Lieux et formes de pouvoirs - can we control guns?

I am going to talk about places and form of power. First, I would like to give a definition of this notion. Power is the ability to exercice authority and influence over others. It can be exerted in different ways : economy, politics, media … In relation to the notion, the topic of my presentation will be the gun control. This year in class, we studied some documents about this notion. I will attempt to answer the question : « Can we control guns ? » To answer this question, I will present you some documents, the first document is called « In guns we trust ? », the second document is called « Gun Owners of America » and the third document is a video called « A brief history of the united states of America »

In guns we trust is a simple white and black ad. It shows a close-up of a gun which is pointed at us and gives us the impression that we are the target. There is a finger on the trigger ready to shoot. There is also a catchphrase at the end of the barrel « All in favor of gun control raise you hand, all against raise both ». There is also a statistic that shows the number of people murdered in several coutries and we can see that the USA is the country with the most people murdered due to gun violence  with over nine thousand dead. We can see this document as an awareness campaing because of the picture. If someone look at the picture, he can imagine himself with a gun pointed at him and It may effect his point of view about guns.

The second document is a pro-gun speech pronounced by Ted Nugent who is a singer. Ted Nugent use his notoriety in propaganda for a lobby called Gun Owners of America (GOA). In his speech, he invites every members of GOA to recruit more people like for exemple their friends, their families. To convince them, he said that the bureaucrats want the people to be disarmed and helpless. He ends up by saying that they must fight for their freedom. In this documents, we can see how Ted Nugent use of his notoriety to convince people to join him in his fight for guns.

The third documents is a ironic video who shows us how the second amendment was instaured in a very ironic way. We can also see in this video how the USA became one of the richest and most powerful country in the world, of course in a ironic way once again. It shows us the creation of the NRA who is a racist organisation (National Rifle Association). During the video we can also see the discrimination against black people. And they show us how the guns have become easier to buy. So this video describes the history of the USA in a very ironic way.

These three documents showed us that guns can be considered like a form of power because of the NRA and the GOA. Both of these political lobbys have an ideology centered on guns and alot of Americans agree with their ideologies. In the USA, there are more guns than people. There is alot of political people at the American parlement who are against gun control so If anyone try to pass a law for gun control, alot of them will be against this law. This is why I think that we can’t control guns in America because of all these issues.

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