On the other hand, guns kill people every day, yet we keep protecting the rights of gun owners and fight to prevent even something a simple as registration. Moore acts as a person trying to provoke a response on several occasions, returning to Columbine High School several times, even showing horrifying images and footage from the massacre that took place there. This is argument by shock, but it can be effective. For that matter, it is in keeping with the nature of the issue under discussion, which can hardly be discussed without showing some of the effects of unrestricted gun availability and use.

Moore is more directly provocative with some of his theatrical gestures, like buying a map to the homes of the movie stars so he can find where Charlton Heston, then head of the National Rifle Association, and go to his house to ring the bell. This sort of act generates more heat then light, but...

He cannot say that there is only one institution that is responsible, and he shows this again and again as he finds a bank that is also a licensed gun dealership, looks at the militia and its gun culture, challenges the National Rifle Association, and challenges television on what sort of programming it has. All of these may be resposnble, but in effect, m this also menas tha we are all responsible. Moore finds this to be true and that we are not living up to our responsibility, and he does so by placing himself in the middle of the film as the one investigating and learning the truth.