Michael Moore "Bowling for Columbine". Why is canada calmer than america? 10 points?

Question

I was curious why america always shoot ppl and that and canada never do that. I know america sometimes go out n shoot without resolving probs like canada, but there more reasons than that!!! help?

Answer 1

OK, if Canada is so much calmer than America, how come I saw a news piece on a serial killer in Vancouver.

The truth is that Canada and the rest of the world have just as many problems as America. It is just that America has been placed on such a high pedestal that the rest of the world watches its every move.

Ex: The mine in Utah. There are currently six miners that are missing and another 4 or so that have been killed during the rescue because the mine was hit by an earthquake. That is one mine out of the hundreds that are in the US and it had to be hit by an earthquake to be unsafe. Does that mean that America's mines are unsafe and too dangerous? Yet China had almost 200 miners killed in one mine the other day because the mine was not constructed safely.

I did agree with Moore that the media sensationalizes violence and gives too much attention to the violators instead of the victims. This does contribute to a desensitization of people with regards to life and authority. I believe that if the media spent just as much time working on good news as they do bad news, people would be less paranoid and everyone would have a better attitude toward each other.

Answer 2

As shown in 'bowling for columbine' I don't think anyone really knows this answer. Americans try to justify because of their 'bloody history'. What about Britain? What about Germany? There seems to be a mentality about America which is different from elsewhere in the world built on paranoia and fear. They seem less interested in actually solving the cause of the gun problem than dealing with the problems when they come up with 'the right to own guns' blinding so much common sense. example being the virginia tech shootings and people saying that had the university allowed guns, someone could have killed and stopped the gunman sooner. had people not thought that had guns not been made so readily available incidents like this would not be such a regular occurance and if univeristies do allow guns, how many more of these incidents will happen?
as has already been mentioned social problems lie at the root of so much. the american school and university system seems very clique and excluding. people are made to feel different, feel wronged and seek to take revenge upon the people who have inflicted this in the worst way possible and maybe this transcends from the school system into society as a whole and because of the availabilty of weapons, this is the first things people turn to.
i don't think it is just canda who is calmer but probably used here as an example because of the close vacinity of it.
america is not put on a pedastle, it is fact that it has an alarmingly high numbers of shootings. the media in america does not take an entirely different form from other countries, bad news is reported everywhere taking president over the good. the media cannot be blamed for a problem which is spiralling out of control in one country alone yet does not have a big impact in others. japan produces some of the most violent movies and video games and yet it is america with this big problem leading me to believe it is the roots of society which needs to be examined, not material influences. had the media been the problem, why does everyone, the the same country or in different ones, react the same way to a media stimulus? the hypodermic needle theory of media values being 'injected' into an audience has been widely discredited as it is the social experiences and personal values which take over and deconstruct what is been seen or read. again, it is here in society where the root of the problem lies and the values of society.

Answer 3

I just randomly stumbled on this discussion and feel obliged to interject something. Take it for what it is, personal opinion....
USA vs Canada vs Japan vs whomever, gun control and the accompanied violent media quips seem to be the overriding tone in this discussion. Here's my two cents - Gun control is OK, want me to register my weapons? OK, want to check my background before i buy one? OK. So what? The "weapons" that are generally used in crimes aren't registered (nor would they be) by the criminals that use them. They don't run down to Wal-Mart and have themselves checked out before they buy. Laws on gun control only affect LAW ABIDING citizens. Following that logic, make a law that takes away guns and the only people that will follow it will be law abiding citizens. Granted, the Columbine shooting and Vtech were/are tragedies. If you took the kids' parents guns away (and shame on the parents for leaving the weapons accesible) would the trajedies have still happened on with some other weapon? Probably, ever look up pipe bombs on the internet? Detailed expilicit instructions. Am I saddened that these incidents happened, sure, might they have happened anyway? Probably. So, that being said, other countries don't have "weapon" problems? Just a quick thought, it doesn't take a gun to kill, far more deaths occur in third world underdeveloped countries (yes, including Iraq) by machete, rock or big stick than guns. But is there a ban on big sticks? A world cry from the far left to ban rocks???? If you were an Iraqi resident, and I'm sure no one really wants to give up all their freedoms, especially the freedom to b yatch, would you want to be WITHOUT a weapon to defend yourself? Keep in mind that I've been there (I kept my weapon close) and also, my opinions are my own.

Answer 4

NOTE: This is just an opinion; I don't have any research backing any of this up.

While it's inaccurate to say Canadians don't ever shoot people (they do), it's probably fair to say Americans do it a lot more often (even controlling for population).

I would guess that one reason America is more violent than Canada is the way the countries originally started.

America became who it is today through a) Killing off the Indians, B) the Revolutionary War, and C) the Civil War.
All of these battles relied on regular folks to get their gun and go shoot something, and having a firearm to protect your home was just something that you did.

Throughout most of America's history, there have been various groups that have supported the firearm ownership/vigilante justice/"Look mommy, I'm a cowboy" ideal, such as the minutemen back old school, the KKK in the early 20th century, and the NRA today. Today, the NRA is a very powerful lobby group, and there are politicians (particularly republicans) that can say "no" to them without serious political repercussions.

Thus, today you have a (vocal) group of people who feel the constitution says owning a gun that can shoot hundreds of armor piercing bullets per minute is a right, and is absolutely neccessary so said people can protect their family from: A) Foreigners B) Burglars and C) the US Government. This translates into a 'gun and violence' mentality, whereby violence is simply the correct way to solve problems, and if you don't like it then I'll shoot you in your face with my shiny gun.

Combine this gun/violence mentality with teenage hormones (not to mention various supreamacist propaganda) and you have a Columbine shooting. Combine this mentality with poor urban minority youth and you have gang/street violence, which is exacerbated by the fights over drug dealing turf. Combine this mentality with depressed and overworked employees, and you have your various employer/employee shootings. Combine this mentality with emotionally distraught individuals, and you have your husband-kills-wife-and-boyfriend shootings. In short, the American mentality of violence leads to a lot of problems in society, especially when combined with gun ownership rights that were taken out of context from its original purpose (protecting your home from attacks, fighting off foreign invaders) and used instead for day-to-day problems (being picked on, getting dumped, getting fired, etc). Add this to the individualistic Clint Eastwood/Cowboy mentality that is drilled into people, and you end up with a large part of the population that is A) violent, B) owns firearms, and C) is batsh*t crazy; this leads to a lot of bad news in America.

While I don't know as much about Canada's history, I do believe they have yet to shrug off England's cold, clammy grip, and are still loyal to The Crown, at least to some extent. Thus, instead of the pioneer/cowboy mentality, Canadians have inherited the ruler/ruled mentality, whereby having a big government who protects and tends for the people is simply the way things are and should be. This leads to problem solving more on the societal level (i.e. let's have universal healthcare, eh?), rather than having a population focused purely at the individual level (i.e. I just got dumped, so let me go shoot someone, eh?).

Canada also has less people, which mean less raw number of violent events.

Finally, it's freakin' cold in Canada, which reduces one's desire to do drive by shootings, as it requires rolling the window down and letting the cold air in the car.

While these are broad generalizations and are certainly not applicable to everyone, hopefully this helped at the macro level.

Answer 5

You should never take Michael Moore's movies with nothing more than a grain of salt. It's his movie and he can show you whatever he wants. He chooses not to show any violence that occurs in Canada. Additionally, he fails to distinguish that many gun murders may be gang-related, pre-meditated or acts of self-defense. The movie is very misleading.

That being said, one cause for higher levels of violence is a weak and ineffective criminal justice system. In most states, especially those with higher crime rates, convicted felons are released early instead of serving a full prison term. If a violent felon is convicted for 15 years, he should serve the full term, not a fraction such as 3-5 years only to be released back into society to commit more crimes. Keeping criminals in prison longer keeps them off the streets.

Answer 6

Americans (generally speaking) are used to getting what they want, when they want and are big consumers. Americans aren't used using moderation. It is often a case of freedom run amuck ... the notion that "I'll do whatever the heck I want." It is sort of a residual of the Wild West mentality. Allow me to explain ...

Although crimes ocur in ALL countries, people in other countries, especially the smaller and less economically-powerful ones, there seems to be a greater consciousness of knowing moral and legal limits, what is and isn't allowed, etc. In some countries there is less social tolerance for wayward behaviors. Even if some countries are a little more liberal and tolerant of personal choice, they can be very strict on law enforcement.

I lived in the Netherlands for a year and although the people there are very tolerant and open-minded and more compassionate in some ways, they tend to be very critical and judgemental of irrational and selfish behaviors. I feel the more socialistic a country is, the less violent it tends to be because people are more focused on human welfare.

I don't know of any other country aside from the USA in which a kid will kill another kid in order to steal his $120 tennis shoes. This actually happened in New York about 15 years ago. In other countries they will trick you and rob you, but its actually rare for them to kill you. They just don't often cross that line. And I suspect the same can be said for Canada.

You pose an interesting question ... :-)

Answer 7

Well there are large cities in Canada where there are numerous shootings, Toronto, Montreal, Winnipeg, Edmonton, Vancouver and it involves , usually ,certain ethnic groups and gang violence against each other.

Canada is about the tenth the size of the US , our gun laws were more strict, until the current government started mucking about with them, despite being a law and order government. However that being said, the majority of crimes committed with guns are either stolen from legitimate gun enthusiasts or in most of the cases imported from the US. Frankly if the US can ban our beef and whatever else they care to , I can't understand why the Harper government won't ban the importation of guns from the US, probably because he's in W's pocket just like Tony Blair was.

Canada has her problems with shootings and gun violence as well, Americans just don't hear about it as the US media doesn't report international news well unless it concerns them.

Answer 8

One should not generalize questions with phrases such as "always shoot people" "and "Canada never do that" There are so many variables to consider that it is not a "question" that could be answered in a few keystrokes. I never saw Michael Moore's movie but does anyone know where he lives??? P.S. please capitalize country's names for me it just bugs me makes me want to go out and shoot somebody.

Answer 9

Canada is very sparsely populated, it's bigger than the U.S. with one tenth the people (think about what happens when you pack rats too tightly in cages, they eat each other). Also the demographics of Canada is different than the U.S., that plays a big role as well.

Answer 10

believe itt is primarily due to our media brainwashing our children. The media constantly tells us how bad we are, and our marketing tells kids the only way to happiness is to have all these things, have a particular appearance, have the correct family, be the best student, etc. etc. We have no respect or tolerance for anyone that varies from the model provided by the elite.