Bowling_for_Columbine

BOWLING FOR COLUMBINE The 2002 documentary, ‘Bowling for Columbine’ by Mike Moore is one of the most controversial films of the past few years and has won numerous awards. The film explored many possible reasons as to why there are such alarming numbers of gun related deaths in the United States. Mike Moore looks into the nature of violence; through America’s brutally violent history. America’s culture of fear is also raised as a reason, as is the easy accessibility of guns in the U.S. America’s violent history is believed to be related to the high number of gun deaths in the U.S. America has always been involved in many wars and violence has become commonplace in America. The violence dates back to when America was first founded; it all began when the Pilgrims arrived, they invaded the land and slaughtered the native Indian occupants at the time. After the massacre, they enslaved Africans to slave away for them, with nothing in return. Eventually, the slaves rebelled and then out of fear; the white people invented a smarter gun and legalized it only for white people. Ever since then, the United States has constantly been involved in some type of war or ‘defense’.1954; US overthrows democratically – elected President Arbenz of Guatemala where 200,000 civilians died. 1963 – 75; American military kills 4 million people in Southeast Asia. 1982; US provides billions to Saddam Hussein for weapons to kill Iranians. 1991 to present; Americans bomb Iraq on a weekly basis with an estimated 500,000 children dead from bombing and sanctions. Then on April 20, 1999 during the Kosovo war, Bill Clinton says; “We’re striking hard at Serbian machinery of repression and we are making a deliberate effort to minimize harm to innocent people.” After saying that, that day turned out to be the largest one-day bombing by the U.S. Then approximately 2 hours later, the Columbine massacre took place where many innocent kids died. From when the gun was first invented, Americans used it for everything, becoming almost like a way of life. Mike Moore makes us think that Americans violent history has resulted in the high number of gun related deaths. But the U.S isn’t the only country with a violent past; countries like Germany, Britain, France and Japan are just as bad. So why are there so many gun deaths' The American culture of fear is everywhere; there is an irrelevant fear of the unknown and the belief that people should have to know how to defend themselves in the face of danger. Nearly every American locks their doors, is afraid of their neighbor and owns at least one gun. In 2001 statistics showed that 11,127 Americans died every year from guns. Now in Canada, there was only 1 death by gun reported in the past three years from 2001. After learning this; you’d automatically think that Canada mustn’t have the things that America does and that these two countries are very different. Mike Moore investigates by going to Canada to see if some statements made from New Yorkers are true or not. In Canada they watch violent movies, they suffer from poverty, they have high levels of ethnicity and they both have guns. All of these things are the same in America, and every fact that the New Yorkers interviewed said was proved wrong. When he turns on the TV, Mike Moore realises the answer; politics! The Canadian politicians spoke ‘different’ to him, because they talk about the good aspects, not the bad. After talking to some of the local Canadians he learns that no one locks their doors, and even tests the theory which turns out to be true. One Canadian explains “Americans think that they are keeping people out with their locks, but Canadians believe that they are locking themselves in.” American politicians and the media in general pass on fear to the public and ‘brainwash’ you into being scared and believing that you need a gun to protect yourself. Then everyone goes out and buys guns for protection, they don’t leave their houses because they become scared of everything, then since they stay home all the time they constantly have the TV on and watch more. Then if someone were to break into their house or threaten them or a loved one, their first resort would be the gun, because they are manipulated into believing that. So the gun related deaths just keep growing and growing. The very simple gun access in America is just horrifying. After reading an advertisement in a Michigan (Colorado) newspaper, Mike Moore goes to a local bank to what kind of a scam ‘Free gun with any new bank account’ is. It wasn’t; the bank is a licensed firearms dealer and when signing up for the account required a background check. This check consists of some basic questions and asks you if you’ve ever committed a crime. They didn’t conduct any sort of police record check or anything thorough, so you could basically answer any question how ever you felt like. They then supply you with a gun catalogue to choose any gun you wish! If guns are advertised for free in newspapers, it’s not a surprising what kind of lunatics would sign up and the dealer wouldn’t even know because the background check isn’t thorough. Ammunition is even easier to obtain; just at Mike Moore’s local barber they supply a cabinet full of ammunition available for purchase. Local K-Marts and Wal-Marts casually sell ammunition and store it on normal public shelves in the aisles. It’s true that the perpetrators of the Columbine Massacres had purchased the ammo they used to murder innocent people with was bought from the local K-Mart just nearby. Ammunition is bought without I.D meaning absolutely anyone has access. Mike Moore uses these facts to show us how simple it is to obtain guns and ammo in America, so it’s not really such a surprise as to why there are so many gun related deaths in America. The number of gun related deaths could ever so easily be lowered when all of the causes are so obvious. There seems to be no gun control in America and the history is pretty violent which adds to the impact. Although history can’t be reversed, lessons can always be learned. The culture of fear corrupting Americans into fearing their neighbor and killing each other could also change if they followed some steps from their carefree Canadian neighbours.