Several months ago Moonhowlings featured a post on Colin Goddard, a film maker who survived the Va Tech Massacre. His documentary, Living for 32, has received nationally acclaimed accolades and has been shown at Sundance Film Festival. It was nominated for an Oscar. Goddard has traveled all over the United States talking with groups about sensible gun restrictions.
Tomorrow, April 16, marks the 4th anniversary date of that horrible day at Virginia Tech, when 32 students and faculty lost their lives because of a lone, crazed gunman. It marks the day that Colin Goddard was shot 4 times as he sat in his French class. This past week, HBO featured the documentary, Gun fight which includes footage from Colin Goddard’s documentary. Gun Fight examines the many sides of the right to bear arms as well as its restrictions.
According to the Washington Post:
After Goddard became outspoken about gun control, he was enlisted as the subject of a 40-minute documentary called “Living for 32,” about the 32 victims of Cho’s rampage. But at the time of the Virginia Tech shootings in 2007, accomplished documentary filmmaker Barbara Kopple already was focusing on the issue of guns in America. Goddard is now at the center of that 90-minute film, “Gun Fight,” which premieres Wednesday night on HBO, three days before the fourth anniversary of the Tech shootings.
Gun Fight fight is available on-demand as of Thursday.
Living for 32 as a stand alone film is not yet available for individual purchase. Living for 32 can be seen April 19 in at UVA in Charlottesville at Newcombe Hall at 7 pm. The event requires an rsvp.
Goddard continues to fight for sensible gun regulations. He travels the nation with his film, Living for 32. He joined the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence and coordinates efforts with that organization. He did return to Tech to get his degree. Follow Colin as he recounts his survival of a massacre, goes to gun shows to illustrate how laxgun laws are, and lives still with a bullet in him. And the debate rages on. There are no simple answers, regardless of our opinions or what we think we know.
All of us know of a student who went away to school only to get into serious trouble with alcohol. Some of them don’t come home, at least not in a way that is desirable. Some kids get away from home for the first time and end up dead in alcohol related accidents on the road. Other kids simply die of alcohol poisoning. Still others die from aspiration in their sleep when they are simply too drunk to react involuntarily. Some kids are fortunate enough to just have to spend the evening toilet hugging with a killer hang over the next day.