How “Bowling for Columbine” is Relevant 16 Years Later

By MATT MANCUSO

Released in 2002, “Bowling for Columbine” mirrors recent events happening today with 18 school shootings already taking place within 2018.

“Bowling for Columbine”  is a documentary about the environment surrounding two troubled youths, Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris, who committed the Columbine High School massacre. It explores how America views guns, what they mean to its citizens, and where the blame for gun violence was placed shortly after the killings. Its relevance remains true in 2018, where America continues to suffer from gun violence in high schools across the nation.

Had enough yet? #GunControlNow #Parkland #Columbine #LasVegas #SandyHook #VirginiaTech #NOMOREGUNS pic.twitter.com/yFLChQA1V4

— Bandit Aléatoire (@BanditRandom) February 22, 2018

 

“The film begins with a scathing barrage of criticism towards guns and gun owners of all kinds, but ironically ends with a revelation that shakes that entire worldview to its core: that for some reason, Americans are much more violent with their firearms than most other people in the free world,” said Ryan Rubiano, 23, from Glen Rock.

Since the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland, Florida, people for and against stricter gun laws have voiced their opinion on the heated issue.

 

An Aging Truth

There are certain parts of “Bowling for Columbine” that show their age, particularly in the section where film director Michael Moore visits Canadian-U.S. borders to talk to Canadian citizens about whether they feel safe in their homes.

All of the interviewees that he speaks to have little to zero fear of home intruders or shootings near their residence. This does not necessarily represent the view of all Canadian citizens, even though Moore appears to frame the story as such. The 2014 shooting in Ottawa, Canada probably changed many Canadians’ minds about gun violence in their homeland.

Still, there are other parts of “Bowling for Columbine” that ring especially true to this day, such as what the news reports. American news media and government harbors a climate of fear, reminding its citizens of the rape and killings that take place each day, despite our world being safer than ever before.

Fear grips our nation, prompting homeowners to purchase firearms that they may never need to use in their lifetime. The website for ‘Our World in Data’ reports that the life expectancy for the average U.S. citizen is a little above 75 years old.

Despite this, according to Vox Media, President Trump claimed in 2016 that America is more dangerous “than I have ever seen and, frankly, than anybody in this room has ever seen.”

Politicians have blamed violent video games, movies, and other external factors for the crimes, despite the fact that these examples likely have nothing to do with the reasons for committing a crime.

But Rubiano has another theory: “There is something else at work inspiring all of these mass shootings that could be ingrained in American life, even if we don’t know what it is yet.”