ANGLAIS, NOTION N°=3 : PLACES AND FORMS OF POWER

ANGLAIS, NOTION N°=3 : PLACES AND FORMS OF POWER

        Back in the pioneer days, whether you were trying to get food for your family, or fighting off a wild animal to survive, guns were heavily relied on for every aspect of life. Recently, however, guns have increasingly been used by people to hurt or kill other humans. People have been trying for decades to figure out a way to keep innocent lives safe from inappropriate gun use while still allowing guns for those who are responsible and use them as intended for safety and hunting. Therefore, there are two main groups, the gun rights activists who wish to keep their guns, and the gun control activists who wish to get rid of guns.All this creates tensions that are part of the notion places and forms of power. To what extent does gun control divide our society not only from a political view, but also economic and social views ?

        First of all, the root of guns comes from the Second Amendment. The Second Amendment protects an individual right to possess a firearm unconnected with service in a militia, and to use that gun for traditionally lawful purposes, such as self-defense within the home. This amendment is at the center of a lot of debates in the US.  For example, students have demonstrated against the right to bear arms. In the contrary, the National Riffle Association is a powerful lobby which aims to promote firearms. Their main argument is that guns allow people to protect themselves. Indeed, after the declaration of independence, there were no really organized forces such as the army as we know them nowadays. So people had to protect themselves. It is linked to the freedom anchored in the american spirit. They do not want to give up this constitution, which seems to be the seed of this country. However, it seems obsolete now that the USA have police and army forces, the CIA, the FBI etc.

        With what I just said, we see that politics have a major role to play. Especially presidents. After tragedies like the one that happened in Las Vegas, or the mass shootings at schools, they have a duty to deliver a speech that pays tribute to the victims and therefore sets out more or less clearly their opinion on gun control. Two sides are opposed : pro and anti gun, but more precisely, republicans against democrats. Trump, a Republican, outlines his vision in the speech he gave after the shooting in Las Vegas. He uses the lexical field of, with two notions: light and darkness with terms like “dark period”, “light and darkness”, “illuminated by a single ray of hope”. His speech is full of religious connotations but never mention the problem of guns. On the contrary, Obama, who is a democrat, used concrete numbers during his speech at the conference of mayors in 2015 like “more than 11000 Americans were killed by gun violence in 2013”. He puts it as a priority in his speech “we should be able to talk about this issue as citizens”. We see here that both views are opposed and the article from the US News confirms it by saying that  the heart of the matter, as seen by the republicans, is the heart – the heart and soul of people” whereas the democrats are for gun control. They don't listen to each other and no one try to understand the other side.

Many kids have been touched by gun violence in the US and because of this, several organizations have been established like the one called «Moms demand action ». In this awareness campaign, we see a child holding an assault weapon, the other one a kinder egg. The scene takes place in a classroom. It's ironic because at school, whatever background you are, you should feel safe. But in the reality, a lot of school shootings are going on in the US. This caption which says « one child is holding something that's been banned in america to protect them, guess which one », is ridiculous and ironic. The kinder eggs are banned from the US because children can choke on the toy.

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