The Failure of Inaction

Photo Credit: Zach Cregger. 2025. Weapons [Film]. Warner Bros. Pictures.

Warning: there will be spoilers regarding the movie “Weapons”

17 elementary school children went missing from their homes at 2:17 a.m. All from the same first-grade class, gone, except for one. 

“Weapons” stirred confusion amongst many critics and viewers regarding what this movie represented. From the use of witchcraft to a scene of a giant CGI AK-47 floating in the sky. What was the message? 

After viewing the movie myself, there was one major point I think “Weapons” discussed and alluded to. Gun violence. 

H.R. 1808 is a 2022 bill to ban the use, manufacturment and possession of semiautomic weaponry and large capacity ammunition feeding devices (LCFD) as stated in the official congress website. This bill passed the House with a 217-213 vote that allowed it to be sent to the Senate. This bill, however, did not make it past the Senate. 

217 voted in favor to pass it to the Senate, where the bill would die. 

217 is a number soaked in the blood of innocents. 

2:17 a.m.—all but one student went missing in the same elementary class. 

A grieving father dreams of a floating AK-47 with the time 2:17 stamped onto it, floating above the house his missing son resided in.

This felt like blatant criticism of the United States’ approach to gun violence. 

The United States reported and documented around 226 school shootings in 2025 so far, while nearly 400 mass shootings have been reported and documented in 2025. 

“Weapons” is a story of public grief, pain and anger in the wake of school shootings and a system that upholds and defends senseless death for personal gain. Let’s break down the different components of the story. 

Aunt Gladys:

Photo Credit: Zach Cregger. 2025. Weapons [Film]. Warner Bros. Pictures.

Aunt Gladys is the witch antagonist that steals children and drains them of their life force to save herself from her own terminal illness. She turned the children into mindless robots. They don’t speak, can’t eat on their own and exist as the living dead in a basement awaiting her instructions. 

Aunt Gladys arguably can be a symbol of many things, but I see her as the American system itself. A decaying body hidden under an extravagant design, convincing and full of life. The full-of-life personality she has taken from the children she had stolen from their families. 

The business of school shootings is a booming one. Drones, trauma kits, door barricades and metal detectors all make up the new niche industry of school protection surveillance that makes the United States billions of dollars. 

Additionally, firearm and ammunition production in the United States was responsible for around 91.65 billion dollars in economic activity in just 2024 alone. On the same topic, firearm and ammunition production paid nearly 11 billion dollars in taxes in 2024. 

When crunching numbers, it is obvious that when faced with the debate of children’s lives versus protecting firearms, one makes the United States more money than the other. 

The Second Amendment provides the Constitutional right to bear arms and the government remains firm on the interpretation that it includes the use and ownership of semiautomatic rifles and LCFD’s. But the amount of money these weapons make in the U.S. bars attempts to add checks and balances to the ownership and handling of semiautomatic weaponry, while still respecting the Second Amendment. Therefore putting children in harm's way for more money in the government's pockets. 

Aunt Gladys represents the system trading the well-being of children in the United States for financial gain for the elites in politics and the manufacturers that sell these weapons in and out of the country. 

Aunt Gladys takes over, residing in her sister’s house and controlling her family. Alex, her nephew, and the only child remaining in the elementary class, exhibits enough odd behavior to warrant the principal to comment and attempt to contact his parents. The principal was worried, but Aunt Gladys was able to charm and talk the principal out of most of his concerns. 

No other adult filed a complaint, no wellness checks were on the family and Alex was left in the house with Gladys. 

After the tragedy, Alex was placed into a different class and left to his own devices. No extra care was provided to him for support after such a traumatic event, Aunt Gladys was not checked and no house calls were performed once the school learned Alex’s parents were “ill” and “indisposed”. 

She is the failing system that brushes past tragedy and children in need, thriving in the trauma that fills their pockets. 

Many are familiar with the phrase “thoughts and prayers” regarding both survivors and victims of gun violence. Public schools can only provide so much support to students. The government, rather than implement that extra care, uses the dismissive “thoughts and prayers” to distance themselves from the problem. This only leaves children helpless and struggling to cope, perpetuating a cycle of forgotten kids in the United States. 

Justine: 

Photo Credit: Zach Cregger. 2025. Weapons [Film]. Warner Bros. Pictures.

On the topic of dismissive behavior, Justine as a character represents the blame shift and implementation of unfair responsibilities to avoid discussing the root of the problem. 

Semiautomatics can’t be regulated, so train teachers to be EMTs. 

Is there a demand to protect children in schools? Demand teachers to accept becoming martyrs as part of their job. 

What really committed gun violence? The gun or the person? 

What can teachers do to protect children from a school shooting? 

You want your kid to be safe in school? Avoid light-up sneakers, sequence outfits and bright colored clothes so they blend in better in the dark.  

Who’s really to blame: The school's surveillance or the teenager with access to a semiautomatic weapon? 

But if the teachers followed the active shooter protocol as intended, the survival rate could have been higher. 

Justine, the teacher who only wants to do right by each and every one of her students, is cast out of the community and blamed for the children being missing from her class. She is ridiculed, belittled, threatened, harassed and stalked. 

She is just a teacher, not a detective, not a cop and not an all-knowing god with all the answers. A teacher who worries and cares for her students lives more than anyone else (besides the parents) in their community. 

When people blame shift and demand the impossible out of the wrong people, the topic of gun violence continues to be shelved until the next mass shooting occurs. It is a vicious cycle of finger-pointing inaction that is done on purpose. 

If no one knows who to blame, then the government doesn’t need to intervene besides saying heartfelt “thoughts and prayers” into a camera lens.  

Other Details: 

Officer Paul, a man quick to explode into violent outbursts and run into problems headfirst, is slow to provide insight and aid into the investigation of the missing children. 

I couldn’t help but find similarities between the police department in “Weapons” and how the police handled the Uvalde shooting in Texas, specifically the 77 minutes it took for the officers to confront the shooter. 

The missing children used as weapons hold meaning. It is no secret that the topic of gun control, gun violence and school shootings are used as political bargaining chips for elections, bill approval and political party mobilization. Children’s lives are used as tools to gain votes, popularity and used as tools against political opponents.

“Weapons” uses reality to create one of the most thought-provoking and subliminally horrifying movies of 2025. It forced the viewers to stop and think about the real terrifying moments in our society and the failing system that protects the massacre of children. 

It reminds us that the true horror is the atrocities the United States government refuses to handle in favor of the financial and political gain it provides them.