Quote

There's been an enormous awakening, and I think recognition that the mass shootings we saw in Sandy Hook and other places are very related to the shootings we see every day in our cities.

I think every parent was horrified at what happened in Newtown, Conn.

Moments of crisis, like the shooting in Newtown, tend to produce brief spikes of popular interest in gun control. My research on media attention suggests these spikes are extremely short-lived, and that they may be decreasing in intensity.

I made 'Bowling for Columbine' in the hope the school shootings would stop and that we would address the issue of how easy it is to get a gun in the United States, and tragically, those school shootings continue.

When I was a general assignment reporter early in my career, I was the one knocking on their door after a tragedy.

The last day of shooting, there were tears. It was this family that's grown together over the years. Many of us have worked on it since the beginning, so there's a sadness when we all go our separate ways.

I would like to think that as a result of not just my own experiences, but at least being empathetic and compassionate about other people's experiences and plights and tragedies, that I am affected by it and learn from it.

I think that we should take the tragedy that happened in Newtown and have a full comprehensive dialogue about all issues, whether it has to do with mental health, whether it has to do with the social decline of our young people and some of the things that they are exposed to, whether it has to do with the firearms and guns.

Oklahoma City, Katrina... those happened to other unfortunate people. But 9/11, that happened to us all. And that was pretty much the genesis of 'Reign Over Me.'

The assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. made me very, very sad, and I mourned and I cried like many of our citizens did.