“There Ought to Be A Law,” a documentary film in which local state Sen. Bill Diamond appears, will be shown in USM’s Luther Bonney Hall on the Portland campus at 7 p.m., Monday, Jan. 29. Admission is free and the public is invited.

Former State Senator Michael Brennan, now a policy associate with the Institute for Child and Family Policy in USM’s Muskie School of Public Service, will moderate a discussion with state legislators and activists following the hour-long film.

“There Ought to Be A Law” follows Cathy Crowley of Lewiston in the months after her 18-year-old son bought a shotgun at Wal-Mart and killed himself. Crowley felt compelled to talk to the salesperson who sold him the weapon. The Wal-Mart manager told her that the store was following the law and if she didn’t like it, she should try to change it.

So Crowley decided to do just that. She had no political experience, and had never even voted. But she sat at her kitchen table for 10 hours and wrote to every single lawmaker in the state legislative directory. Several lawmakers agreed to sponsor a bill that would require a waiting period before young people could buy guns.

Two years in the making, “There Ought to Be A Law” gives viewers a behind-the-scenes look at how the Maine Legislature operates, and how average people can get involved in the process. The film was co-produced by Anita Clearfield and Geoffrey Leighton of Durham and Shoshana Hoose of Portland.

For more information, please visit http://www.thereought2bealaw.com or call (207) 751-4848. This event is co-sponsored by USM’s Departments of Communication and Media Studies, Sociology, and the Women’s Studies Program.