Michael Moore’s documentary Bowling for Columbine argues that people in North America believe that the United States is more violent than Canada. Through a variety of ways, Moore presents us with this idea. Should a person agree with him, or not?
Evening news in the States seems to be created for one reason: To generate fear in the public. In a montage of evening news, we see clips showing Y2K news and escalator dangers, stories that have created mass fear or stories that pose no real threat but have been made to cause the public to worry. In contrast, when Moore is visiting Canada he notices the evening news and sees that they talk more about peace, political problems, and there is even a clip where the news is doing a story on speed bumps. In Moore’s words, “They aren’t being pumped full of fear every night.” Is there really a big difference in the news we are fed? Do Canadians really see less violence and tragedy on their evening news? The interviewed people claim they don’t really have any fears. For those people who have seen the difference in the evening news, the opinion is that the United States is much more violent. But that’s just according to what has been shown to the public in the evenings.
In Canada, it appears that people care less about your colour, language, or nationality. They don’t blame black people for committing crimes because it’s easier. Moore visits the Canadian side and begins talking to Americans who feel that they are less set apart when they are on the Canadian side. There is a montage showing clips of American black people being arrested, and another montage presents us with images and suspect lists from news stories that all describe black males. Professor Barry Glassner tells Moore that it may not be all black males being blamed, but the news chooses those stories to cover. It stirs up feelings in the viewers of fear of black men. In Canada, there are many different cultures and races, but there does not seem to be any discrimination against a certain people type. There is a feeling of acceptance according to the people that Michael Moore talks too.
The violence including guns is very low in Canada and quite high in the U.S. Moore tells us that Canada’s residents have lots of guns but the amount of gun murders in Canada is significantly less than the gun murders in the States. When interviewing Canadians, they don’t talk about having loaded guns in their houses like Charlton Heston and James Nichols; they have them mostly for hunting. There may even be some encouragement from the news for teens to be violent. They see how there are many other angry people killing others, and the government and military are using guns and bombs and missiles to solve their war issues. In Canada, there is more talk about using peace to solve problems. If any of what was just said didn’t take it home for you, here are some facts:
11,127. This number may mean nothing to you. But 11,127 is the number of gun deaths that occurred in the U.S.A. in 2001*. Compare that to the 165 gun deaths in Canada during the same year*. Given this information, do you want to believe that the United States is more violent than Canada?
This documentary gives us facts, interviews, opinions, and it is all done in such a way to make us believe what Moore has to say. Moore gives plenty to chew on, to think about, and with that information, a person is given the knowledge to make to decide for their selves whether Canada is less violent than the United States of America.
*Center for Disease Control
*Statistics Canada
