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GRAMMAR

Gun Rights vs Gun Control

The private ownership of guns is an especially contentious political topic in the United States, where the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution states:

• A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed. (1789)

Gloser: amendment: tilføjelse til forfatningen.                          infringe: krænke

The meaning of this text remains fiercely debated.
The first ten amendments to the United States Constitution are called the Bill of Rights.
(From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

The two sides in the debate are:

• the gun rights advocates
  (or the gun rights lobby),
  especially the National Rifle Association
   
• the gun control advocates.

The gun rights advocates believe the Second Amendment protects individual citizens’ right to keep and bear arms for self-defence (i.e. against the government)

- whereas the gun control advocates claim that the Second Amendment protects the rights of the states to maintain a State militia against the interference of the federal government.

Gun rights advocates assert that gun control laws are ineffective because criminals ignore gun control laws. Instead a lawfully armed citizen may avert a crime by confronting a would-be attacker with a loaded gun.
Gun rights advocates also claim that an armed citizenry is the population’s last line of defence against tyranny by their own government.
(From Wikipedia)

A pro-gun slogan: “Guns don't kill people, people do.”

1. Gun violence

Study the Time, CNN and Guardian websites below.
Find important information about gun violence in the USA today.
Print ½-1 page – and prepare a discussion about an important issue.

• Guns and Violence Time Inc. Articles about American attitudes to guns, analysis of the recent school shootings, articles about the connection between violence on screen and in real life and articles on children’s aggressions.
  -  The Supreme Court and the Second Amendment
• CNN: Are U.S. schools safe?
  An in-depth special on recent high school shootings in the USA
• CNN: Guns under fire An in-depth special on the trials some American cities are carrying out against gun manufacturers       -   Links
• Guardian Unlimited: Gun violence in the US     -  Gun control in the US guide
   
• Gun politics in the US From Wikipedia. Background
• School shooting From Wikipedia

2. The gun lobby

Study the gun lobby’s websites.
Find important arguments for the individual’s right to keep and bear arms.
Print ½-1 page – and prepare a discussion about an important issue.

This arrow means that the following webpages are particularly relevant.

Gun rights:

• The National Rifle Association Argues for the rights of individuals to keep and bear arms:    Issues        -       Fables, Myths & Other Tall Tales
  -  Charlton Heston On Gun Control

• Gun Owners of America "The only no-compromise gun lobby in Washington":
  Just for Skeptics: The Truth About Guns In Society
   

• Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms:                            General information
   

• Gun Control and The Right to Self-defense
  "I believe its time again to repeat why every man has a right to own firearms"
   

• Rights to Self Defense "When governments fear the people, there is liberty. When the people fear the government, there is tyranny." - dead link?
   

• Analyse the poster on the right

Daryl Cagle, Politicalcartoons.com
 

Waco, Texas, and the Oklahoma bombing

Waco, Texas, 1993: The reactions to the events at Waco, Texas, may be studied to learn how many Americans feel the need to defend the rights of the individual against so-called government tyranny. The Oklahoma bombing may be studied along the same lines.

• The Waco Massacre "Is this the future of the United States, with law-abiding citizens murdered at will by agents of the government?"
  This site has many links
  
  Background:

• Waco New revalations have emerged about the raid on the Branch Davidian compound. TIME.com takes a look back at the events of 1993, and the subsequent investigation.

• Waco: The Inside Story  PBS

• Branch Davidians  Apologetics Index
  
  The Oklahoma bombing:

• The Oklahoma City bombing "America's equivalent of the 1933 Reichstag Fire"

• Oklahoma City Tragedy CNN

• Oklahoma bombing BBC

3. Bowling for Columbine

Study  the debate about Bowling for Columbine.
Point out some of the fundamental issues in the debate.
Print ½-1 page – and prepare a discussion about an important issue.

                                                                  Film
Bowling for Columbine (2002). Director: Michael Moore. Running time: 120 mins. - "Are we a nation of gun nuts or are we just nuts?"
Activist filmmaker Michael Moore sets out to explore the roots of America's predilection for gun violence in this documentary film. It is a journey through America, hoping to discover why Americans pursuit of happiness is so riddled with violence. Furthermore, Moore seeks to investigate and confront the powerful elite, political and corporate interests fanning this culture for their own unscrupulous gain. (Film Education)

• Bowling for Columbine Website of the Oscar-winning documentary based on the 1999 massacre at an American High School in Colorado.  -  Teacher’s guide
• Bowling for Columbine From Wikipedia
• Bowling for Columbine Study guide. Film Education.
  
  Debate:
• Bowling for Columbine Documentary or Fiction? - David T. Hardy.
  An attack on the film

• Bowling for truth "This website is here as a resource to expose the distortions and dishonesty in fictitious film director Michael Moore's Oscar winning documentary, Bowling For Columbine."

• Spinsanity “Viewer beware. In "Bowling for Columbine," Michael Moore once again puts distortions and contradictions before the truth.”

• Michael Moore responds to the wacko attackos Moore's defence of his film
   

4. What Makes Children Kill?

Study the websites below. Find interesting theories that answer the question.
Print ½-1 page – and prepare a discussion.

• The Depressive and the Psychopath At last we know why the Columbine killers did it. By Dave Cullen. April 20, 2004
• What Makes Children Kill? By Elizabeth Kastor. Washington Post, March 27, 1998. The school shootings in Jonesboro, Arkansas, March 1998.
• Secret Service Is Seeking Pattern for Key to School Killers New York Times, June 1999
   
• School Violence www.cooperativeadventures.com. Links
• Juvenile Crime Links angelfire.com
   

Knotted Gun by Fredrik Reuterswärd, UN Building, New York City © Copyright 2005 Søren Viit Nielsen

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Last update December 07