User Reviews

This is an episodic film about the lives of four groups of young people whose lives are adversely affected (to the point of death or crippling injury) by handgun misuse. Featuring many well-known young television stars, it is mercifully free of preachy anti-gun propaganda and instead presents sensible alternatives to using handguns as a "quick fix" for crises which might be resolved in other ways (for example, through a talk with a suicide prevention counsellor or by a dispute negotiation). The stories first show what happens when a handgun is used (always with a tragic outcome), and then how the tragedy might be averted by not resorting to a gun when the characters are allowed "a second chance" to relive the moments leading up to their decisions to "take arms against a sea of troubles." Cold statistics about gun accidents and crimes presented by host Malcolm Jamal Warner seem intended to make young people THINK CAREFULLY about potential gun use, and aren't used as an all-encompassing bludgeon; in the second take of the suicide story, for example, the sad fact that most gunshot victims are hit by "friendly fire" is illustrated by "Eddie" not being able to simply walk into his parent's room and open an unlocked drawer to take out a loaded, unsecured gun; this saves the boy's life by causing him just a few minutes delay to think about what he needs to do -- he decides to call a friend to get a gun since he can't find his parent's pistol, and he is able to be talked safely through his suicidal crisis. The show's emphasis that in real life THERE ARE NO SECOND CHANCES makes this a powerful tool for gun safety education. Guns aren't an evil bug-a-boo in "Kids Killing Kids" -- their foolish misuse IS.

This was the final CBS Schoolbreak special I would work on. I had worked on my first in 1987 and had learned the genre well by this time. David Eagle was a great producer and this was my fourth project with him. It also gave me the chance to work with producer Arnold (Rescue 911) Shapiro.

The concept was simple but effective. Four kids with four stories. We took the four areas kids commonly get in trouble with guns and told each story twice, once where a gun was used and once where the teen chose not to use a gun. It was an exciting idea and I'm proud of the resulting film.

We filmed this on Super 16 in LA in the fall of 1993 with a tight budget. Despite the serious subject we all had a wonderful time making this ambitious project.

The reward for our hard work was having the project bumped up to prime time and shown on both CBS and Fox simultaneously. We were later nominated for a Prime Time Emmy and I was very excited when we won in September, 1994.

I had already moved to Nashville, Tennessee to pursue a song writing career when the awards were held in Pasadena so the win was a wonderful close to my "Hollywood" days. I'll never forget standing with my fellow producers on stage and unable to form a cohesive sentence!

But this project is not about me or our Emmy Award. I hope that somewhere at least one kid saw our film and changed his or her mind about using a gun. I may never know but just the thought makes me smile every time I think about the days we all worked so hard on this film.

Michael Killen