((PKG))  GUN OWNER   
((TRT:  09:27))
((Banner:  Americans and Guns:  Differing Perspectives))   
((Banner:  A Way of Life))   
((Reporter/Camera:  Deepak Dobhal))
((Map:  Minerva, Ohio;  Washington DC))    
((Main characters:  1 male))  
((Sub characters:  2 male))  
((NATS))  
((Michael Kreitzer, Juvenile Corrections Officer)) 
You never know when at any second something might 
happen that you might need it.  That's the point.  It's not that 
you think it's going to.  It's that you recognize the possibility 
that it can.  You recognize the possibility that there are evil 
people in the world who do evil things and you have to be 
able to protect yourself against that. 
((NATS)) 
((Michael Kreitzer, Juvenile Corrections Officer)) 
I think I'm an average gun owner because, I mean, I'm an 
average guy.  I mean, there's nothing really special about 
me.
((NATS)) 
((Michael Kreitzer, Juvenile Corrections Officer)) 
From an early age, dad would go out hunting, I went with 
him.  You know, I was always in the woods with him shooting 
and you know, at the range shooting, and, you know, 
that's just, it was a way of life.  
((NATS)) 
((Michael Kreitzer, Juvenile Corrections Officer)) 
We're going to the Minerva Sportsman's Club, a local range 
that I'm a member of. 
((NATS)) 
((Michael Kreitzer, Juvenile Corrections Officer)) 
This is my AR-15 pistol, Hungarian AK-47, Marlin Model 60-
22 rifle, Heritage Rough Rider, the U.S. made rifle that's kind 
of a cross between an AK-47 and an AR-15, Spanish police 
pistol, SKS rifle, little Taurus TX-22, Ruger Mini-14. 
((NATS)) 
((Michael Kreitzer, Juvenile Corrections Officer)) 
I own more than a dozen firearms and less than I want. 
Well, for several different reasons.  Like any other tool, 
specific firearms are for specific purposes.  I have rifles that 
are just simply, strictly for accuracy to try to put holes in a 
piece of paper far away.  I have firearms for hunting.  The 
majority of my firearms though are for defensive purposes. 
((NATS))  
((Michael Kreitzer, Juvenile Corrections Officer)) 
Over a period of years, that's what most people do.  They 
get one here, then they get one there, then they get another 
one.  Sometimes they tell their wife, sometimes they 
don't.  Sometimes they just, ‘Oh no, I've had that one for a 
while.  Yeah, don't you remember I bought that back then?’
((NATS:  Michael Kreitzer)) 
That's right. 
((Michael Kreitzer, Juvenile Corrections Officer)) 
So, this is Jason Spoon.  He's a friend of mine and a 
firearms instructor.  His family runs the local gun shop here 
in town. 
((NATS:  Michael Kreitzer and Jason Spoon)) 
What’d you bring with us today? 
Ah, I brought a duty pistol and a Henry Golden Boy. 
Nice.  Classic.  
Yeah, I think between all of us, we have some pretty good 
representations of what kind of stuff people own around 
here.   
Yeah.   
Alright, let's go get some targets.
((NATS)) 
((Michael Kreitzer, Juvenile Corrections Officer))
It's wonderful if you're a duck.  It's a horrible downpour 
but, you know, I don't really mind shooting at it once in a 
while because you can't always pick when you might have to 
shoot. 
((NATS)) 
((Michael Kreitzer, Juvenile Corrections Officer))
I practice shooting with my firearms at least once a week.  I 
try to get to the range as much as I can.  Shooting is a 
perishable skill.  If you don't practice, you lose 
proficiency.  Given that I carry a firearm with me everywhere 
that I'm lawfully able, I feel it's incumbent upon me as a 
responsible person to be proficient with that firearm 
because any time that you press the trigger, you're 
responsible for what happens. 
((NATS)) 
((Michael Kreitzer, Juvenile Corrections Officer))
I think that the vast majority of gun owners are responsible 
people.  If the 350 million firearms that are out there were 
the problem and if the 150 million gun owners were not 
responsible, those hundreds of millions of weapons would be 
put to use far more than the ones that are already misused.
((NATS))
((Nathan Sphon, Co-Owner, Sphons CCW and Armory))
Maybe it's a little different in the big cities where if you need 
help, help might be closer away.  Here, we have massive 
response times.  If you need help, it's on you to provide that 
help for your friends or family.  The police, you know, they're 
15 minutes away because they're covering an entire county. 
((Jason Sphon, Firearms Instructor))
We grew up, if the car broke, you fixed it.  If the electric is 
out, you fixed it.  If the power company quit, you had a wood 
stove.  I mean, all of this stuff and a gun was just, it was just 
a last tool in a whole line of tools that you used.  Right?  And 
it's rooted in self-sufficiency.
((NATS)) 
((Michael Kreitzer, Juvenile Corrections Officer)) 
They demonize the tool.  It's not the tool that kills, it's the 
person.
((NATS)) 
((Michael Kreitzer, Juvenile Corrections Officer)) 
When I hear about these atrocities that happen, when the 
mass shootings, you know, Parkland, Dayton, El Paso, and I 
hear the backlash from the media and from politicians, 
saying that if we had less guns, if people didn't have guns, 
they wouldn't be able to do things like this, I have to answer 
that the opposite is true. 
((NATS)) 
((Michael Kreitzer, Juvenile Corrections Officer))
While it's not a guarantee that the good guy will stop the bad 
guy, I can tell you one thing.  There's a lot better chance of 
stopping that from happening if he's there than if he isn't. 
((NATS)) 
((Michael Kreitzer, Juvenile Corrections Officer))
People who want to curtail our Second Amendment rights [to 
bear arms] have wasted no opportunity to exploit any 
tragedy or atrocity that happens.  I see no reason to believe 
that that strategy wouldn't continue.
((NATS)) 
((Michael Kreitzer, Juvenile Corrections Officer))
I'm going to Washington DC this weekend because I want to 
have my voice heard.  And I want to have my voice heard, 
not just for myself but for my kids, for my grandkids.
((Locator:  Washington, DC)) 
((NATS))
.....the Republic for which it stands, one Nation under God, 
indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.  Amen.
((NATS)) 
((Michael Kreitzer, Juvenile Corrections Officer))
We're all coming here to let the politicians that work in that 
building up there, let them understand our rights aren't 
negotiable.  They're not for sale.  They’re not to be traded 
away for political advantage. They're ours and we intend to 
keep them.
((NATS)) 
Guns are the teeth of liberty that protect our rights and keep 
men and women free from tyranny and oppression.  
Yes! 
If we allow them that are against us to undermine the 
Second Amendment, our entire Republic is for nothing.   
((NATS)) 
((Michael Kreitzer, Juvenile Corrections Officer))
I believe that, you know, we're not at the point in history 
where we would have to rise up in armed rebellion against 
our government.  We're not there.  Our government is not 
a tyranny.  Because right now we don't have tyranny, doesn't 
mean that it can't transform into tyranny easily.  That's why I 
think it's still important for us to maintain our Second 
Amendment rights as a guarantee against our government.
((NATS)) 
((Michael Kreitzer, Juvenile Corrections Officer))
I think what people don't understand about most average, 
everyday gun owners is that we're just that.  We're average 
every day.  We are doctors.  We are lawyers.  We are 
judges.  We are magistrates.  We are firefighters, cops, 
factory workers, mechanics.  We are people.  We are not the 
paranoid gun nut.  ‘Government ain't going to come 
take my guns.’  That, I mean, that's not us.  Now granted, 
there are always examples of that sort of thing, just as there 
are examples on the other side of the, you know, hold 
hands, Kumbaya, hippy-dippy liberal types.  But that's not 
everybody.  We're just people.  We want to be left 
alone.  We don't want to be held responsible for the crimes 
of someone else.  We want to live our lives and as long as 
we don't harm anybody, we should be left alone.
((NATS))
…..our Republic, our Constitution and our Second Amendment. 
((MUSIC)) 
((Banner)) 
Next time on  
Americans and Guns 
((SOT)) 
Here’s a picture from our wedding.  He died the week before our 
10th anniversary.  Guns are a totally different type of a tool when it 
comes to suicide because they are so much more lethal.   
((NATS)) 
My husband Scott Spoor was 43. 
((SOT)) 
This isn’t just about my family.  22,000 Americans die every year 
of gun suicide including 1,000 children.   
((MUSIC))