What is Moore trying to say about American identity and value?
Throughout the entire movie, Moore is constantly getting point of view of what American’s think about the guns laws. The point of views show that America is very divided between the second Amendment. According to this amendment, we have the right to bear arms. The Columbine and Flint incident made America question the leeway that we have from this right. Most American’s believe that this right should be protected and not be tampered with. From the incidents, Moore is trying to convince others that the gun laws should be much stricter to avoid any radical accidents or murders. It is evident from the high amount of murders in our country that our freedoms may be misused.
Referring to the Atlantic article, Japan has a much stricter policy in order for one to obtain a gun. Through vigorous classwork, background checks, documentation, and continual tests, finally they are allowed to own a gun. While this seems a lot safer than the policies America has, some would argue that the right to own a gun shouldn't be monitored as highly as Japan does. From my personal belief, I agree with Japan’s strict policies to prevent any radicals to gain power of a weapon. Moore also is trying to point out this idea as he interviews many people to get perspective on what the town overall believes. Many people were still all for the original gun policies even after the shootings. With American's identity, he believed that we do not regulate the law as much as we should be and take the second Amendment to be as flexible as possible. Concerning our justice for freedom, Americans need to be more aware of the benefits of stricter policies would do for our safety.
Using statistics from other countries, we can understand that even though we do not have strict gun laws, we have the highest amount of murders. This is outrageous that these types of murders are not common, but still seem to be happening. Comparing our numbers to Canada, there are about 7 million guns present in 10 million homes. They have been accounted for only a few murders each year opposed to our strikingly high murder rate. Unlike Canada, not every American even owns a gun for hunter or protection purposes. What could be the cause of our high statistic? From one of the interviewees point of view, he made it clear that it was how our culture is raised. America does have a past of multiple wars unlike Canada. Growing up in a new century without a worry about war, this is not the case anymore. These few criminals cannot be determined by simply stereotype. From the Flint incident, a 6 year old boy was capable of murdering another 6 year old girl. At any age this type of violence is possible. What can draw the line to determine what America should be doing about this? Our values should shift to keep the protection and safety of the citizens over allowing simply anyone to access a weapon.
Hi Mariss! I didn't respond to this same question so it was very interesting to see how you viewed American identity. I agree with you that Japan's testing to own a gun is a good thing. I think if a person wants to do all those tests they clearly understand the power that a gun has and they should hopefully know the right times when and when not to use them. I recall from the article that Japan also does a mental test. I think this is also a good idea because some people may not show a problem on the outside, but could really be suffering in the inside. I also liked how you brought up the Canada ration of guns to the United States ration of guns. It's amazing to think that so many people have guns in Canada yet they don't suffer even close to the number of gun deaths we have. I agree war is a huge part of this but also I think American's feel like they need to be in control of everything and by having weapons I believe they feel stronger and more control of situations. My question is though, why do we always have to be in control? Why do we have to get involved with every countries problems?
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