Katie Couric on How She Hopes to Reignite the Gun Debate

A few weeks ago I had the privilege of moderating a panel with Katie Couric (watch above!), who's the executive producer behind "Under the Gun," a new documentary for Epix that dives deep into the struggle for sensible gun regulations. I wrote about it for Indiewire:

It may not be possible anymore to conduct civil discourse with Americans on guns. But Katie Couric hopes to change that.



The former "CBS Evening News" and "Today" anchor, now Yahoo's global news anchor, is behind the Epix documentary "Under the Gun," which aims at combating misconceptions about responsible gun ownership and background checks.

The film, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and has its TV debut on Sunday, comes during a presidential election season in which gun control hasn't been a major campaign issue — at least, not yet. "I've interviewed a number of the candidates, all 27,000 of them initially. The gun debate wasn't a part of the conversation," Couric told us recently, on stage at a panel discussion for "Under the Gun." "We've seen Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders talk about it, which is a welcome thing, it has its place in the conversation. It will be very interesting to see what will happen in the presidential debates. Each candidate will have to put their view on the line out there."

Couric and "Under the Gun" filmmaker Stephanie Soechtig previously collaborated on the 2014 documentary "Fed Up," about childhood obesity. Soechtig grew up near Newtown, Conn., the site of the 2012 shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School, which inspired them to make "Under the Gun."

"I said to Stephanie, 'I just don't understand the disconnect: 90 percent of people in this country support background checks and yet when it comes to the federal level, nothing is getting done,'" Couric said. "What is happening here? Usually the question 'why' leads me on these journeys. That's how we started doing this film."

Read more here.

Remembering KNBC's 1987 Gunman Incident

You probably saw the news reports yesterday of Charlotte, N.C. TV station WSOC, which was forced off the air after a woman with a gun entered the station.

The headlines reminded me of this famous 1987 incident at KNBC-TV. Live, on the air, viewers watched as a man suddenly walked on set and pointed a gun at consumer reporter David Horowitz.

The man, who turned out to be carrying a pellet gun, forced Horowitz to read a statement. (KNBC had actually pulled the signal at that point, but the anchors in the studio pretended to still be on the air.) When it was done, the man put down his gun -- and anchor John Beard quickly took it.

It later turned out that the gunman was the son of a former KNBC reporter, and had suffered from mental problems.

An Unusual Tale of Gunshots in Griffith Park

(Flickr pic by Clinton Steeds.)

Our friend Jamile sent us this dispatch from her friend, Mary, who encountered quite a scare in Griffith Park last week. Here's her tale, via her MySpace account, of seeing and hearing gunshots, IN the park:

today's shoot out in Griffith Park..just thought I would share a blurb from life today...

robot and I are resuming our regular hiking schedule (which has been on hiatus during the winter/illness months..)

Robot, the ever-punctual one, was waiting for me at our usual meeting spot; the upper merry-go-round parking lot at Griffith Park. He had a few minutes, so he relaxed in his car, listened to Neko Case, and had a bite or two of his power bar. Suddenly, he heard several pops, like firecrackers.

He turned the music off, looked out his window for the little hoodlums he thought must be lighting off firecrackers. Instead, he saw 6 men with guns, 1 van, 2 cars. The two cars were blocking his exit from the park. The 6 men were firing at each other, and were ducking and hiding behind cars!! Robot hit the floor of his car! He peeked out to see what was going on...one of the men saw him.

He thought for sure that he would come kill him (he would be a witness). The firing at each other continued. He frantically began thinking of many things; me driving into the line of fire, his possible escape route, his imminent death, etc. He reached for his cell and called the Ranger station to report the shoot out. The Ranger was alarmed and wanted to know his location. They put him on hold while they checked things out. The Ranger returned to the phone and informed him that it was "just an LAPD training maneuver."

At that point, Robot looked out again and saw that the combatants were done trying to kill each other and were now hanging out, socializing! He, of course, was foaming at the mouth with his adrenalin at its zenith. He was the only civilian in the parking lot when all this went down. He was then approached by some vehicle marked "police" (fake like in the movies). He asked them what the hell they were doing...(having a gun battle in a public place). They denied being part of the division that planned this training session and took off.

This is about when I arrived. It was amazing...Out of the lower lot (near the bathrooms and playground which WAS filled with children playing) came a procession of governmentt vehicles: 2 Suburbans filled with SWAT officers in full garb still poised with their weapons and about 7 unmarked police cars crammed with cops in plain clothes.

They all pulled up and lined up behind Robot's car (they must have gotten calls that there was an unnotified and frantic civilian caught up in the middle of their shenanigans and wanted to get a look at him). They pulled up, stopped, stared at both of us for several minutes, and then drove away to convene about 100 yards away. They watched us for a while, gathered their buddies, then they took off.

Oh, and we saw a scary, slithery, slimy rattlesnake 10 minutes into our hike up the hill. That's when I began to foam at the mouth. But we survivied all the drama.

Yikes... have any of you encountered something like this before? Sounds like Mary and Robot still deserve an explanation...