Featuring interviews with Representative Lucy McBath (D-GA) and Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT); NRA Board Member and former NRA President David Keene, and activists on all sides of the issue – X González (March for Our Lives), Igor Volsky (Guns Down America) and Rob Pincus (Save the Second) – The Price of Freedom promises to expose the hidden past of the American gun debate and reveal how through political and cultural influence, the National Rifle Association (NRA) changed the course of history.
The film directed by Emmy Award-winning filmmaker Judd Ehrlich will hold its World Premiere at the 2021 Tribeca Festival on June 16, and Abramorama will release it in theaters nationwide on July 7.
Emmy Award-winning director Judd Ehrlich of Flatbush Pictures said, “Peeling back layers and revealing the ways in which the NRA has seized the conversation around guns in America was both revelatory and disturbing. While the influence of the NRA is widely discussed, the roots and ramifications of its power are more consequential than we imagine. By unpacking how we got here, my hope is that this film will bring new perspectives to the conversation around preventing gun violence in this country.”
The United States is a nation mired in a gun culture that was built in part by the NRA and its belief that guns are a symbol of a distinctly American way of life built on individualism, self-reliance, and personal freedom. Originally born out of a desire to protect the rights of responsible American gun owners, but more recently driven by self-interest, money and power, the NRA has changed its story over the last several decades and led Americans to believe the debate boils down to extremes. Guns or no guns. Personal freedom or government control. To help proliferate its narrative and stand in the way of progress on common-sense gun reform, the NRA has deployed millions of dollars to fund politicians who are committed to upholding the agenda of the gun lobby, rather than the interests and safety of their own constituents.
The film explores how the NRA narrative intersects with the facts – that people in the U.S. are 25 times more likely to die by gun violence than in any other developed nation in the world; and that stronger, universal background check policies are widely supported on a bipartisan basis by 88 percent of voters and 85 percent of gun owners.
The Price of Freedom offers the perspective of those inside the NRA and their views on the need to protect the Second Amendment, while also illustrating the organization’s evolution from a group focused on ensuring gun safety and the rights of responsible gun owners to the current organization, which seems to do more to explain away gun violence than it does to try and save lives.