Bowling For Columbine Rhetorical Analysis

In Bowling for Columbine, Michael Moore attempts to find a reason behind the mass shootings that cover every front page newspaper in the United States of America. Moore shows his audience that fear causes the violence in America. American citizens, imbedded with fear ever since the pilgrims first came to this land, sees danger at every turn. The British and the Native Americans terrified the first immigrants so much that the Americans slaughtered them. Then each other, then the black man, then the poor scared the Americans into becoming murderous. Now, everything from authority figures to homeless people frighten Americans. America's forefathers founded the country on the idea of freedom, “the land of the free and the home of the brave.” Because

Also one of the safest countries in the world. However, the great land up north has just as many guns as the United States. How does a government maintain a low murder and violent crime rate with guns in the hands of most citizens? For one, Canada has a far less violent history. They achieved independence through negotiation and peaceful protesting over many years, not a violent war where many lost their lives, such as America's Revolutionary War. Also, Canada never had a slave trade, such as the one in the US. Canada abolished slavery along with Britain’s abolition of slavery in 1833, more than thirty years before America. Canada has never had a civil war. Police rarely kill civilians in Canada. Only 10 people experience fatal police brutality per year, whereas American police kill 990 people per

Police in Canada issue handgun permits only after an investigation to determine the crime-free status and sanity of the citizen. They also check for a justifiable need for protection with a gun, for use in a gun collection or registered gun club. In America, most states require a short training period before getting a gun owning permit. Only some states, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, and Washington State, need a background check of some sort. Also, in Canada, if a crime involves a gun at all, the gun wielder must serve a year in prison minimum, not including the sentence for the actual crime itself. Even for the possession of an unregistered handgun, a court can sentence an individual to jail for up to five years. America has no laws of that