In the movie Bowling for Columbine, director Michael Moore addresses the issues as to why our country has over 11,000 gun homicides a year. As stated in a written synopsis of the film, "This is not a film about gun control. It is a film about the fearful heart and soul of the United States, and the 280 million Americans lucky enough to have the right to a constitutionally protected Uzi (www.bowlingforcolumbine.com)." In this movie, bone-chilling facts about America are brought to light and show that some kind of change needs to occur. After watching this movie it is evident there is definitely a problem with having over 11,000 homicides a year from guns, when many comparable countries have less than 400. The problem, exactly what change do we need. In this movie different ideas are brought up that try to answer why we have so many homicides. Some reasons addressed in the movie are, our country has a violent history, it is the music and video stimulation, and the media portrayal that the world is a more dangerous place than it actually is. It is these issues I intend to address using the movie, in the hope that some answer can be ascertained.
One of the first reasons as to why our country has over 11,000 homicides a year from guns is that our country has a more violent history than other countries. First of all is it true? Yes, our country has had a violent history. We fought with the British in bloody battles till we finally were able to obtain our own country. After we fought the British we started wars with the Indians, and eventually killed almost there entire race that lived in our country. After the Indians we started wars with our own people, and these racial wars are still be fought today, just thankfully less frequently. However, most of the wars fought in the last 75 years have been over seas, most recently being the war with Iraq. Yes we have a violent history, but our past violence is nothing compared with Germany's, which killed multimillions in both World War I and World War II.
