Bowling for Columbine

I watched Michael Moore's documentary on school shootings and guns last night. Every time I said Michael Moore's name, it was always followed by a remark about his liberal, fanatical views. Only my friend Jacob didn't say anything bad about him when I mentioned his movies. (He didn't say anything good either, but whatev.)

I thought this particular movie, Bowling for Columbine, was great. It was sensitive and never overly biased. Michael Moore never said anything directly about tighter gun control laws or that guns should be outlawed. He simply pointed out some major issues that result from guns in our country. He put a lot of important people in awkward positions, but he got results.
Charlton Heston, for example, looked horrible, and his ill-stated views about the right to bare arms were exploited by Moore. K-Mart on the other hand was surprisingly accommodating. Moore went out on limb (and a whim, it looked like) and took Columbine shot victim to a K-Mart convention. There he asked to speak with someone with authority to remove ammunition from K-Mart shelves. At first, K-Mart representatives pushed him aside, and did not give him, or the kids, the respect they deserved. Their proposal was very unorthodox, but not unreasonable. After a second trip to the convention (and this time with the media), K-Mart officially announced they would remove ammunition from their stores. Wow. Moore was even surprised.
What I really liked about the movie and Michael Moore was his honesty, good intentions and bipartisan experience. Moore was a member of NRA and had used guns his whole life, but he also could see the dangers and outcomes of gun usage in our country. This movie was a quest to find out why the people of the US are more violent with our guns than anyone else in the world. I know there are thousands of deaths all over the world from guns, especially at a time when we are at war with Iraq, but the deaths in the US I'm talking about are not war-related. They are domestic and completely unrelated to foreign influences.

I always thought poorly of Michael Moore because of others' opinions. But when I gave him a chance, I really enjoyed the movie and learned a lot. I laughed a lot throughout the movie. I loved the animation scene of the history of Americans and guns. But I still think Americans should have the right to have a gun. I think our education system should be improved and parents should pay closer attention to the entertainment influences that kids live their lives around. Gun problems will decrease when families are closer together, negative entertainment is minimized and education is improved.