Gun violence is the leading cause of death for children and young people in the United States. In 2023, there were over 46,000 deaths by firearm, more than half of which were suicides, as well as more than 36,000 life-altering injuries and over 600 mass shootings that traumatized communities across the country. These shootings took place against a backdrop of everyday gun violence that often goes unreported in the news.
While the 2025 statistics on gun violence indicate a return to pre-COVID levels, gun violence remains a ubiquitous and peculiar fact of American life. From elementary schools to universities, concert venues to bars, medical offices to businesses – even splash pads – mass shootings have destabilized our sense of safety and exacerbated our fears. And so little has been done.
OUR KNOTTED GUN, the first docuseries on gun violence, takes the mass shooting that occurred at Michigan State University on February 13, 2023 as its entry point for an exploration of this epidemic in all its complexity over a period of three years. It does so by documenting a range of responses by a diverse set of people who have decided that enough is enough.
The series follows regular people fighting for change in places like Michigan, Tennessee, Texas, Montana, New York, Nebraska and Washington D.C. in their own unique ways. Telling a character-driven story, OUR KNOTTED GUN is national in scope and is set within a global framework with a special emphasis on how immigrants have been affected by this American nightmare.
OUR KNOTTED GUN seeks to contribute to a fresh debate on gun violence and the intersecting factors that contribute to it, while providing examples of innovative local initiatives that are replicable across the country as they unfold in real time. These include novel legislation and state actions, but also grassroots activist campaigns, community violence intervention and prevention programs, as well as suicide prevention measures.
At the same time, the series documents obstacles to making more significant progress to end this public health crisis: powerful lobbies, perverse laws, political inertia, and a gun culture with deep roots in American history.
OUR KNOTTED GUN does not focus solely on a single event or dwell in the trauma of survivors. Rather, it exposes viewers to glimmers of hope amid the darkness, highlighting the power of art to help survivors process trauma and to mobilize people into taking action, in the spirit of “The Knotted Gun” sculpture, from which the series takes its title.
Seed funding for OUR KNOTTED GUN came from a MSU Humanities & Arts Research Program Large-Scale Development Grant, which has supported the first two years of production. See our SUPPORT page if you’re interested in contributing to the completion of this project. Production is set to end in the summer of 2026 with an anticipated release in 2027.
Meet the Filmmakers
Scott Boehm (Director & Executive Producer) is a Fulbright Scholar and Associate Professor of Spanish & Global Studies and Affiliated Faculty in the Film Studies Program at Michigan State University. He is also the Founder and Director of the MSU Latinx Film Festival.
Peter Johnston (Director of Photography & Executive Producer) is a Michigan EMMY-nominated filmmaker and an Academic Specialist and the Interim Director of MSU’s Film Studies Program. He is also the Co-Founder and Co-Director of the Filmetry, a Festival of Poetry and Film.
Together they have produced two short documentaries on immigration issues: WHAT HAPPENS TO A DREAM DEFERRED: A SHORT FILM ABOUT DACA (2018) & WALKING FOR DED: A SHORT FILM ABOUT SANCTUARY (2019).
Both films were official selections at a variety of film festivals, where they won numerous awards. WHAT HAPPENES TO A DREAM DEFERRED is distributed by Pragda – the world’s leading educational distributor of Spanish, Latin American & Latinx cinema – and it is available on PRAGDA STREAM.
Production Team
MICHIGAN: Ryan Frederick, Dan Hartley
NEW YORK: David Kener, Michael Candelori, Ayden Byrne, Boris Shirman
TENNESSEE: Sam Cross
TEXAS: Jeffry Brown, Alexander Walker