Post 6 : THE US GUN CULTURE

The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, 2010

The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence and the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence are affiliated American nonprofit organizations that advocate for gun control and against gun violence.
Together, they are commonly reffered to as the Brady Campaign.
It was founded in 1974 as the National Council to Control Handguns (NCCH).

This poster forms part of the 2010 Campaign to prevent gun violence and it raises the  issue of US gun culture.

It's composed of three principal elements : the controversial Brady Campaign´s logo (in the botton left corner of the page), a series of figures with the American motto "God Bless America" (at the top) and a huge gun in the colors of the national flag, the Stars and Stripes.
The designer of this poster aims to draw attention to a few elements which are very clearly disposed : first, the gun is a true eye-catcher and we could ask ourselves if this campaign is for or against weapons bearing...so we finally pay attention to the text and the word "murdered" catches the eye. Indeed, it describes the number of shot deaths in seven countries in only one year : the highest belongs to the United State of America, 9,484, while the others not exceed 200. This figure is not really surpising in itself  given that the bearing of arms is a constitutionally guaranteed right.
This his obvious that the goal of this poster is surely to make us react to gun violence - which is very present and rooted in American culture - by demonstrating to us the extent of the problem. However, we can noted that this kind of campaign have not real impact on the society, given that weapons still are allowed in most states of the country.

2010 Graphs

These documents are two graphs that had been published by the the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime  in 2010 (UNODC : it's a United Nation office that was established in 1997 to assist the UN in better adressing a coordinated, comprehensive response to the interrelated issues of illicit trafficking in and abuse of drugs, crime prevention and criminal justice, international terrorism and political corruption). The first one represent the top 10 countries organised by gun murder rate and the second one also represents gun murder rate of some developed countries : both are based on the latest data for each country from 2004 to 2010.
They teach us that, even if the United States of America are massively hit by gun murder (3,2) compared to Japan (0), New Zealand or Germany (0,2), they are only ranked 26th on a worldwile scale (far behind  Honduras, El Savador and Jamaica !). The ranking is established following the Human Development Index (HDI), which is a composite statistic of life expectancy, education and per capita income indicators : a country scores higher HDI when the lifespain is higher, the education level is higher and the GDP per capita is higher.
Thus, these two documents also tackle the issue of gun violence but allow us to put it back in its context : weapons - and above all the violence that comes along with it ! - are a real problem in the all world.  As it is an official document, it has no under message and only helps raising the awareness of the gun problem in the world, in particular in South America. Yet, we can go as far as to relate it with the stranglehold of the USA on this region and their strategy aiming to maintain it in a state of dependance ( by fueling the gun violence ).

Next, these two cartoons were made by Steve SACK (in 2010) and Dave GRANDLUND (in 2013) in order to critizice the gun lobby power in the USA which impeed the legislation to enact laws about gun regulation or simply against gun bearing.

Steve SACK, on www.startribune.com,

Gun Lobby and Congress (2010)

Indeed, the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution protects explicitly the right of the people to keep and bear arms (it was adopted on December 15, 1791,
as part of the first ten amendments contained in the Bill of Rights), hence, numerous associations were born to protect this legal permission. This is exactly the case for the NRA (National Rifle Association of America)  which is an American nonprofit organization that advocates for gun rights : it was founded in 1871 and has directly lobbied for and against legislation since 1975.

Therefore, the first caricature is composed of two main elements : the United States Congress - whose stairs are drooling of blood - and two men with one suitecase each - who represent the gun lobby and all Congress deputies - trading money. It also includes a ballon in which we can read "Now, where were we, before we were so rudely interrupted...". It's more than clear that this is a terrible criticism of political corruption and gun lobby control over the legislative system.

Dave GRANDLUND, on www.davegranlund.com, 

Second Amendment and NRA (2013

The second one is divided into two statues : the first one represents an old soldier with a rifle and, the other, a very big man armed with heavy weaponry and standing on five "ammo" cases.
On the left, there is a caption  which helps us to understand that this is the real and original version of the Second Amendment as it was wanted by the Fouding Fathers and, at the right, which defined by the NRA.
To precise, the Founding  Fathers of the United States were those led the American Revolution against the Kingdom of Great Britain and contributed to the establishment of their own country - they also drafted the Declaration of Independence.
Thus, we can deny that gun violence is a real issue in the United States of America - as in everywhere in our world - because the gun tradition is firmly anchored in US culture (firstly because of this Second Amendment and currently fueled and totally blocked by gun lobby).  In my opinion, we must understand that this amendment was made during a certain context in which life was harder ...however, this context has improved a lot and gun possession is more a danger for the national security than a real personal protection...