Clinton, in his statement, argued against the attitude of those who are opposed to gun control because, from their point of view, guns are part of American culture. They claim, "Guns are culture. We cannot blame guns. We can put the blame on how schools and families have educated children." Guns are definitely a part of American culture, regardless merits and demerits. The number of guns owned by US citizens exceeds 190,000,000. This figure means that every citizen, with the exception of babies, in the US owns one gun. Yet, 7,500,000 additional guns are manufactured every year.
Why are Americans so obsessed with guns? In part, because this country was built upon the massacre of Native Americans. Americans' DNA seems to be equipped with a frontier spirt to, "kill the intruder." The argument that guns are a part of the culture is equal to the position that murder and violence are also part of the culture. Such views cannot break the vicious circle. To protect their children, housewives take shooting lessons, buy rifles on their way home, and put them in their homes.
Actually, violence and murder have been a prevailing presence in all cultural sectors, including TV dramas, movies, rock music, professional wrestling, electronic games and fashion. For example, seven of the eleven top movie videos sold in a two week period beginning April 6 were related to Neo-Nazism and skinheads.
In the 1995 movie, "Basketball Diary," the hero, portrayed by Leonardo DiCaprio, dressed in long black leather coat, invades his high school and kills his classmates and teachers to the beat of rock music. Even before the shootings in Littleton, another shooting in Kentucky also bore similarities to the events in this movie.
It has also been reported that one of the murderers in Littleton was very familiar with a popular personal computer game, "Doom." In this game, players first choose a set of weapons and a route, and then shoot whoever appears when the door opens. It has also been pointed out that the two boys prepared guns and bombs and had chosen the cafeteria as their first target because they knew a great many individuals would be gathered there at that time. They opened one door one after another and killed ten children in the library. They were wearing long trench coats with Nazi markings.
American culture is full of violence and murder and the obsession with guns symbolizes this culture. While this description may be somewhat extreme, there is no doubt that it has much of its basis in fact. |
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