‘The Gun Shop’ makes U.S. debut at Stowe Cinema

It’s being shown in the United States for the first and only time April 4 at Stowe Cinema.

The documentary centers on a gun shop called Freedom Firearms in Battle Creek, Mich. Customers purchase and train to use both long guns and handguns. The film shows people of all genders and races taking their first shots with their new weapons and talking about their reasons for buying a firearm.

There are 65,000 licensed firearm shops in the United States, according to the film’s trailer.

The film, which has already been shown on Channel 4, was many British people’s introduction to the uniquely American, utilitarian attitude toward gun ownership. It shocked them.

“It’s alien to them,” Rocchio said. “It was a way to start a conversation. It showed people as they are,” purchasing guns in an environment they trust. “It showed it’s just a community of people.”

While gun ownership is the focus of “Gun Shop,” Rocchio sees it as a stepping stone to a bigger conversation about what he called “wedge issues” — loaded, quick-trigger topics that American politicians use to sway voters.

“I’m so opposed to the use of wedge issues,” Rocchio said. “It’s a calculated and incredibly divisive” way to conduct an election. 2016’s fiercely contested election season was a prime example, but Rocchio says “it’s been heading this way for 40 years. … The political style in the United States is so tactical. They don’t get anything done.”

Guns are one such wedge issue. Rocchio sees immigration as another.

Rocchio’s mind started churning with the idea to produce “Gun Shop” in November 2015 after he attended a writers retreat in Portugal and met filmmaker James Rogan, who co-produced the film and leveraged his previous work for the BBC to get it on the air.

The folks at Channel 4 bought the film within 10 minutes of meeting Rogan, but they had some criteria — it had to be shot using “fixed-rig filming,” or filming surrounded by high-mounted cameras. It also had to have a director experienced in that type of shooting, so Rogan and Rocchio hired John Douglas, a fixed-rig shooting expert.

Finally, the Channel 4 brass wanted the film to be relatively urban, so as to feature more diversity. Although Rocchio originally wanted to showcase a Vermont gun shop, like Parro’s in Waterbury where he goes regularly, he, Douglas and Rogan instead researched a number of other gun shops in more metropolitan areas across the country.

They didn’t want shops that were already politicized.

They settled on Freedom Firearms because the owners, who are brothers, already had a solid relationship with Douglas.

“They trusted John to go into the shop and make the show,” Rocchio said. “The brothers went back and forth on whether to do it,” but their relationship with Douglas cinched the deal.

After the film was shown for the first time on Channel 4, Rocchio was able to get a sense for how it was received.

The American attitude toward gun ownership was a shock to British sensibilities.

“They don’t get it,” Rocchio said. “The European reaction was very bewildered.”

The Observer, a British news source, described the film as “the week’s most terrifying documentary.”

The Telegraph called it “a terrific portrait of a paranoid society.”

Rocchio made the documentary in part to showcase the difference in attitude toward gun ownership between the United States and the rest of the world, and after a press conference with British journalists, he realized just how deep that ideological chasm runs.

“One question John got from a reporter was, ‘How did you find so many articulate people?’” Rocchio remembered.

That shocked him. It revealed an assumption that people who are interested in guns are inherently inarticulate.

“John had the perfect response. He said, ‘It was easy,’” Rocchio said.

Rocchio’s wife is originally from Manchester, England, and happened to be visiting family when “Gun Shop” aired.

“She saw it at home. My mother-in-law understands why I make films now, so that’s cool,” Rocchio said.

After it premiered on Channel 4, Rocchio and his crew went back to Battle Creek to show it to the Freedom Firearms community.

“It was great and intense,” Rocchio said. “I didn’t know how they were going to react. … They thought it was respectful and thoughtful.”

One man stood up and thanked the “Gun Shop” crew.

“He said, ‘Thank you. We get it’s complicated, and you let us have our say.’”

Although the film steers clear of judgments on gun ownership, Rocchio himself owns a .22-caliber rifle and his grandfather’s old .30-06 rifle. He doesn’t hunt, but says the experience of owning guns and occasionally target shooting is valuable to him.

The April 4 screening will be a joint fundraiser for Stowe Story Labs, a filmmaking lab that Rocchio runs, and the Helen Day Art Center. Rocchio is requesting $35 per person in donations to see it. There will be a reception at 7:30 p.m. at Stowe Cinema, followed by the screening at 8:30. After that, there might be a question-and-answer period with the rest of the crew, if they’re able to make it to Stowe.