How to decrease the gun-related problems in the USA nowadays? That's the question everybody's asking in the world, but even more in the USA, where opinions are divided.
How could we explain that half of the US inhabitants are so attached to the 2nd Amendment, guaranteeing them the right to bear arms, and that the other half is totally opposed to and wants to abolish this?
In Michael Moore's documentary Bowling for Columbine (2002), a cartoon deals with this controversial subject that is the fact to bear arms in the USA.
As we can see the bullet shows us, with irony, how the USA were created and the consequences of the history on today's society. Indeed, we learn that fear made the Pilgrim Fathers leave England for the New World and that the 2nd Amendment was created as a result of the Revolutionary War. The problem is that the right to bear arms was given to the citizens in case the British soldiers would come back but people still consider that the fact to bear a gun will provide them protection in every case. As the bullet declares, everybody is afraid of the other nowadays, as we can see people bought a quarter of a billion guns in the way to be safe.
One striking thing is that the USA have the highest rate of people killed by firearms every year (almost 13.000 in 2015) and even though, a majority still thinks that carrying a gun will protect them from any threat.
One of Obama's campaign promises was to solve the gun issue in the USA but lobbies like the N.R.A. still have an important influence on people's minds and also, many people want to purchase guns when they hear about mass shootings and so on. As this prevention group tried to do, many people come to purchase their first gun because they think they'll be safer but when they understand that guns are part of mass shootings, they think twice about it because they understand the harsh reality : even if guns can protect you, the fact to own one and to bear it is a threat for your life and the one of those you love because a simple mistake, like putting your gun in your handbag where your 3-year-old toddler can grab it, can cost you your life...
We need to make people change their minds about it, we need to make them think twice before purchasing a firearm because in the USA guns mean death. Indeed, everywhere on TV, in the games or just in the everyday life, people see guns and think it's normal to have one, but in Canada, even though there are many millions of firearms for nearly 30 million inhabitants, the kill rate by firearms is very low because the mentalities are totally different, there isn't such a pressure from lobbies to make people want to buy a gun and to think that it can be like a game to shoot at others, as we can do in some video games.
Here are some numbers about this harsh reality...
