Fortunately, American Gun does not appear to be about the debate on owning guns. It’s a trap, and I doubt there will be much movement on either side of the issue. The film instead mostly deals with members of a community where three years earlier a Columbine-like school shooting occurred. The story slowly plods through the lives of several families, most notably the mother and brother of one of the deceased gunmen. This is where the title and its advertised premise confuse me. The story is more about the emotional toll any tragedy takes on a small town. Except for a paranoid obsession of a principal trying to keep the school free of guns, the weapons have less to do with the stories than one would expect. The most confusing factor in the film is the B story of a girl who works in her grandfather’s gun shop. This sidetrack takes place across the country and seems unrelated to the main plot. We never get a satisfying answer as to the connection. She has supposedly moved there from the West coast, and while it is never explained, one might guess she was at the school during the shooting. The film tries to stay away from the hit you over the head emotional plea to ditch all guns… that is, until a shocking and quite unnecessary convenience mart scene at the film’s end.

There are a ton of speaking parts in the film. It’s estimated at over 50 in the making of feature. The cast is quite good. I don’t only mean the obvious heavy hitters in Forest Whitaker and Donald Sutherland. Chris Warren, Jr. is marvelous as a kid who doesn’t really like guns but feels forced to carry because of his neighborhood. He considers walking around without a gun as being “naked”. Chris Marquette also has a strong role as the brother of one of the killers. I can’t even imagine what it must be like to be forced to attend a school where your brother killed students and teachers three years prior.