Welcome to the blog for Prof. John Talbird's English 251 class. The purpose of this site is two-fold: 1) to continue the conversations we start in class (or to start conversations before we get to class) and 2) to practice our writing/reading on a weekly basis in an informal forum.
I don't think Michael Moore reaches a definitive conclusion about why there are so many mass shootings in the US. Today in The Times, there is an interesting theory about why, perhaps obvious: We have so many guns. What do you think?
Perhaps the main reason is fear. The fear comes from the divisions in our society. People are always fighting each other for racial inequality, political issues, gender, immigration, religion, etc. I agree with the article professor, some gun violence or mass shooting cases do involve people with mental health problems, but many others involve hate against a certain type of people.
It is very sad and painful for me every time I here about a mass shooting; I don't have to know the people they are humans. I don't know the reason why they do this, but I believe some of these mass shooters are sick mentally, religious fanatics,political fanatics,some are plain hateful people who have free access to 🔫s. Look just sunday those people got up and went to church to worship Go d and died because of this mentally unbalance man. So sad! I don't think Michael Moore knows the solution. So Henry I agree with you.
Gun control is must. People should go through a thorough background check before they can buy gun. Owning a gun can have a psychological effect on human mind. People might feel uncontrollable by having a gun. Gun is a tool hateful people are using to fulfill their target. If accessing gun was harder, the amount of mass shooting would be less. The whole idea of NRA is nothing but business. They don't care about constitution. People's lives have no value to them. The only thing excite them is to increase their business. Powerful rich people create all kinds of fear among the population. They rule the society by making people hate each other. They sponsor programs to misinform one ethnic group about other ethnic group. They spread hatred and fear, so that one group of people fight and kill another group of people. A person must grow extreme hatred towards a group to kill one or more people from that group whether it's a racial or religious group. Certain media is playing major role to scare people about a specific ethnic or religious group. By consuming these information people are so scared, they are even afraid to talk to anyone from the group that are introduced as "bad people" in those TV channels. As a Muslim immigrant I personally faced different situation and discrimination that I had no explanation for them. After I got exposed to some news channel like Fox news, I realized if I was in there shoes who are the consumer of this channel I might have the same reaction towards a Muslim. There is so much hypocrisy going on in political arena until there is at least one representative from each ethnic, racial and religious group, people will never get the real identity of any specific group in the American society. No group should be dehumanized in the society. Every culture has combination of good and bad. No one group can be completely good or bad. The idea of "white" vs "black" still dominates our society in different shape and form. Rich people are always afraid of losing their position and wealth. To maintain their safety they can initiate any propaganda in the society that will keep the regular people in chaos all the time. People hating killing each other is a propaganda of rich powerful in the American society who are in control of politics and economy.
Perhaps it is just that we have so many guns. That leads to the question why do we have so many guns? is it because of our culture? For example, action movies which are violent movies are predominantly made in America and in Asia. We know from Moore's documentary that Asia do not have the gun violence problem that we have. America's violent movies are consumed by the world, yet the United States surpasses other first world countries by far when it comes to gun violence. There is a lot of violence in Asian entertainment but I am not sure if the depiction of gun violence in Asian movies/shows is as much as it is in American movies/shows. The action movies/shows from Asia that I watch are kung-fu movies and Japanese animation. They are violent and gory but they don't have much gun violence. I am not suggesting that there's a correlation between gun violence in movies/shows and gun violence in real life. Action movies are my favorite type of movies, I am saying perhaps America's action movies are a reflection of America's gun culture. We have a lot of people that are pro-gun in this country and are against gun control. America love guns and we have plenty of it to love. Mass shootings are caused by people that are mentally ill and/or angry, maybe we need to do a better job addressing mental health in this country. Everything I think about this topic, I come up with questions after questions. If the mass shooting that took place in Sandy Hook did not lead to any major changes in this country, I don't know if anything else will.
Perhaps there are just so many guns that are our there and I don't believe that people want to give up guns. Yes we have the right to bear arms. But with this right and no clear path to stopping all the fun violence. There needs to be a change. If there is no change gun violence will continue. We have to take guns put of the hands of people thay shouldn't have them and for the people that have guns that are using them in the "right way. Have to give in take to protect others around them. We can not all have what we want. I don't think carrying a gun on your wast is so important to risk the lives of others. Guns need to come off the streets and every time I hear about a nother gun shooting i just think again. We just talk about and say it happens but we don't do anything about it. Taking guns of the street is for the better.
After all is said and done, whites vs. blacks, wealthy vs. poor, women vs. men it all boils down to me of people being scared of loosing what they possess. Fear of that the black person who has the same degreee as the white person will not get the position because his black or because its a woman or simply who u know in the field due to your stature. The right person in societies eyes gets the job. Fear leads to stress, mental health issues and provokes people to snap with hatred building overtime just because your not good enough. There is a reason all this shooting and killing is going on. Statistics here and there does not resolve the issue. I certainly do not condone it, but where does it stop? what draws the line? how much closer to home does it have to get in order for change to start for gun control. Everywhere you turn people are enduring pressure at work , school, on the streets on the school bus, being bullied. are we listening closely enough or even observing enough to see the clues. We can make the change if we were truly concern about our country our people, but instead the one we give the power to make the change, think of themselves of what could benefit their pockets and not what can benefit We The People. After all once we realize that it should not be about my pocket, your pocket, white or black, rich or poor, woman or man change should be about humanity and the next generation to come.
This is an interesting article and it shows persuasive data. One related topic is the large number of Fentanyl abusers in the US. There are too many prescriptions and many people died of the drug toxicity when they attempted overdose suicide. The argument about the Fentanyl is not for the prescribers like doctors or pharmacists. Rather than that, pharmacological companies are the problem. They did not organize a strong regulation system and, on the other hand, it is just simply good for the company if many drugs are prescribed. The large numbers of the guns can be considered with a similar way. The gun companies, of course, want to sell their products as many as they can. They know the problem but have ignored it...this is the problem. There are so many things around us that may help with company's profit and hurt the people's body, such as tobacco, fentanyl, potato chips, and ice creams... If the things are lethal or highly abusive, like heroin, cocaine, these are normally prohibited. However, even it is lethal, guns are not prohibited.
Perhaps the main reason is fear. The fear comes from the divisions in our society. People are always fighting each other for racial inequality, political issues, gender, immigration, religion, etc. I agree with the article professor, some gun violence or mass shooting cases do involve people with mental health problems, but many others involve hate against a certain type of people.
ReplyDeleteIt is very sad and painful for me every time I here about a mass shooting; I don't have to know the people they are humans. I don't know the reason why they do this, but I believe some of these mass shooters are sick mentally, religious fanatics,political fanatics,some are plain hateful people who have free access to 🔫s. Look just sunday those people got up and went to church to worship Go d and died because of this mentally unbalance man. So sad! I don't think Michael Moore knows the solution. So Henry I agree with you.
ReplyDeleteGun control is must. People should go through a thorough background check before they can buy gun. Owning a gun can have a psychological effect on human mind. People might feel uncontrollable by having a gun. Gun is a tool hateful people are using to fulfill their target. If accessing gun was harder, the amount of mass shooting would be less. The whole idea of NRA is nothing but business. They don't care about constitution. People's lives have no value to them. The only thing excite them is to increase their business.
ReplyDeletePowerful rich people create all kinds of fear among the population. They rule the society by making people hate each other. They sponsor programs to misinform one ethnic group about other ethnic group. They spread hatred and fear, so that one group of people fight and kill another group of people. A person must grow extreme hatred towards a group to kill one or more people from that group whether it's a racial or religious group. Certain media is playing major role to scare people about a specific ethnic or religious group. By consuming these information people are so scared, they are even afraid to talk to anyone from the group that are introduced as "bad people" in those TV channels.
As a Muslim immigrant I personally faced different situation and discrimination that I had no explanation for them. After I got exposed to some news channel like Fox news, I realized if I was in there shoes who are the consumer of this channel I might have the same reaction towards a Muslim. There is so much hypocrisy going on in political arena until there is at least one representative from each ethnic, racial and religious group, people will never get the real identity of any specific group in the American society. No group should be dehumanized in the society. Every culture has combination of good and bad. No one group can be completely good or bad. The idea of "white" vs "black" still dominates our society in different shape and form. Rich people are always afraid of losing their position and wealth. To maintain their safety they can initiate any propaganda in the society that will keep the regular people in chaos all the time. People hating killing each other is a propaganda of rich powerful in the American society who are in control of politics and economy.
Perhaps it is just that we have so many guns. That leads to the question why do we have so many guns? is it because of our culture? For example, action movies which are violent movies are predominantly made in America and in Asia. We know from Moore's documentary that Asia do not have the gun violence problem that we have. America's violent movies are consumed by the world, yet the United States surpasses other first world countries by far when it comes to gun violence. There is a lot of violence in Asian entertainment but I am not sure if the depiction of gun violence in Asian movies/shows is as much as it is in American movies/shows. The action movies/shows from Asia that I watch are kung-fu movies and Japanese animation. They are violent and gory but they don't have much gun violence. I am not suggesting that there's a correlation between gun violence in movies/shows and gun violence in real life. Action movies are my favorite type of movies, I am saying perhaps America's action movies are a reflection of America's gun culture. We have a lot of people that are pro-gun in this country and are against gun control. America love guns and we have plenty of it to love. Mass shootings are caused by people that are mentally ill and/or angry, maybe we need to do a better job addressing mental health in this country. Everything I think about this topic, I come up with questions after questions. If the mass shooting that took place in Sandy Hook did not lead to any major changes in this country, I don't know if anything else will.
ReplyDeletePerhaps there are just so many guns that are our there and I don't believe that people want to give up guns. Yes we have the right to bear arms. But with this right and no clear path to stopping all the fun violence. There needs to be a change. If there is no change gun violence will continue. We have to take guns put of the hands of people thay shouldn't have them and for the people that have guns that are using them in the "right way. Have to give in take to protect others around them. We can not all have what we want. I don't think carrying a gun on your wast is so important to risk the lives of others. Guns need to come off the streets and every time I hear about a nother gun shooting i just think again. We just talk about and say it happens but we don't do anything about it. Taking guns of the street is for the better.
ReplyDeleteAfter all is said and done, whites vs. blacks, wealthy vs. poor, women vs. men it all boils down to me of people being scared of loosing what they possess. Fear of that the black person who has the same degreee as the white person will not get the position because his black or because its a woman or simply who u know in the field due to your stature. The right person in societies eyes gets the job. Fear leads to stress, mental health issues and provokes people to snap with hatred building overtime just because your not good enough. There is a reason all this shooting and killing is going on. Statistics here and there does not resolve the issue. I certainly do not condone it, but where does it stop? what draws the line? how much closer to home does it have to get in order for change to start for gun control. Everywhere you turn people are enduring pressure at work , school, on the streets on the school bus, being bullied. are we listening closely enough or even observing enough to see the clues. We can make the change if we were truly concern about our country our people, but instead the one we give the power to make the change, think of themselves of what could benefit their pockets and not what can benefit We The People. After all once we realize that it should not be about my pocket, your pocket, white or black, rich or poor, woman or man change should be about humanity and the next generation to come.
ReplyDeleteThis is an interesting article and it shows persuasive data. One related topic is the large number of Fentanyl abusers in the US. There are too many prescriptions and many people died of the drug toxicity when they attempted overdose suicide. The argument about the Fentanyl is not for the prescribers like doctors or pharmacists. Rather than that, pharmacological companies are the problem. They did not organize a strong regulation system and, on the other hand, it is just simply good for the company if many drugs are prescribed. The large numbers of the guns can be considered with a similar way. The gun companies, of course, want to sell their products as many as they can. They know the problem but have ignored it...this is the problem. There are so many things around us that may help with company's profit and hurt the people's body, such as tobacco, fentanyl, potato chips, and ice creams... If the things are lethal or highly abusive, like heroin, cocaine, these are normally prohibited. However, even it is lethal, guns are not prohibited.
ReplyDelete