Why are Americans killing each other?
Using the angles of the Columbine tragedy, U.S. Foreign Policy and U.S. media, Michael Moore attempts to answer this question in his 2002 release "Bowling for Columbine."
There's a pretty slim chance you are going to be killed by a gun. Every year in the United States between 11,000 and 12,000 Americans meet their end through the barrel of a gun, whereas 120,000 are killed accidentally by physicians. No biggie, right? Wrong. Every year in Japan, Germany, Canada and Great Britain less than 200 people die by means of a gun. So, what makes America different?
As far as documentary craft goes, few can hold a candle to Moore's ability. The movie, directed, produced and written by Moore himself, is an expertly concocted batch of archival media clips, ironic music samples, cartoons and Moore's own interviewing. His ambush-style interviews include Dick Clark, Charlton Heston, Marilyn Manson and some PR people at K-Mart.
Before delving in Moore's thesis, Moore examines other popular explanations for our nation's violent tendencies. Violent video games, TV shows, music and movies are consumed at the same rate internationally as they are domestically. Looking for rates of high gun ownership? Check Sweden, Switzerland, and Canada -- all nations with high gun ownership and low gun death. Moore states that Americans shoot each other at such an alarming rate because we are a nation of scared consumers constantly saturated with violent media news reports, who operate solely on immediate reactions. According to Moore, violent crimes in the U.S. have actually dropped by about 20 percent in the U.S. over the last 20 years, yet news coverage of violent crime in the same period has gone up about 600 percent.
But Moore glosses over the poverty issue entirely. He mentions in his U.S. vs. Canada section that Canada has a higher rate of unemployment than the U.S. What he fails to mention is Canada's superior welfare and social support programs.
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Moore actually illustrates the U.S. poor social programs to make an "unrelated" point. He recounts the story of the six-year old child's school gun death in Flint, Mich. One of the factors, he points out, is that the perpetrator's mother was a welfare mother who under the Michigan "welfare-to-work" program and was forced away from her child for most of the day. The point he inadvertently makes here invalidates his hypothesis, which doesn't include a class analysis.
What he also doesn't mention is the gun death rates in non-industrialized nations. In 2000 in South Africa, almost 11,000 people were murdered by firearms. This number does not include suicides whereas our numbers do. Including suicides into that equation pushes the gun death count well over U.S. levels, though South Africa only has a fraction of the United States' population.
Other countries at or above the 10,000 gun deaths per year mark include Estonia, Brazil, and Mexico. One thing all of these countries have in common is a vast polarity between the rich and the poor. It seems that poverty may very well be a large issue here. Sorry Moore.
Besides, the occasional shortcomings on rhetoric, "Bowling for Columbine" remains a fascinating and entertaining watch and the issues it raises are vital for every American to examine. May it sweep the Oscars with force.
