Today I am going to talk about the notion of places and forms of power.

First of all I
want to give a definition of every keyword. “Places” could be important buildings or
institutions which represent a certain form of power or a symbol of power.The “power” is
the ability or official capacity to exercise control,authority.It can be also a person,a group or
a nation having great influence or control over others. There can be good or bad types of
power and in this notion there are a division between people who have power and people
who suffer the power,which are controled or influenced. To illustrate the notion we talked
about guns in the USA. Guns are a symbol of power. So to what can we extent can we say
that guns are deeply-rooted in the U.S culture? To answer this question I have choosen some
documents that I have seen in class 1stmg.

First, I am going to deal with a brief history of the USA. This first document is an
extract from Michael Moore's documentary “Bowling for Columbine”which is a very
satirical criticism of the U.S society. Important dates in the history of the United States are
given to us through this document. We can see in the video that people have always been
scared of someone, of the unknown so to defend themselves they have used guns through
the years. First it started when pilgrims arrived in the New World (1620) and used their guns
against Native Americans. It continued with the witch hunt, then they kill the British to
become free. The Second amendment was passed and the carrying of guns is authorized but
it does not stop there. Years later Samuel Colt made fire arms popular (1836), after there
was a civil war, the formation of the KKK and the NRA. All this shows very clearly through
a video that the history of the USA is closely linked to the use of guns.Indeed, Americans
got their independence thanks to guns, conquered the West thanks to guns,and kept their
nation thanks to guns. They have always relied on their guns to protect themselves.

Secondly, we saw a TV report about the easy accessibility of guns in the U.S.A. A car
dealer decided to offer his customers a “free” gun for every car purchased. Actually the
customers get a 450 dollar vaucher that they can exchange at a local gun store.The
customers can choose something else of the same value but they all pick up the gun, an
AK47. During this report, the president of the car dealership says that it's good for his
bussiness, that it boosts the sales in a bad period economic. All around the world there are
TVs that have made many reports about this “surprising” initiative. Logically this seems
surprising for them the fact that a car dealer decided to offer a vaucher for every car
purchased but for Americans it is not surprising at all, because guns are a tradition. Through
this document we understand how easy it is, to get a gun in the USA. Whoever you are,
however dangerous you may be, you can get the gun!

Finally, even if it is deep-rooted in the U.S culture, we saw that Obama calls for the
people to influence congress in a speech after Oregon shooting. He demands gun control
action. He is upset,he is fed up with making speeches every few months because nothing
changes,it has become a routine. Obama is also disgusted by his country and he is frustated
because he already called for gun control legislation but he failed to convince congress and
public opinion. Then he accuses the American people of being numb,he says “we become
numb to this” because no one do anything. He tries to change that but he can't do it alone
and he says “this is not something I can do by myself”. In this speech he blames the NRA
for giving always the same answer after a mass shooting,they encourage people to have
more guns.
 Finally, even if it is deep-rooted in the U.S culture, we saw that Obama calls for the
people to influence congress in a speech after Oregon shooting. He demands gun control
action. He is upset,he is fed up with making speeches every few months because nothing
changes,it has become a routine. Obama is also disgusted by his country and he is frustated
because he already called for gun control legislation but he failed to convince congress and
public opinion. Then he accuses the American people of being numb,he says “we become
numb to this” because no one do anything. He tries to change that but he can't do it alone
and he says “this is not something I can do by myself”. In this speech he blames the NRA
for giving always the same answer after a mass shooting,they encourage people to have
more guns.

To conclude guns are deep-rooted in American culture and History. The History of
the USA is marked by the use of he guns as we saw with the previous documents. But even
if it's rooted there are people like Obama who want guns control. This rooting of gun is then
gradually challenged by some people, even by people who have power but their power is
not enough to face the lobbies power,like the NRA.