"BOWLING FOR COLUMBINE"

This last week in U.S. History class, we watched Bowling for Columbine documentary directed and produced by Michael Moore. This documentary wants to discover the reasons for the shooting in Columbine High School, Colorado and talks about other types of violence with guns.

On April 20, 1999, the day when Adolf Hitler was born, two teenagers, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, shot students in their school, Columbine High School. At 11:19 A.M., they started shooting in the cafeteria killing 2 students before moving into the library killing 10 students and 1 teacher. It became the worst shooting in U.S. history. What were the shooters’ reasons? Where does gun control stand with the U.S. citizens? Why are there so many deaths by guns in United States? How does social media affect U.S. citizens?

Moore speaks about social media that U.S transmits. The U.S. government blamed Marilyn Manson for his music and the aggressive violence in his video clips. Both teenagers who shot and killed the other students in Columbine listened to Marilyn Manson, so the government thinks that Marilyn Manson is not a good influence on the citizens of the United States. Also, they blamed Bill Clinton who launched bombing attacks on several countries around that time.

Moore’s documentary starts with him going to a bank. If you made a deposit of a certain quantity into a deposit account, the bank would give a gun to their customers.  He also speaks about the fear that the citizens have. People have feared that somebody can kill them, so that is why they own guns.

The 2^nd amendment of the United States allows its citizens to keep and bear arms to defend themselves. But is the law the reason so many people die because of guns? In my opinion, the 2^ndamendment is one of the main reasons for so many deaths by guns. Why? First, I am going to compare Spain, where I lived, and United States, as the documentary does with Canada. In Spain, generally we do not have as much violence as the United States. The law in the Europe Union states:“Gun owners must be licensed and undergo strict medical and psychological tests; no one is permitted to own more than six hunting rifles and one handgun; firearms must be registered and inspected annually; and machine guns and submachine guns are banned, as are imitation pistols”.

I also think the beliefs of Spain and the United States are really different. In Spain, it is almost impossible to have a gun, and you do not think about owning a gun.   

In conclusion, the United States government should not allow citizens to keep and bear guns without a license. This could reduce the deaths by guns; however, this would be quite difficult since almost everybody has guns here in the United States.