Review #2

Bowling for Columbine

Do you ever think about how it would feel like to have someone point a gun to your head on a regular school day? Michael Moore takes us through the sad tragedy of the shooting that occurred at Columbine High school. During his movie he stated that the main problem behind this is America’s gun control problem. It was too easy for the two teen-aged boys to go out and buy guns and some bullets…wasn’t it? In this documentary, Michael Moore focused his theme on the need for gun control. Guns are the cause for most of the murdering crimes and acts of violence that occur in America. The National Rifle Association in America does not realize that their belief in owning a gun to protect them has gone too far. Michael Moore puts together the hegemonic structure of the American society. Hegemony can be defined as the interrelation between power structures that give society its shape and texture. Michael Moore chose to use the shooting that occurred at the Columbine high school to demonstrate his main point of the film, which is to find the reason for why this senseless act occurred. While watching Bowling for Columbine, I felt both sympathetic and thankful. The documentary made be stop and think about the state of America, and I can only imagine how difficult it must be for kids in America to go to school feeling paranoid about when the next shooting will be. I’ve had some related experiences myself; during my high school years in Canada, we’ve had several lock downs, and how I know I wouldn’t be able to go to school anymore if a real shooting occurred at my school. Children should be going to school for education with feeling unsafe or threatened. Michael Moore also spent quite a bit of time in the film discussing how fear is created in society.  However, in Canada we have many factors that are behind violence in our society.  Some examples are police violence, racism, sexual assaults and domestic violence. When it comes to comparing the safety of our society in Canada to the United States, Michael Moore makes it clear that Canada is no where as violent and corrupted as America. There are several scenes where Moore is in Canada interviewing several Canadians about whether they lock their doors or if they feel afraid or unsafe most of the times.However, to his surprise hardly anyone in Canada locks their doors or feels threatened towards gun violence. Generally speaking, there are less crime rates and gun violence in Canada than there is in America. Michael Moore’s suggested long term solution to the problem is to figure out who influences gun buying, questions the promoters of gun rights about their motives, and hold the media responsible for gun violence. His short term solution would be to ban all handguns.