For this fieldwork our group brought Lisa Miller a journalist and reporter from The New York Magazine to our school. Throughout the fieldwork we asked her a few questions about her views on gun control, but the focus of the meeting was for her to show her documentary called “Guns and Empathy” to our classmates. The movie showed fourteen people who had both been affected by guns negatively and who rely on guns in their lives. These people were forced to talk to each other about their stories and then finally try to step into the other persons shoes and tell their story in the first person. The title of the documentary Guns and Empathy is a perfect way to describe the film because, everything was made around that idea, for the victim of a mass shooting and a gun seller to feel what the other person is feeling and why they are feeling that way. This idea was demonstrated best with a certain group, Carolyn Tuft, who was shot alongside her daughter. She thankfully lived but had to watch her daughter fade away right next to her, and Todd Underwood, an online gun seller who sold the gun that was used to shoot and kill Trayvon Martin. These two polar opposites embraced this opportunity to learn about each other and through tears of empathy the two of them made a somewhat friendship. Seeing these people start out thinking the other is crazy and understand each other by the end it an amazing sight to see and one that will bring anyone to tears. This video made me sorrowful, joyful, made me think and now I understand what these people feel. These things that make up empathy are things that I would like to bring to our teach-in. It was truly an amazing film and many of our classmates came up to us afterwards to talk about the film.
