Bowling for Columbine Essay Example

Bowling for Columbine Essay Example Bowling for Columbine Paper Bowling for Columbine Paper Michael Moore has created some of this centurys most provocative films, including Roger Me, The Big One, and Bowling for Columbine.These three films hold one thing in common: They are all non-fiction.If they were to be labeled into one genre, or if one were to search for them in a video store,documentary commonly associated with these films.Moores most recent film, Bowling for Columbine, won the Best Documentary Oscar at the 2003 Academy Awards.But what exactly is a documentary, and should Moores work be classified in such a genre? Websters Dictionary defines a documentary as a film or TV program presenting the facts about a person or event.Moore does in fact present facts in his film, including interviews with various people, most notably, Charlton Heston.Additionally, he leads us along his journey throughout the country (and Canada) to find out why America is so obsessed with guns.The facts Moore presents certainly do have a liberal spin on them, but that does not mean that his work is not a documentary. Some have argued that documentaries must present an objective opinion about a subject.This is impossible.The Italian Neo-realists tried to create a real cinema in the early 1930s and failed.The reason was simple: The camera always chooses to focus on something within the frame, therefore limiting the viewers options not very realistic.Moore does much of the same.He uses his art as a persuasion.He never admits to presenting an objective view, nor should he be required to.Film, documentary or otherwise, is left to the sole discretion of the artist.Moores work is in fact a documentary because it presents facts of a non-fiction story (not like a non-fiction dramatization, such as Patton).Although it may conceal some facts as well, it is not the obligation of a documentary to present things in an objective manner such Related Papers Question 2: what I found out about Politics and the Media Columbine Massacre Speech What Makes a Credible Documentary Magic Realism Film Criteria Malcolm X vs. Skins What are the conventions in films that help to signify Genre Theory Robocop How to cite this page Choose cite format: Bowling for Columbine. 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Get custom paper sample written according to your requirements urgent 3h delivery guaranteed Order now Bowling for Columbine Paper On the 20th of April, 1999, in a little town called Lilleton in the U. S, two students from the Columbine High School committed a massacre. During a period of three hours, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold killed twelve students and one teacher, and injured dozens of others. Finally, they shot themselves in the head. Later the police detected over 900 bullet holes in the school (Bowling for Columbine)1. Apart from this horrible crime, the macabre fact is that all of the involved guns which had killed these innocent people were legally purchased, and the huge amount of bullets was bought at the K-Mart down the street (Bowling for Columbine). It is true, nobody will ever know if this disaster could have been prevented by a general gun control at that time, but one thing is for sure: it would have been a lot more difficult to purchase the used firearms and bullets if a general gun control would have been enacted before. Although, a comparison between the USA and the UK, where gunposession was prohibited in 1997, shows that after enacting the law, the crime rate surprisingly went up instead of down, still more than 10. 000 humans die because of guns in the States every year. That number represents the highest death rate in developed countries and can only be reduced by a stricter enforcement of gun control. As a result, the crime rate would get lower and the public would be safer place. In his article What gun controllers dont want you to know2, Howard Nemerov, who not only graduated from Harvard and won the National Book Award, but also got the Pulitzer Price, is presenting a vivid example that the inaction of gun control can end in a failure by analyzing official crime rates of the United States from 1992 till 2004. Coeval, Nemerov lists the same period of crime rates of the United Kingdom, where 1997 had been a strict gun ban, prohibiting civilians of possessing any kind of handgun and compares them to the US. The crime rate was expected to drop, but in fact it went in the completely opposite direction, as the following statistics show. In 1992, the UK had a burglary with entrance rate of 2. 5%, and the U. S had a rate of 3. 5%, one percent higher than the UK. If compared to the statistics of the year 2000, the burglary rate in the UK went up to 2. 8%, and that was after the prohibition of guns in 1997. In contrast, the percentage in the U. S. went down to 1. 8%. In addition to burglary with entry he also compared the statistics of sexual assault of women, robbery and assault with force. In all three of these indices the outcome is similar; the percentage in the U. K. rose, whereas in the U. S. it sank. Furthermore he presents the fact that in that period, where guns were prohibited in the U. K. over 70 million guns were sold in the States. He summarizes that [], a reasonable person is forced to conclude that availability of firearms to the general public is not a contributing factor to any increase in crime. He continues with another fact stated by the Home Office of Britain: during 1997 and 2001 homicide rates rose 19% in the UK while falling 12% in the USA. His comparison shows, that a general prohibition of gun possession does not already mean that crime rates will go down. However, the annually average death rate through guns in the UK is 163 times is lower than in the US. The exact number of shot people in the UK in 2001 was 63 and in the US amazing 11 127 (Bowling for Columbine). In addition to the fact that the US has the highest death rate through the use of guns, also accidents while using guns with no criminal intentions rise the death statistics. In 1996 140 children were killed after being accidentally shot and about 1500 children are hurt by guns every year. Since it is a fact that the US has the highest shooting death rate of 11 127 humans annually compared to other developed countries, 91% of American citizens are for at least minor restrictions on gun ownership. In addition to that, 57%, more than half of the Americans, even vote for a gun ban or major restrictions. It is a fact that some foreign countries have low rate of crimes despite they have less restrictions than the US. For example, Switzerland and Japan have gun policy which is completely different form those in the US; nevertheless, the crimes rates of these countries are quite low in comparison with the US ones. 3 One more example: the Swiss are issued fully-automatic rifles to keep at home, yet abuse of military weapons is rare. The Swiss own two million firearms, including handguns and semi-automatic rifles, they shoot about 60 million rounds of ammunition per year, and the rate of violent gun abuse is low. 4 Lets compare: rifles and handguns are prohibited in Japan, they have a very strict policy as for this issue, and its very difficult for a person to get a gun in Japan. Yet, the number of crimes doesnt lowers, but is even going much higher. The same may be said about many countries which have strict restrictions as for the weapons. 5 So, in the U. S. crime rates have shown to be lower than in courtiers with strict firearms laws. And they werent raised even with the fact that since 1991 in the USA the number of privately owned firearms has risen by perhaps 50 million. Only in 1993-1999 the number of guns privately owned in the States increased on 37 millions. Notwithstanding, the accidents or murders rates didnt go higher. This point may lead to the conclusion that the gun policy restriction wouldnt influence it too, but I think thats not right. People buy guns. And each gut ever bought is a certain threat to eny one of us. Another question is why people buy weapons? What for? Why? What influences people? Why do people bear guns, why do they use them? People are afraid of becoming a victim, they try to defense themselves. And media is the thing which has a great influence at peoples mind. The public depends on the media for its pictures of crime. Many peoples opinion about the situation in the country, about crimes taking place periodically forms on the basis of what they see on the screen, what they hear on the radio. And those horrible events the journalists describe in their coverages make people be afraid of becoming a victim. In addition a great number of such headlines in the newspapers, a great number of such reports on the news. As a result, people what to make sure nothing like that ever happens with them and get guns mislead by the idea that it will help.