Bowling for Columbine - an Intense Experience

Bowling for Columbine was an intense experience for me. Horrific images flew across the screen making my heart drop a few beats. The movie was laid out throwing humor at us at every available moment, I noticed that throughout most of the movie people were laughing, but then when the movie got out the realization of what they just watched hit them. The crowd that seemed so cheery and uppity came out of the small cramped theatre with a sullen look on their faces.

This movie was a roller coaster ride of human history, violence, and paranoia, touching on so many issues I would have to go back and see it several more times before I could even begin to see them all. For a movie with a title that includes an even as powerful and earth shattering as the Columbine High School shootings were, the movie surprisingly had very little to do with that event itself. Instead it was Michael Moore's quest to find an answer to the high rate of gun violence in the United States.

What is it that is different about the US that makes it as a Nation more violent than so many others? So many people have so many different answers, they range from simple and ridiculous ones such as Marilyn Manson music corrupting the minds of our youth, to complex theories that will go into detail about how the media through the use of violence to create an audience that is so paranoid they respond with violence towards each other.

I don't believe there is an easy answer to this question. There are so many issues surrounding this controversial issue. I am a true believer in the right to bare arms, but I also believe there should be some kind of system in place to better teach the young about the responsibilities of being around them.

There are so many other things in our world that are at least just as dangerous as guns, take poison for example. Just about everyone in the country has some type of poison in his or her homes, but we don't see thousands of people dying each and every year from poison. I feel that this is mainly because of the education that we put into teaching people about the hazards of such things. Sure there are programs that pop up from time to time that will work to educate people on safe handling of guns, but they will be short lived and the people who start such programs are to scared to teach all of the important issues. I propose this, Teach citizens to handle guns, emphasize the reality of what a gun is capable of and responsible ways to use them. Every time I see a campaign about gun safety it will focus on locking away the gun in a safe box that makes the gun useless for personal safety.

As a result of watching this movie I started to think about my role as a graphic design in this issue. In our field we create designs for other people to see, graphic designers have a great deal of influence about how people see the world, or at least those things that can be conveyed in such