Oral Anglais Gun Violence "Places and forms of power"

        Today, I am going to present the notion “Places and forms of power”. Let’s define this notion: power is the ability to control people with money or influence and is generally symbolized by a person, a group, a corporation, a nation, an object or even a place. To illustrate this notion, I am going to use the example of gun violence, specifically in the U.S. Guns have the ability to kill or injure people, therefore they are a symbol of power. But what is gun violence? Gun violence is violence committed with the use of a gun, including homicides, suicides, mass shootings… in fact, any gun-related incidents.

        Then, why has gun-control created an endless debate in the U.S.?

        To begin with, I’ll give you a bit of background with American history. Then, I’ll focus on gun’s ease of access and its consequences. Finally, I’ll try to explain why the last president Barack Obama and the majority of Americans are powerless to reform gun laws.

I-        In the Michael Moore's documentary “Bowling for Columbine”, which is a very satirical criticism of the U.S. society, you can learn a lot about gun-related American history. Indeed, Americans got their independence thanks to guns, conquered the West thanks to guns, and protected their nation thanks to guns. They always have relied on their guns to secure themselves. As you can see, the right to keep and bear arms is deeply-rooted in the American culture and is symbolized by the “untouchable” 2nd amendment.

II-         Furthermore, firearms are very accessible in the U.S., in specialized shops, for example, but even in casual shops like Walmart where they sold ammunitions, in the past. Consequently, in 2017, the U.S. saw a total of 346 mass shootings. In my opinion, such a huge number should make things change, because this is frightening and alarming.

III-        Moreover, a survey says that almost 80% of Americans showed support towards laws preventing the mentally ill from purchasing firearms, and 70% were in favour of a national gun-sale database. But, if this doesn’t happen this is because what does really matter is the opinion of the U.S. Congress and the influence of lobbies like the NRA. Therefore, Barack Obama was having bad time with his gun-control proposals.

        To conclude, the main reasons for this endless debate on gun-control are an unbalanced power of the lobbies and a blockage occurring in the U.S. Congress. I think money plays a major role and slows down this debate.

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