POST 9 : THE US GUN CULTURE

The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence : 

The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence is a nonprofit organization affiliated with  the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence. Both of them advocate for gun control and against gun violence. The Brady Campaign was founded in 1974 as the National Council to Control Handguns (NCCH). From 1980 through 2000 it operated under the name Handgun Control, Inc. (HCI). In 2001, it was renamed the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, and its sister project, the Center to Prevent Handgun Violence, was renamed the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence.

This poster used in 2010 for the campaign against gun use in the US shows a list of people from different countries that got murdered by guns. The larger amount of people murdered because of guns is the US one with 9,484 compared to Canada with 200.  After this shocking information, the sentence "GOD BLESS AMERICA" is writen in capital letters. A certain irony or sarcasm can be depicted with such a patriotic message in opposition to the terrible amount of people guns murdered in the country in the short period of a year.

At the bottom of the poster we can see the image of a gun customized with the US flag, with the stars and stripes.

Human Development Index: 

The Human Development Index (HDI) is a composite statistic (composite index) of life expectancy, education, and per capita income indicators, which are used to rank countries into four tiers of human development. 

These graphs from 2010 show gun murder comparing rich countries and poor countries. The firs graph is a Top 10 of gun murdering in South American countries, while the highest number goes for Honduras and the lowest for the US. In contrast with the other graph, the US have the highest score of gun murdering. This shows the problems and murders caused by the fact of allowing people to own guns, not everybody is able to have that kind of responsability. 

Cartoons: 

The Second Amendment (Amendment II) to the United States Constitution protects the right of the people to keep and bear arms and was adopted on December 15, 1791, as part of the first ten amendments contained in the Bill of Rights. The Second Amendment was based partially on the right to keep and bear arms in English common law and was influenced by the English Bill of Rights of 1689.

The Founding Fathers of the United States were those of the Thirteen Colonies in North America who led the American Revolution against the Kingdom of Great Britain and contributed to the establishment of the United States of America.

The National Rifle Association of America (NRA) is an American nonprofit organization founded in 1871, that advocates for gun rights. 

These two documents are two cartoons, the first one is untitled Gun Lobby and Congress, by Steve Sack and published in www.startribune.com in 2010. The second cartoon is untitled Second Amendment and NRA, by Dave GRANDLUND on www.davegrandland.com in 2013.  

This cartoon shows two characters, the one in the left is a member of the NRA while the one in the right seems to be a politician, a member of the Congress. They are in the street, outside of the Capitol in Washington, the capital city of the US. The NRA member is hanging a bag full of money and offering it to the politician in exchange for political benefits, we may consider it as bribery. The character says "NOW, WHERE WERE WE, BEFORE WE WERE RUDELY INTERRUPTED...". The politician seems to be happy to hear that as he is about to recieve a considerable amount of money. There is a stream of blood runing downstairs from the capitol, that makes us understand that there has been a murder or a massacre. The Capitol symbolizes the whole country of the US, where hundreds of people are murdered every year because of gun use while the government is being bribed by the NRA so they don't prohibit it. 

This cartoon is divided in two parts, in the left we can see a sculpture of a US soldier from the XIXth Century and in the right a current soldier with full equipment. Both of them define the Second Amendment that allows the use of guns in the US, from two different points of view. The left side represents the Second Amendment from the founding fathers point of view, as they were members of the America Constitutional Convention of 1787. At that time people would be allowed to own guns for they own security in such a tough country. Nevertheless, the NRA misinterprets the Second Amendment currently. They make amalgam between owning guns for self-defense and security and having a full equipment of weapons. This is a clear criticism of the NRA as they fully misunderstand the actual reason of having guns and don't realize the danger and the risks they cause. 

All these documents are against gun use in the US and for its prohibition. It is clear that owning guns is a huge responsability that not everybody is able to manage. The Government should realize that guns are causing hundreds of deaths every year and stop leting the Gun Lobby exerce their influence and power.