’s members.

            The plot features Bart, who loves guns, they make him feel good inside. So much so that he steals a pistol at age 14 and is arrested. Bart’s family and friends testify in court that Bart is responsible and would never use guns to harm anyone. While the judge believes their testimony he nonetheless is compelled to send Bart to reform school.

            Years later, after reform school and a stint in the army, Bart returns home and catches up with his friends. They go to a field where he demonstrates his sharp-shooting skills with his elegant gun collection. They ask him about his plans for the future, and Bart says he wants to work for a gun manufacturer like Remington.

            That night, Bart meets Laurie, a sharpshooter at a carnival. They burn with passion for each other, but Laurie warns him she’s been bad. For awhile, the lovers enjoy life, performing together as carnival sharpshooters until circumstances leave them out of work. Laurie wants to turn to crime and use their guns to steal, from people and banks.

            Bart rejects the idea, and instead wants to sell their guns and work at Remington, but Laurie argues against it. “There isn't enough money in those guns for the kind of start I want,” she says. “Bart, I want things, a lot of things, big things. I don't want to be afraid of life or anything else.

           Laurie threatens to leave him and he goes along with her. Their crime wave gets out of hand. After trying to stop Laurie from shooting people who get in her way, Bart finds himself firing his gun at a pursuing police car and realizes he’s losing control.

            “Laurie, listen to me, listen close,” Bart confides in her. “Something happened when I was scared. All the time I was shooting that tire, I kept thinking how easy it would be to shoot the driver instead. I kept fighting myself. I'm not a killer. I don't want to be a killer. I don't like this kind of life. I've had enough.”

            Laurie hasn’t and before long she’s killing people without compunction, without the thought that Bart puts into his use of guns.

This is the dichotomy in the National Rifle Association. Its membership seems largely filled with Barts, people who enjoy and appreciate firearms, but also respect guns for what they are – weapons, to handle carefully and safely.

            NRA leaders like Wayne LaPierre and Ted Nugent sound like Lauries, blocking, without compunction, regulations to make a largely non-gun owning society safer – such as universal background checks that most of its members support.

            They claim to fear regulation because it means the government eventually will take away guns. Is that really their fear? Or do they fear having to make concessions – giving up semi-automatic weapons with large ammunition magazines, for example. 

            The NRA leaders' answers to gun safety regulations sound like the reasons Laurie gives Bart when he asks her why she killed people: “Because I had to,” Laurie said. “Because I was afraid. Because they would have killed you. Because you're the only thing I've got in the whole world. Because I love you.”

            Whether or not you agree with this analysis, you should see the movie. It’s good filmmaking.