The Issue of Gun Violence in Bowling in Columbine Documentary

School shootings, gang violence, homocide, and murder; our society is plagued with gun violence and thousands lose their lives everyday. Members of our society criticize and critique their own people for this but also sit back and do nothing about it. Michael Moore, in Bowling for Columbine, constructs an argument against the culture of gun violence that persists in some regions of the USA. Moore depicts that government, authorities and news blame media for gun violence when that’s not the case.

The documentary serves to provide information and spread awareness using statistics and facts to get people to understand the need for gun control and social issues caused by gun violence. Moore uses the Columbine shooting as an excuse to attack American ideology. This is achieved using many different elements including sarcasm and humour but there is essence of seriousness as well where sad music and tragic events are portrayed. The documentary is aimed at Americans, more specifically at gun owning Americans.

Throughout the documentary, historic images of violent incidents are shown including the Prime Minister of Iran, the plane crash into the World Trade Center and dead civilians. These images are used as a model to show the negative involvement of America on the international stage and the repercussions of gun violence.

Off camera narration is used as a Juxtaposition and a way of both entertaining and educating his audience. Providing facts through commentary that cannot be seen on a visual level which allows the audience to have a higher understanding of the topic. This level of understanding is a means of keeping the audience interested and invested in the product but they may also be passive when viewing the film due to the narration feeding information directly to the audience. When looking at a serious topic, narration provides for a comedic effect as a means of criticizing American Culture.

Music portrays the sarcastic and humorous tone is used to express such a serious issue of gun violence. The song, “What a Wonderful World” is played in the background which is paired with disturbing and depressing images- giving an ironic message of “What’s so wonderful about the world?”. Furthermore, “Happiness is a Warm Gun” is played while showing images of people buying guns, deaths and historically violent moments which further adds to the irony - the song’s title and the images contradicting heavily. The flashing of the clips of people dying, being shot gives the feeling of a mismanaged government. Moore does this to turn his audience from the political leaders to his personal views.

Moore uses bias to reason why America has a high rate of gun related violence. The documentary targets Americans, teenagers throughout the world, people who do not have a clear idea of why gun violence is at such large, gun enthusiasts and owners in America and internationally as well. Throughout the film there are bursts of music and loud gasping sounds that are used to grab the audience's attention. Moore uses a series of loud and shocking clips, which are a combination of visual and auditory footage – the documentary is designed to keep the audience intrigued and add suspense throughout.

These recent years, gun violence has been at large and it’s disappointing and infuriating to see authorities doing nothing about it. The debate that stricter gun laws may help reduce such acts does explore the issue but there isn’t a clear answer and as time goes on, more and more lives are lost. Gun violence has problems on different levels including within local communities, politically and international. It is hard to say where improvements have been made. Gun violence can ruin families, sense of security and freedom of a society. No one deserves to live in fear or lose their future to gun violence; this is a known issue that needs major concerns and solutions to avoid losing any more lives to it.

Works Cited

• Moore, Michael, Kathleen R. Glynn, Jim Czarnecki, Charles Bishop, Michael Donovan, Charlton Heston, Brian Danitz, Michael McDonough, Kurt Engfehr, and Jeff Gibbs. Bowling for Columbine. United States: MGM Home Entertainment, 2003.