Live stream preview

Watch this video and more on OVID.tv

Watch this video and more on OVID.tv

Start your free trial

Already subscribed? Sign in

Guns and Mothers

Icarus Films • 53m

Directed by Thom Powers • Documentary • 2003 • 53 minutes

Two advocacy groups, The Million Moms and the Second Amendment Sisters, are diametrically opposed on gun control, but they agree on one point: mothers will and should have a voice in determining gun control policy in America. GUNS and MOTHERS explores the grassroots beliefs of both movements by focusing on two different women, living in two different Americas.

Frances Davis lives in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. Having lost all three of her sons to gun violence, she advocates for stronger gun control and supports the Million Moms. She and the Million Moms see stronger gun control laws as a way to prevent the alarmingly high number of deaths of young people from gun violence in America, an estimated 10 deaths per day.

Maria Heil has four children and lives in rural Pennsylvania. Convinced that a gun is a woman's best tool for self-defense, she's become active with the Second Amendment Sisters. These women believe guns are the most effective way a woman can protect herself and her family. They quote statistics about lives saved by the use of guns to support their views. With inside access to both sides, filmmaker Thom Powers shows how both the Million Moms and the NRA recruited women; how tempers flared around the gun issue; how presidential candidates handled the debate; and how the movements looked a year later.

"Heart-wrenching... An admirably respectful analysis of both sides of a divisive issue." —Time Out

Tags
2nd amendment, african-american studies, blackhistory2, citizenship, columbine, columbine high school, criminal justice, criminology, cultural and ethnic studies, doc, documentary, expository, family issues, film, gender studies, gun, gun control, guns, guns and mothers, icarus films, law and legal studies, law enforcement, million mom march, murder, national rifle association, nra, ovid, ovid_ca, parenting, second amendment sisters, self-defense, social issues, social movements and activism, social studies, sociss, the million moms, video, violence, women's studies

Up Next in Icarus Films

  • H2Omx
    1:16:56
    H2Omx

    H2Omx

    Directed by Jose Cohen • Documentary • 2013 • 82 minutes

    Built on a basin surrounded by mountains and with little drainage, Mexico City is facing a water crisis driven by geography, population, and history. With a growing population, a depleted aquifer, and 40 percent of the water being brought ...

  • Hamou-Beya, Sand Fishers
    1:11:57
    Hamou-Beya, Sand Fishers

    Hamou-Beya, Sand Fishers

    Directed by Andrey Samoute Diarra • Documentary • 2012 • 72 minutes

    The Bozo of Mali are people of the water. For generations, they have lived along the banks of the Niger river, fishing for their livelihood. But climate change and drought have brought lower water levels and fewer fish, driving ...

  • Hiroshima Bound
    56:26
    Hiroshima Bound

    Hiroshima Bound

    Directed by Martin Lucas • Documentary • 2015 • 56 minutes

    HIROSHIMA BOUND is a personal documentary that tracks the construction of America's collective memory (or lack of one) of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It follows the obscure histories of specific photos and photographers, both...

×