Bowling for Columbine

            In government class we recently watched a documentary called Bowling for Columbine. This documentary was about the shooting at Columbine High School, and a few other shootings around the country. The documentary was conducted by Michael Moore.

            First off, I thought that Michael Moore did a superb job filming this documentary. He interviewed many people, asking very mind boggling questions. He also did a great job at keeping his audience entertained. He added some fun stuff in to the documentary, something that a CNN or CBS documentary does not have. The only problem I have with Michael Moore in this documentary is that he openly blamed K-Mart for the bullets. It was THEIR fault the bullets were sold, THEIR fault that the boys bought the bullets, and THEIR fault that the boys conducted the shooting with these bullets. I think that that is the only point he went a little too extreme.

            In the documentary Michael Moore pointed something out that I have never thought of before. He suggested the idea that our media causes us to fear. His idea is quite captivating. Just by watching our media or local news, we can obviously see that it is not made with the intention of making you happy. Unless, you live in Canada. Yes, Canada. Michael Moore went to Canada to observe what they watch on the news and get some statistics on the murder rates. Surprisingly enough, the Canadian News didn’t cover all the bad things in life. This could then be tied to their miniscule murder rate. Does our news affect the murder rate in the United States? I think that it has some affect, but not a majority. Putting murder, robbery, and other crime into people’s minds every day of the year is going to have some effect on not only the way that they think, but how they act as well.


With all of these topics floating around, we can't help but bring up our government. Obama has issued several executive orders (link to the website below) that try to restrict our gun owning abilities. He would rather have it that we can't own assault weapons. Is this right? I do not believe so, because he is limiting our freedoms. Obama could tie in that since our population owns so many guns that we do bad things. Kind of like Moore's theory about the media. We are influenced to do bad things.

            The next question I am going to cover is very controversial. Do guns kill people, or do people kill people? Ever since our country was founded, we have had the right to bear arms. This means that a person is allowed to own as many guns as they want. (restrictions may apply to certain kinds) Some political goons think that just because a man owns a 9mm pistol, and maybe an assault rifle or two that he is going to shoot up the local school. The truth of the matter is that most of the gun owners in the United States use their firearms for fun, leisure purposes. Not killing people. There has been a few incidents where someone has killed another person. But do not blame the gun for killing them! It isn’t like the gun got up, walked over to a school, and shot someone. The person did.

            One more topic I am going to cover is how to make schools safer. I believe that teachers should be allowed to keep guns in their class rooms. This would ensure that there would be some sort of defense. Another way is doors that automatically lock, like our school has. The future for America is very cloudy and dark. We can’t really tell what is going to happen. I believe that our government will try to ban/get rid of guns. However, we will see how this plays out in the future.

            In conclusion, we have a very twisted society. People like to blame inanimate objects for the killing of someone. They then like to take that story and publicize it, and make the public afraid of these inanimate objects. This in turn causes political goobers to try to restrict the use of these objects, therefore causing great debate and separation. I believe that this topic is a very good one to talk about, but I do believe that we reserve every right to own guns and use them.


Obama's Gun Laws