Michael Moore is trying to say a lot of things about American identity and values in "Bowling for Columbine." While most Americans would take umbrage to most of the things he is insinuating, I believe that he makes some very accurate points. While people may not like what he has to say, I think we as a nation seriously need to think about our values as a country and as a culture, and Moore is trying to make us do that.
His biggest message is that we are a gun-crazy nation, which nobody can deny. Guns are a huge part of our culture, and Moore believes that that needs to change. He points out that the United States has more gun deaths (by about a magnitude of 100:1 in most cases, sometimes more) than any other developed country with an established government. As a country, we value guns and our right to own them. One man Moore interviewed said it is an "American responsibility to be armed." Unfortunately, this man is not alone in this mindset. For this reason, it is no wonder we have so much gun violence. However, this doesn't mean that we should have as much as we do. Moore tries to establish reasons for this tragedy.
He points out that it is far too easy to obtain guns and ammunition. He was able to walk into a bank and get a free gun for opening an account there. If it weren't so easy to get guns, we would probably have less gun violence, but people would be outraged. As a culture, we value our freedom and civil liberties set out in the Constitution, specifically the second Amendment. The American people are scared of government oppression, so they resist any sanctions the government tries to put on them. This is why we have such lenient gun control laws. People would live in fear if they were stricter, and people don't like fear. Moore shows time and time again how gun culture is such an integral part of our culture; so many people are a part of it and feel so strongly about it that it is impossible to avoid.
Another part of American society Moore explores is the fear culture we live in: "if it bleeds, it leads." In our news, anger, violence, and hate are the stories that do the best, and stories about tolerance and love are pushed to the background. Moore points out that all the news covers is tragedies--but only the wrong kind. We are shown violent crimes, racism, hate, and death, but never the tragedies of poverty, hunger, and homelessness. As a society, we feed off of this fear of violence without doing anything to change it. By being constantly exposed to these things, we have come to view them as commonplace, which is a real problem. Moore also shows that people don’t like to talk about these things. As a society, we want all of our problems fixed, but we don’t want to do the work to fix them.
Michael Moore revealed a lot of ugly aspects of American identity and values in “Bowling for Columbine,” but the real problem is that nothing is being done to change these things. He shows a pretty accurate portrayal, in my opinion, of gun culture, violence, and fear that exist in our society. After watching this documentary, I really thought about how real these problems are in our society, and about how they really need to be addressed.
