Imagine a country where, instead of common-sense gun laws and restrictions on high-powered weapons like AR-15s, a billion-dollar industry runs mass-casualty drills in schools where students put on fake blood and bullet wounds and act out an active shooter scenario. This sounds like something from a dystopian futuristic novel, right? But as Zackary Canepari and Jessica Dimmock’s documentary Thoughts & Prayers: How to Survive an Active Shooter in America points out, this is America now.
If the rage I felt watching this as a non-parent with nephews in school is any indication, I can’t imagine parents watching this and not being absolutely enraged, especially those with kids who must participate in these active shooter drills. The opening immediately sets the tone for the ridiculousness of some of the items marketed for school shootings, like a robot dog that would go in to cause a distraction and a bulletproof blanket that elementary school kids are supposed to hold up. The statistics throughout are equally disturbing, including the fact that 95% of American schools now have lockdown drills and that they start as early as kindergarten.
I hate to be an “in my day” kind of guy, but growing up in the 1980s and ’90s, I never experienced a lockdown drill. I had read and heard about them before seeing Thoughts & Prayers, but I had no idea active shooter preparedness had reached this level in American schools. The film makes clear just how normalized these exercises have become, even as school shootings continue to shape the lives of students and educators.
The documentary also places these drills within the larger reality of gun violence in American schools. The Washington Post reported in an updated 2025 article that there have been hundreds of school shootings since Columbine and that hundreds of thousands of students have experienced gun violence at school. Rather than dwelling on statistics alone, however, Canepari and Dimmock focus on what this reality has produced: an enormous industry devoted to preparing schools, teachers, and children for the possibility of another attack.
That industry becomes one of the film’s most disturbing subjects. Teachers are taught to act as first responders, shoot guns, barricade classrooms, and react during a school shooting, while companies market increasingly elaborate equipment and training programs. One of the central questions raised by the documentary is difficult to ignore: if these products and procedures work, why does the death rate keep climbing?
Canepari and Dimmock use biting montages and juxtapose politicians from both parties while frequently allowing their subjects to speak for themselves. Utah State Representative Rob Bishop, for example, says, “Actually more people are killed by knives than they are by guns.” Rather than stopping to argue with statements like this, the filmmakers often simply leave them hanging, allowing viewers to consider what is being said and how it fits into the larger conversation.
When one trainer says, “I’m an upbeat guy, so as much as we’re talking about horrible topics, we’re going to have as much fun as we can,” the camera catches the looks on a couple of faces that suggest they may be questioning the entire exercise. Just the fact that a self-defense teacher has the name Thrasher is too darkly comedic to seem real. When one of the filmmakers asks Thrasher, “With the increase in mass shootings, do you think any of that is related to guns?” he answers, “Absolutely not,” instead pointing to family structures, the loss of community, and narcissism. His response is frustrating, but Canepari and Dimmock don’t need to argue with him. They let the exchange play out and allow viewers to draw their own conclusions.
What’s brilliant about this documentary is how the filmmakers let the students say the things that the adults should be saying but fail to. “It’s insane that we’re having to learn this at this age just because there’s a probable chance it could happen,” student Kannon says. His sister Quinn says, “I don’t think a lot of adults care about our opinions,” arguing that some people care more about their right to own a gun than the possibility of getting shot in a classroom. The students can see the obvious problem that the adults fail to correct, and it’s so disheartening.
The film also raises a larger question about why the United States has responded to repeated school shootings so differently from other countries. Rather than turning this into an exhaustive comparison of international gun policy, Thoughts & Prayers keeps returning to the consequences of America’s approach: children practicing how to survive shootings, teachers being trained to respond to gunfire, and businesses profiting from products and services designed around that fear.
Thoughts & Prayers premiered at DOC NYC and is a must-see documentary about the normalization of active shooter preparedness in American schools and the political choices surrounding it. Canepari and Dimmock clearly have a point of view, but some of the film’s most effective moments come when they simply turn the camera on students, teachers, trainers, politicians, and business owners and let them reveal the contradictions for themselves. When “thoughts and prayers” are all politicians can offer whenever there is a school shooting, the documentary asks what more Americans should be demanding. Highly Recommended.
How can Thoughts & Prayers be used in high school and college courses?
In high school, Thoughts & Prayers could be screened in Civics, U.S. Government, AP U.S. Government and Politics, and contemporary social issues courses. Due to the difficult themes and sometimes gruesome imagery of realistic-looking blood and bullet wounds used during active shooter training, it may be best suited to older high school students.
For college students, Thoughts & Prayers would be useful in courses such as American Government, Political Science, Political Economy, Public Policy, Sociology, Education, and Criminal Justice. The documentary offers material for discussing gun legislation, school safety, public spending, political messaging, and the growth of private industries in response to public crises.
Post-screening writing assignments could focus on questions such as:
Is the multibillion-dollar active shooter defense and security industry necessary and ethical?
What gun legislation has been proposed in response to school shootings, and what arguments have been made for and against it?
How have other countries responded legislatively to mass shootings, and what have the results been?
How do debates over gun legislation intersect with interpretations of the Second Amendment?
What responsibilities should schools, lawmakers, law enforcement, families, and communities have when addressing school shootings?
An additional assignment could ask students to research proposed legislation in their own state or community and compare different approaches to reducing gun violence and protecting students.
How can libraries use Thoughts & Prayers for community discussions about school safety and gun violence?
Public and academic libraries could use Thoughts & Prayers as the centerpiece of a moderated discussion about school safety, active shooter preparedness, gun policy, and the experiences of students and educators. Because the documentary deals with an emotionally charged and politically divisive subject, libraries planning a screening should consider providing context, content warnings, and a structured discussion afterward rather than presenting the film without an opportunity for patrons to process what they have seen.
The documentary could be particularly relevant alongside programming on civic engagement, public policy, education, or community safety. A panel involving educators, researchers, school safety professionals, students, or local policymakers could help viewers examine the questions raised by the film from multiple perspectives. Regardless of when it is screened, Thoughts & Prayers gives libraries an opportunity to facilitate a difficult but important conversation about what Americans ask children and teachers to do in response to the threat of school shootings.
Thoughts & Prayers Trailer
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