Bowling For Columbine

Bowling for Columbine

Reaction Paper

By: Brian Scheu

Violence! What causes it? Has it Increased/decreased over the past few years? I will try to answer these questions to the best that I can in the next few pages. One thing you must look at when dealing with violence is the nature of the crime. You can look at violent murders but not be able to compare them to other violent crimes because the nature of the crime is completely different. One may believe that violence in our society has not increased due to the population, this can be correct or it could be false. It all depends on what you are comparing it to. You can't compare a man killing his wife in a fit of rage to Timothy McVey, the Okalahoma city bomber because the natures of the crime are completely different. You cannot compare apples to oranges in a case like this. They have no similarities.

In a documentary called Bowling for Columbine, the director goes and tries to compare many of different crimes to violence. Yes all of his comparisons have violence in them, but none of them really relate. You can't compare a little girl who is 6 years old, being shot at school, to the worst high school shooting in US history. But you can compare the amount of violence in the world today to the amount of violence in the world yesterday. In do so; you might want to keep in mind the worlds population. With the increase of the population there is bound to be more violence. This is all based on statistics.

In the documentary Bowling for Columbine, the director goes on to compare the US violence to the Canadians. This is a very bad comparison if you ask me because you are comparing one culture to another. I am not saying that the Canadians are less violent; I am saying that this is a comparison of apples and oranges. All humanity is divided up into different cultures and beliefs, and to compare them to one another is would be ignorant. Yes you can compare them but not on actions. Why, you ask? Because people are raised differently and its these differences that bring us to our different cultures. The only true way to compare violence is to compare time periods within a single culture. Just because so many Canadians own guns does not mean that they are all plotting certain terrorist attacks. The Canadians live in a land where hunting is a serious sport and just about every family takes part in this sport. Now try to compare this to the kids from the inter city such as the kids from Compton. I bet that you would find a close percentage of gun ownership but the violent acts would be different.

In the past few years I have seen the violence reported on TV increase, but does this mean that it is on the up rise? I don't think so. I believe that that it's the story that pays. What do you think will get a better