7/30/2019 Bowling for Columbine - Trabalho Escrito

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UNIVERSIDADE FEDERAL DA PARABA

CENTRO DE CINCIAS HUMANAS, LETRAS E ARTES

DEPARTAMENTO DE LETRAS ESTRANGEIRAS MODERNAS

INGLS INTERMEDIRIO I - PROFA. ELIZABETH SOUTO MAIOR

CAIO ANTNIO DE MEDEIROS NBREGA - 11116669

"BOWLING FOR COLUMBINE"

Movie: "Bowling for Columbine"

Year of production: 2008

Directed by: Michael Moore

"It's an American responsibility to be armed. If you're not armed, you're notresponsible. That's it. Period". This quote, from a soldier of the Michigan Militia, is agreat way of starting a text about the gun control issue in the United States of America.The problem about gun control there is exactly the lack of this control. It's almost non-

existent. One can easily buy a weapon in the USA. Sometimes, the only thing one's gotto do to get a gun is to say that it is being bought for hunting purposes, to kill animals,not humans beings.

Many Americans defend the right to possess a fire weapon. James Nichols,during the documentaryBowling for Columbine says: "No one can tell I don't have theright to have it [guns]. It's protected in our Constitution". If having this right is good for

people or for weapon makers is a different story. The fact is, in the USA there are morethan 10.000 murders caused by fire weapons. In places such as Canada and United

States, this number is no bigger than one hundred.There's got to be something wrong with the USA. There's got to be some

wicked logic that Americans, and only them, can understand. There should be no excuseto what happened in Columbine, which we now know as "Columbine High Schoolmassacre". In April 20, 1999, at Littleton, Colorado, two high school students murderedother 12 student and one teacher. 21 other people got injured. Eric Harris (18) andDylan Klebold (17) were the responsible for the crime. They ended up committingsuicide. It can be a coincidence or not, but the fact is that very close to Columbine,there's Lockheed Martin, the world's largest weapons maker.

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Another terrible tragedy occurred at Buell Elementary School in Mount MorrisTownship, Michigan, United States on February 29, 2000. Kayla Renee Rolland, onlysix years old, was shot by her classmate, also six-year-old Dedric Darnell Owens. Thatday he had taken to school a firearm and a knife. He pulled the trigger, aiming at Kayla,after tell her he didn't like her. National Rifle Association, curiously, made an aparisonin the city (just as they had done at Littleton), in order to defend the right to possess agun, just a week after the tragedy of Kayla's death.

The documentary does not mention (it's just happened, actually), but recentSandy Hook Elementary School shooting can also work as a reflex of our time,especially as a reflex of the American's time. The documentary is amazing andeverybody interested in knowing more about our recent culture of violence and itsconsequences should spare some time and watch it.

We are left, in the end, with come unsolved questions. Who's can takeresponsibility for the criminal Americans and their actions? Television? Video games?Why not even try to blame the weapon makers? If we take in consideration American

people opinion, a lot of them would blame Marilyn Manson, just because theColumbine killers listened to him. And now we should take a moment to breathe. Ok...

just that explains a lot about their society. Period.