Michael Moore's response to BFC critics

[El Blanco]

Holy crap. this man is so full of shit, where do I begin?

Look, I accept the fact that, if I go after the Thief-in-Chief – and more people buy my book than any other nonfiction book last year – then that is naturally going to send a few of his henchmen after me. Fine. That's okay. I knew that before I got into this and I ain't whining about it now.

No, if you portray yourself as some sort fair and honest champion of the little guy, and then release a "documentary" that has holes big enough to drive an 18 wheeler through, people will call you on it. Why is it your critics are just Republican henchmen?

I also realize that you just don't go after the NRA and its supporters and then not expect them to come back at you with both barrels (so to speak). These are not nice people and they don't play nice – that's how they got to be so powerful.

If you say some nasty things like you did in your movie, people have a right to speak up in their defense.

CNN saw no need to inform the viewers that their "expert"-- who has made a career out of opposing any form of gun control–has a vested interest in convincing the public that "Bowling for Columbine" is a horribly rotten movie.

Like how you have vested intrest in selling your garbage.

So, what do you do when the nutcases succeed in getting on CNN? Do you just keep ignoring them? How do you handle people who say the Holocaust never happened or that monkeys fly?

I see, so people who refute your claims with evidence are nutcases on par with Holocaust deniers?

he Truth: In the spring of 2001, I saw a real ad in a real newspaper in Michigan announcing a real promotion that this real bank had where they would give you a gun (as your up-front interest) for opening up a Certificate of Deposit account. They promoted this in publications all over the country – "More Bang for Your Buck!"

There was news coverage of this bank giving away guns, long before I even shot the scene there. The Chicago Sun Times wrote about how the bank would "hand you a gun" with the purchase of a CD. Those are the precise words used by a bank employee in the film.

When you see me going in to the bank and walking out with my new gun in "Bowling for Columbine" – that is exactly as it happened. Nothing was done out of the ordinary other than to phone ahead and ask permission to let me bring a camera in to film me opening up my account. I walked into that bank in northern Michigan for the first time ever on that day in June 2001, and, with cameras rolling, gave the bank teller $1,000 – and opened up a 20-year CD account. After you see me filling out the required federal forms ("How do you spell Caucasian?") – which I am filling out here for the first time – the bank manager faxed it to the bank's main office for them to do the background check. The bank is a licensed federal arms dealer and thus can have guns on the premises and do the instant background checks (the ATF's Federal Firearms database—which includes all federally approved gun dealers—lists North Country Bank with Federal Firearms License #4-38-153-01-5C-39922).

Within 10 minutes, the "OK" came through from the firearms background check agency and, 5 minutes later, just as you see it in the film, they handed me a Weatherby Mark V Magnum rifle (If you'd like to see the outtakes, click here).

Except, you are a resident of New York State, which requires you to wait 6 months to get approval (or so I've been told, I honestly am stioll researching this one). You are required by federal law to adhere to the gun laws of both NYS and Michigan. This means one of two things:

1) You actually set this up well in advance

2) You used your old Michigan ID to get this gun and that is a felony

And besides, just look at what happened to get that gun. Come in, hand over 1,000 for a 20 year CD! That is a long term investment. Your Federally mandated application was then faxed to them home office to be refernced with a federal government law enforcement agency's database. After that, the bank (which by your own admission is a federally liscenced and inspected gun dealership) secured you a weapon.

In your film, you portrayed it as if you just walked in, handed a couple bucks and were able to lock and load. See why people are a little bitchy?

And I never honestly understood what the whole rocket factory thing had to do with the Columbine shooting.

The Truth: Heston took his NRA show to Denver and did and said exactly what we recounted. From the end of my narration setting up Heston's speech in Denver, with my words, "a big pro-gun rally," every word out of Charlton Heston's mouth was uttered right there in Denver, just 10 days after the Columbine tragedy. But don't take my word – read the transcript of his whole speech. Heston devotes the entire speech to challenging the Denver mayor and mocking the mayor's pleas that the NRA "don't come here." Far from deliberately editing the film to make Heston look worse, I chose to leave most of this out and not make Heston look as evil as he actually was.

Oooo, sorry, tubby, got you in another one. You did edit the speech. Lets check out what the actual transcript says:

http://www.hardylaw.net/Bowlingtranscript.html

The webmaster even put yours next to it for comparison. Convenient, ain't it?

Well, guess what. Total number of lawsuits to date against me or my film by the NRA? NONE. That's right, zero. And don't forget for a second that if they could have shut this film down on a technicality they would have. But they didn't and they can't – because the film is factually solid and above reproach. In fact, we have not been sued by any individual or group over the statements made in "Bowling for Columbine?" Why is that? Because everything we say is true – and the things that are our opinion, we say so and leave it up to the viewer to decide if our point of view is correct or not for each of them.

Bullshit. you haven't faced litigation because you would just call the plaintiffs gun nuts and lunatics. Bullshit for Columbine would have sold 10x the copies and the NRA would have been in a public relations clusterfuck.

Of course, why not sue them if they are lying? Hell, you mention it in this little missive. Because you know the truth will come out and you will look like an even bigger asshole.

Or maybe I'll just keep laughing – laughing all the way to the end of the Bush Administration -- scheduled, I believe, for sometime in November of next year.

I think you should go to the "unhatched chickens" thread we've got here.

And somebody mind telling me how Moore is different from Coulter?