((PKG)) GUN OWNER
((TRT: 09:27))
((Banner: Americans and Guns: Differing Perspectives))
((Banner: A Way of Life))
((Reporter/Camera: Deepak Dobhal))
((Map: Minerva, Ohio; Washington DC))
((Main characters: 1 male))
((Sub characters: 2 male))
((NATS))
((Michael Kreitzer, Juvenile Corrections Officer))
You never know when at any second something might
happen that you might need it. That's the point. It's not that
you think it's going to. It's that you recognize the possibility
that it can. You recognize the possibility that there are evil
people in the world who do evil things and you have to be
able to protect yourself against that.
((NATS))
((Michael Kreitzer, Juvenile Corrections Officer))
I think I'm an average gun owner because, I mean, I'm an
average guy. I mean, there's nothing really special about
me.
((NATS))
((Michael Kreitzer, Juvenile Corrections Officer))
From an early age, dad would go out hunting, I went with
him. You know, I was always in the woods with him shooting
and you know, at the range shooting, and, you know,
that's just, it was a way of life.
((NATS))
((Michael Kreitzer, Juvenile Corrections Officer))
We're going to the Minerva Sportsman's Club, a local range
that I'm a member of.
((NATS))
((Michael Kreitzer, Juvenile Corrections Officer))
This is my AR-15 pistol, Hungarian AK-47, Marlin Model 60-
22 rifle, Heritage Rough Rider, the U.S. made rifle that's kind
of a cross between an AK-47 and an AR-15, Spanish police
pistol, SKS rifle, little Taurus TX-22, Ruger Mini-14.
((NATS))
((Michael Kreitzer, Juvenile Corrections Officer))
I own more than a dozen firearms and less than I want.
Well, for several different reasons. Like any other tool,
specific firearms are for specific purposes. I have rifles that
are just simply, strictly for accuracy to try to put holes in a
piece of paper far away. I have firearms for hunting. The
majority of my firearms though are for defensive purposes.
((NATS))
((Michael Kreitzer, Juvenile Corrections Officer))
Over a period of years, that's what most people do. They
get one here, then they get one there, then they get another
one. Sometimes they tell their wife, sometimes they
don't. Sometimes they just, ‘Oh no, I've had that one for a
while. Yeah, don't you remember I bought that back then?’
((NATS: Michael Kreitzer))
That's right.
((Michael Kreitzer, Juvenile Corrections Officer))
So, this is Jason Spoon. He's a friend of mine and a
firearms instructor. His family runs the local gun shop here
in town.
((NATS: Michael Kreitzer and Jason Spoon))
What’d you bring with us today?
Ah, I brought a duty pistol and a Henry Golden Boy.
Nice. Classic.
Yeah, I think between all of us, we have some pretty good
representations of what kind of stuff people own around
here.
Yeah.
Alright, let's go get some targets.
((NATS))
((Michael Kreitzer, Juvenile Corrections Officer))
It's wonderful if you're a duck. It's a horrible downpour
but, you know, I don't really mind shooting at it once in a
while because you can't always pick when you might have to
shoot.
((NATS))
((Michael Kreitzer, Juvenile Corrections Officer))
I practice shooting with my firearms at least once a week. I
try to get to the range as much as I can. Shooting is a
perishable skill. If you don't practice, you lose
proficiency. Given that I carry a firearm with me everywhere
that I'm lawfully able, I feel it's incumbent upon me as a
responsible person to be proficient with that firearm
because any time that you press the trigger, you're
responsible for what happens.
((NATS))
((Michael Kreitzer, Juvenile Corrections Officer))
I think that the vast majority of gun owners are responsible
people. If the 350 million firearms that are out there were
the problem and if the 150 million gun owners were not
responsible, those hundreds of millions of weapons would be
put to use far more than the ones that are already misused.
((NATS))
((Nathan Sphon, Co-Owner, Sphons CCW and Armory))
Maybe it's a little different in the big cities where if you need
help, help might be closer away. Here, we have massive
response times. If you need help, it's on you to provide that
help for your friends or family. The police, you know, they're
15 minutes away because they're covering an entire county.
((Jason Sphon, Firearms Instructor))
We grew up, if the car broke, you fixed it. If the electric is
out, you fixed it. If the power company quit, you had a wood
stove. I mean, all of this stuff and a gun was just, it was just
a last tool in a whole line of tools that you used. Right? And
it's rooted in self-sufficiency.
((NATS))
((Michael Kreitzer, Juvenile Corrections Officer))
They demonize the tool. It's not the tool that kills, it's the
person.
((NATS))
((Michael Kreitzer, Juvenile Corrections Officer))
When I hear about these atrocities that happen, when the
mass shootings, you know, Parkland, Dayton, El Paso, and I
hear the backlash from the media and from politicians,
saying that if we had less guns, if people didn't have guns,
they wouldn't be able to do things like this, I have to answer
that the opposite is true.
((NATS))
((Michael Kreitzer, Juvenile Corrections Officer))
While it's not a guarantee that the good guy will stop the bad
guy, I can tell you one thing. There's a lot better chance of
stopping that from happening if he's there than if he isn't.
((NATS))
((Michael Kreitzer, Juvenile Corrections Officer))
People who want to curtail our Second Amendment rights [to
bear arms] have wasted no opportunity to exploit any
tragedy or atrocity that happens. I see no reason to believe
that that strategy wouldn't continue.
((NATS))
((Michael Kreitzer, Juvenile Corrections Officer))
I'm going to Washington DC this weekend because I want to
have my voice heard. And I want to have my voice heard,
not just for myself but for my kids, for my grandkids.
((Locator: Washington, DC))
((NATS))
.....the Republic for which it stands, one Nation under God,
indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Amen.
((NATS))
((Michael Kreitzer, Juvenile Corrections Officer))
We're all coming here to let the politicians that work in that
building up there, let them understand our rights aren't
negotiable. They're not for sale. They’re not to be traded
away for political advantage. They're ours and we intend to
keep them.
((NATS))
Guns are the teeth of liberty that protect our rights and keep
men and women free from tyranny and oppression.
Yes!
If we allow them that are against us to undermine the
Second Amendment, our entire Republic is for nothing.
((NATS))
((Michael Kreitzer, Juvenile Corrections Officer))
I believe that, you know, we're not at the point in history
where we would have to rise up in armed rebellion against
our government. We're not there. Our government is not
a tyranny. Because right now we don't have tyranny, doesn't
mean that it can't transform into tyranny easily. That's why I
think it's still important for us to maintain our Second
Amendment rights as a guarantee against our government.
((NATS))
((Michael Kreitzer, Juvenile Corrections Officer))
I think what people don't understand about most average,
everyday gun owners is that we're just that. We're average
every day. We are doctors. We are lawyers. We are
judges. We are magistrates. We are firefighters, cops,
factory workers, mechanics. We are people. We are not the
paranoid gun nut. ‘Government ain't going to come
take my guns.’ That, I mean, that's not us. Now granted,
there are always examples of that sort of thing, just as there
are examples on the other side of the, you know, hold
hands, Kumbaya, hippy-dippy liberal types. But that's not
everybody. We're just people. We want to be left
alone. We don't want to be held responsible for the crimes
of someone else. We want to live our lives and as long as
we don't harm anybody, we should be left alone.
((NATS))
…..our Republic, our Constitution and our Second Amendment.
((MUSIC))
((Banner))
Next time on
Americans and Guns
((SOT))
Here’s a picture from our wedding. He died the week before our
10th anniversary. Guns are a totally different type of a tool when it
comes to suicide because they are so much more lethal.
((NATS))
My husband Scott Spoor was 43.
((SOT))
This isn’t just about my family. 22,000 Americans die every year
of gun suicide including 1,000 children.
((MUSIC))
