Guns In The US
Sunday, September 28, 2003
Michael Moore's Bowling for Columbine deserves its Documentary of the Year award - for revealing a distinctly American problem. But I think a false conclusion is being widely drawn from the true data it presents.
Yes, US citizens do shoot each other much more than most others. But I think Moore brushed gun lobbyist Charlton Heston aside too quickly when Heston suggested it was because of their violent past. Low-homicide Germany and Japan have had violent pasts too, argued Moore. But the difference is that the US has a recent history of massive internal conflict.
There was the lawless wild west, the bloody revolution against English rule and the long and harrowing civil war. Any stranger could be the enemy. You had to be ready and willing to shoot people or your family may not survive. Such traumatic lessons are not quickly forgotten.
It does not follow that the US is keen to wage war on other nations. They were dragged late into WW1, unready into WW2, asleep into conflict with Al Qaeda. There was Viet Nam. But compare this with the appetites of the last 4 superpowers: Britain, Germany, Japan and Russia. The US is the least imperial superpower we've had. Do not wish for a replacement. On the odds, it would be far worse.
Philip O'Carroll