Families of people killed in the Aurora movie theater while watching a Batman movie in 2012 wrote a letter to Warner Brothers, expressing concern about violence in the new Joker movie and urging the studio to join the action against gun violence.
Among them was 24-year-old Jessica Gavin, whose mother Sandy Phillips told the BBC that she was ‘horrified’ by the Joker trailer.
Sandy Phillips and her husband Lonnie, who leads the anti-violence group, wrote a letter to the movie company along with three other Americans whose relatives were killed, wounded, or taken hostage at the Aurora Cinema seven years ago.
Speaking to BBC News, Mrs Phillips said: “When I first saw the trailers of the movie, I was absolutely horrified. And then when I dug a little deeper and found out that it had such unnecessary violence in the movie, it just chilled me to my bones. It just makes me angry that a major motion picture company isn't taking responsibility and doesn't have the concern of the public at all.”
The authors of the letter called on the film studio and the team of creators of the Joker to join their campaign to ban the free sale of assault weapons in the US. The letter also asked the studio to lobby for arms trafficking reform, to financially help survivors of the cinema massacre, and to stop supporting candidates who borrow money from the National Rifle Association, the powerful arms lobby in America.
Warner Brothers said in response that the film starring Joaquin Phoenix is not a reflection of violence in the real world, and the studio is helping the victims of mass shootings with money.
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