USA –(Ammoland.com)-A film currently in production that promises to “compare the historical aspects of gun control … to today’s laws“ has attracted financial backing from national and state gun groups and is now appealing to gun rights supporters to help complete the production, Gun Rights Examiner learned in an exclusive weekend interview with Kris Koenig, Emmy award-winning producer and writer, and founder of Dead Patriot Films, Inc., which is producing “Assaulted, Civil Rights Under Fire.”
“The Bellevue-based Second Amendment Foundation has joined forces with the Calguns Foundation in a fund-raising effort supporting the production,” Seattle Gun Rights Examiner Dave Workman wrote last week in a report announcing the project and a $5,000 investment by each of the gun rights groups to go toward the estimated $85,000 needed to fund the project. The balance is being raised using the Kickstarter fundraising website.
“[I want] to create a film that starts a national dialogue that can take place without the rhetoric that is normally associated with gun rights debates,” Koenig told Gun Rights Examiner when asked what he hopes to accomplish with the film. “ I also want to inspire lawmakers to start focusing on the causes of gun violence like mental health, drugs, and gangs, and stop attacking our civil rights for political points.
While spring-boarding off the restrictive gun environment in California, Koenig’s project will deal with principles and issues of concern throughout the United States, particularly as many of the initiatives implemented there have been or will be mirrored elsewhere, with resultant losses of liberty.
“I believe that it’s important for everyone, especially lawmakers, to understand that gun rights are civil rights and that those rights are not intangible concepts written into our constitution but are active in our daily lives,” he continued. “I’m also a victim of a carjacking in LA in the 1990s, so I know what it’s like to be at the barrel end of a gun and I want to make sure others have the right to protect themselves to avoid what I went through.
“I not an activist,” Koenig clarified when asked if he’s been a member of any Second Amendment-related projects or gun rights and grassroots groups. “I am just a citizen [who] wants to move the national debate off our guns and focus it on the causes of gun violence – mental health, gangs, and drugs.
“I’m a filmmaker passionate about the Second Amendment and I believe I have the skills to write and produce a documentary that both pro and anti-gunners will watch and learn from,” he asserted when asked why he was the right person to take on this project.
“In 2011, I was filming a regional documentary on street gangs invading rural California,” Koenig related in response to the question of how he got involved with SAF and Calguns. “During that production, I was actively engaged with gang members, so a local Sheriff Deputy suggested that I get a CCW and start carrying for self-protection. During the process of obtaining my permit, I learned how screwed up the gun laws of California are compared to the rest of the Union.
“I also started visiting Calguns.net to buy and sell guns,” he recalled. “During my visits to the forum, I started reading 2A posts and educating myself on gun issues in California. When it came to putting together a group of experts as advisers for the film Calguns was the logical place to start looking. Gene Hoffman, Chairman of the Calguns Foundation introduced Alan Gottlieb to the project.
“We’re trying to put the funds together to send a crew there to film interviews and to promote awareness of the film,” Koenig replied when asked if he has plans to attend the upcoming Gun Rights Policy Conference in Orlando, FL, from September 28 – 30, an event held and hosted each year by the Second Amendment Foundation.
About David Codrea
David Codrea is a long-time gun rights advocate who defiantly challenges the folly of citizen disarmament. He is a field editor for GUNS Magazine, and a blogger at The War on Guns: Notes from the Resistance. Read more at www.DavidCodrea.com.
