Tuesday, May 3, 2016

Post 15: School shootings in the USA

1) The informations that I find as most interesting in this site can be find here:
http://www.acolumbinesite.com/security.html
On this section of the website we can found all the security camera surveillance tapes from the school shouting massacre of Columbine High School on April 20, 1999. The footage were only taken in the cafeteria, where the shooters went several times during the rampage, on these we can follow the events from the beginning of the shooting with Coach Sanders running to warn the students of the threat, to the end when Dylan and Eric throw propane grenades and shoot at some students. These images, especially the one where we can see Eric Harris with his shotgun, are particularly famous and very rare, one of the reason of the Columbine massacre impact were those footage that are haunting us since. I found this section very interesting because it's always more easy to understand and to feel sorrow and anger when you are dirdy, when you see the monsters you are less frightened by them. It's also important to point out that a lot of speculation has been made on the internet on the so called security camera surveillance tapes from the library, which don't really exist. Videos has circulated on Youtube after the tragedy, where we can see two shooters in a library on surveillance tapes. It appears that those tapes were from the film Zero Days released in 2001 which follows the course of two school shooters with homemade videos.

2)

Mass shoutings that occurs since the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre in December 2012
Cover of Time Magazine, released in May 1999
Security camera surveillance tapes of Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris entering the cafeteria 
on April 20, 1999
Pictures of deathly victims of Columbine's shootings



3) Bowling for Columbine, directed and written by Michael Moore, released in 2002
For me, this documentary deals very well with the issue of school shootings and more generally with the issue of guns in the United States. As always, taking humor and boldness as weapons, Michael Moore successfully shows the contradictions and flows of the american society. In this film, he tries to understand why shootings occurs more often in the United States than in others country. With a lot of testimony, interviews and exclusive footage, Michael Moore investigates on this american problem, guns. And for him, it is very clear that one of the guilty is of course the very powerful NRA (National Rifles Association) supported by many Americans and especially the well known actor of Ben-Hur or Planet of the Apes, Charlton Heston. This confrontation leads us to a very strong scene where Michael Moore leave the picture of a little girl killed by a gun at Charlton Heston 'house because he is the speaker of the NRA. 

4) The main and most mentioned reason for the recurrence of school shootings in the USA is revenge against bullies or the will to hurt those who have hurt them. In the United States, school harassment is far more spread than in other countries like the very close Canada for example. The social categories in American schools are very strong, we have the popular kids and the lesser ones or also called Nerds. Availing to a free access to guns, kids which are been bullied are generally those who commit school shootings by frustration or simply by revenge. But why there are more school shootings in the United States than in Canada for example where guns are also very easy to get ? People and mostly American people, will answer this question by saying that this is because of they violent history or because of the kind of music (Rock'n'roll mainly) the shooters were listening. But as Michael Moore pointed out, the American history is less violent than German or French history and they have violent movies and Rock'n'roll too. So why exactly this happens more often in America ? For Michael Moore it is very clear that the completely free merchandising of guns, by respect of the fourth amendment they said, and the sort of gun-fascination around these isn't helping, but for him the government is to blame because by launching thousands of bombs on foreign countries, they don't really give a good example for the American youth. 

1 comment:

  1. Grégoire, your final blog post is NOW worthy of the pretty good work you have done over the last two years. I prefer it this way!
    A pity you did not meet the deadline, though, this time and
    many times prior to that as well...
    Grégoire
    - most interesting information: 4/5
    - photos + captions: 4/5
    - film or series: 4/5
    - most commonly mentioned reasons: 5/5
    PENALTY for unmet deadline: -2
    TOTAL: 15/20

    ReplyDelete