School Shootings on the USA

   

What I find most interesting on this site, aside from the fact that the information is quite well given and you can easily understand what happend and find lots of other things related to it, is the way it narrates the shooting. It is a short text that explains the events more or less throught the shooters point of view, explaining the fails of the plan and what they actually did. It is has not too much details but after reading it you wonder how can these kinds of things happen and you mostly want to ask why. Even if some of the reasons are given in the article.
Also, you can find all the information about this phenomenon, about the victims, the shooters, the event, the aftermath and so on. In this web site you can find almost everything about the incident and its investigation. It shows the background of the shooters, you can even have information coming from their journals, and who were the victims. I also think that the web site in itself give every information you could find elsewhere through research easy to reach. Thanks to that I learned about a tragic event which existence I completly ignored and it has helped me to learn quickly about the whole shooting.



         
Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold caught                
on the high school's security cameras 
in the cafeteria shortly before 
committing suicide.

                                                                                              
    Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold after 
     comitting suicide in the library

Pinterest photoshop drawing           

 (mash-up from real photos)            

The movie about school shootings that I think that best deals with this issue is Zero Day. I think so because it is a film that basically shows the plotting and preparation between Erik Harris and Dylan Klebold and the events occured at Columbine. But I mostly think so because it has a scene which is filmed as if it was by a security camera. This is a way of approaching the subject that I find really interesting and also quite striking, because it, in some way, makes it feel more real, and you feel more close and concerned by it. Another factor that creates this feeling of proximity is that the whole film is filmed as a home made video by the shooters, and practically makes you think that the home-made videos are actually the real ones.

The most common reasons mentioned for the recurrence of school shootings in the USA are that the guilty ones of these shootings what to get back at those who have hurt them or that other kids pick on them, make fun of them, or bully them.

The USA Gun Culture

      

This document is the poster of a campaign, the Brady Campaign, against gun violence, and also gun carrying in the USA. The Brady Campaign started for about 40 years ago, and was named after James "Jim" Brady who had a major role in the developmemt of the campaign. Its aim is to prevent gun violence and has, up to now, achieved in passing the Brady law that instituted federal background checks on firearm purchasers in the United States. 

This poster shows a modern gun in which we see the US waving flag, and above it a short text in which we see the number of people murdered by guns in one year, showing a huge difference between the numbers in the US, 9'000 people killed, and the other mentioned countries, thet doesn't surpass the 200. 

I believe that this poster wants to show the concequences of having the completly free right to hold or buy a gun in the US, which are the death of thousands of people each year, and even if it's a huge country these numbers are too big. Life is something dear to each individual and something that we should try to protect and if we leave guns within easy reach it becomes more of a danger than a protection. 

The phrase "GOD BLESS AMERICA" is quite ironical, because it is critizising the stubborness of Americans that hold onto their gun culture having blind eyes to the damage it causes, it seems like it's saying "there are too much people dying by guns in the US but even so we are the best country in the world."

In comparison to the same poster of  2004, we can see 2 main differences, the gun has changed and the number of deaths has lowered. We can consider this as a positive thing and we can think that this campaign is progessing in its aim to reduce deaths by guns by having more sensible gun laws so as to save lives.

In this graph we can see that the USA is not on the Top 10 countries with the highest rate of gun murders, but it is too close as the 26th. We could consider this as a positive thing, it is not the 1st one. But it is only surpased by undeveloped countries with lots of violence and guerillas, and as the leading world power, this is quit schoking. On the graph of the right side we can see that inside the rating of the developed countries The USA is far above the others. We can recognize that the USA is seen as a kind of model crountry for those whose values are freedom and equality, and also security, which in this case the USA does not assure. This difference between the USA and the other developed countries rise concerns about this US Gun Culture.

This cartoon is a caricature that critizise the congress atitude towards the gun culture issue. In this cartoon we see that there has been a bloodshed in the capitol, probably due to gun shooting. At the entrace there is a man representing the congress being bought off by the gun lobby. The cartoonist critizises the congres's attitude towars the issues and victims that the free use of guns that happen because of the too easy access to guns. It is more interested by money than by the people's safety, and completely ignore the blood river that comes from the capitol.



In this cartoon we can see a critic to how the second amendment of the United States constitution is being overused in the USA. We can see a clear difference between what meant the founding fathers in giving the right to own a gun and the result of it. In this cartoon we see a member of the NRA (National Rifle Association), equiped with three rifles, holding various guns, and standing on boxes of bullets. The cartoon critizises that USA citizens abuse the rights that gives them the second amendment and end up been dangerous more than having a way to prtotect themselves. In comparison with the statue of the man with a rifle the NRA man scares more than making us feel secure, which is the image that gives us the statue.