Bowling for...fear tactics!

Ok, so I just watched Michael Moore’s Bowling for Columbine. I had been putting it off for many years because, well to be honest, I don’t trust anyone anymore to give me unbiased information that isn’t riddled in propaganda. That being said, I’m making a commitment to being better informed this year. Maybe that is my New Year’s Resolution, to allow myself an open mind and to try to be more informed, so that I can make more educated choices about the way that I live and the ideals that I have.

I’ll start off by saying that I am pro firearms. In fact that is one of the major stances that I take in the American political realm. However, don’t put me in a box. I am not pro ‘violence’, I am not pro ‘killing’, I am not pro “any old schmuck should be able to buy a firearm at the drop of a hat’. I am also pro firearm education. According to this film almost twelve thousand people in the US are killed by firearm related murders. That is way too many by any measure. So I’ll say one more thing before I talk about the film, I am a big fan of firearm education. We have sex ed in middle school, and high school. Does sex ed really make teenagers act more responsibly? I don’t know, my guess would be probably not, but maybe a little. Here is what I do know. People exposed to ‘taboo’ things early in life tend to respect, even fear them much more than those of us raised in little bubbles not allowed to experience anything because it might be harmful. Alcohol for instance, if alcohol were allowed from a younger age, it would be a normal everyday thing, people would be used to it, and not go crazy upon turning 21 or 19 or 18 depending where you live. I also believe that those folk who grow up with firearms in the house and as a part of life will have a much more profound respect for firearms and what they can do. Sex ed doesn’t really work, so lets get rid of it and try firearm ed. After all, the leaders of ‘family values’ ie the religious right tell us we’re not allowed to have sex before marriage, so why teach us about it? But we are allowed to purchase a firearm when we turn 18 same as a lottery ticket. You think we should start teaching kids about firearm safety instead? I do.

Most of the people I have heard raving about this film are people that I would say are a little further left on the political spectrum than I am. They all talk about how this movie proves that guns are the problem. That we should outlaw guns. But I watched this movie from a different perspective. You see I didn’t think Michael was telling us that guns are the issue. Sure there are a few extreme people in the film who are supposed to show what a gun nut is like. The interview with the militia in Michigan for one, but also the interview with Charlton Heston (which by the way, was kind of a low blow if you ask me because even though Charles acted like an insensitive prick, I think that he was also caught off guard by the questions, not that I think that is an excuse to be a prick). However, the militia men that were interviewed were like they said ‘normal people’, just like you and me. We have a right to join a militia, we have a right to bare arms, we have a right to protect the right granted to us by the constitution of this country. Fact of the matter is, I didn’t think the militia men interviewed sounded nuts at all, in fact I thought that they were spot on. We don’t live in a utopian society were we can all carry around flowers and expect everyone to be nice to us. In fact, animals alive today, by evolutionary definition, have done anything and everything it takes to stay alive, to do what’s best for ‘me’. Taking away the guns isn’t going to stop people from metaphorically killing each other to better themselves, people will always do what is in their best interest at any given time to make the lives of themselves and their family easier, better, longer, etc, and anyone thinking that this is ever going to change is not only absurdly naive, but also really a genetic anomaly for the altruistic gene has been carefully selected against over time in order to save ones hide to pass on ones genes to the next generation. Anyone willing to sacrifice oneself for the good of altruism is the same one who doesn’t get to pass on that altruistic gene to ones offspring. But I’m getting way off topic here.

My point is that the interviews that Moore put in the documentary do little to sway my opinion of gun laws and regulations and more to show that with any group of people there are extremists and that people need to exercise personal responsibility. That means the parents, the children, the media, the government, and that means society all need to exercise personal responsibility. Do I blame the gun for the killing of a six year old girl in a Michigan school? Do I blame the gun for the mass murder of high school children in Littleton Colorado? No, and no. I blame a lot of things and a lot of people, but I don’t blame the gun. You can blame the parents for not being there on any number of levels, lack of parenting, lack of relationship with their children, lack of a safe home environment, both emotionally and physically (after all, where are they getting these guns?). If your child (who is a minor) can access a firearm and ammunition in your house, you live in an unsafe house, period. I can also blame the government or more specifically the education system for not educating students about firearm safety, and respect for firearms (heck, if its a gov't given right, you would think they might educate people about it). I can also blame society as a whole for making kids think that they are different, outcasts and freaks and will be for life because they don’t conform to the norm. You know the norm? The kids on the OC, or Dawson’s Creek, the kids from Seventh Heaven and Sex in the City. Yeah, that norm. Pretty pathetic, huh?

We'll i gotta get home, where i have no internet connection, kind of the reason for my lack of posts. Anyway, its time for you and me and everyone to start to think about issues outside of our comfortable little box. Our Freedoms are being stealthily taken away from us, and we are to naive, busy, or indifferent to care. Time to start caring.