Guns Photo Essay

Guns have been a very controversial topic in the news lately, what with all the recent shootings around the country. There are around 100, 000 gun deaths every year in America, while there really only has been around 3, 000 deaths from terrorism (most of which all happened at one time, 9/11). America seems to always be talking about our "War on Terrorism" when we many of our deaths are caused by guns in our own country. America's love affair with guns has ended up killing more children under five in 2010 then the deaths of police officers in the same year, and wounding three times more children in 2010 than the soldiers who were wounded in Afghanistan that year. Whenever there is a shooting in America people mourn and talk about how horrible it was, but they never do anything about it. Many people tend to use the Second Amendment to justify their right to have guns. Though it does say that people have the right to have their own weapons, the Amendment was specifically talking about states having a militia. Which meant that everyone in the militia was to be properly trained in the use of a fire arm, which many people who own guns today aren't. The guns used at the time the Second Amendment was created are very different from the guns we use today as well. They were used to having rifles that could be shot once and then takes a long time to reload, unlike the 380 caliber pistol that is seen in the photos which can fire many rounds and takes mere seconds to reload. Times have changed and the Constitution should be able to change with it, which is why there are Amendments in the first place.

People seem to be getting desensitized when it comes to guns and say whatever it takes to defend them. I decided to show what an actual gun looks like, as well as a close up of the trigger, which is what can ultimately end a person's life. The photos of the gun with the coin represents how America is the only developed country with these problems. No other developed country have problems when it comes to gun control. They all have regulations, such as only being allowed ammo at gun ranges (Switzerland), or they just straight outlawed guns (Australia). I also wanted to depict actually looking down the sight of a gun as though you're about to shoot it. I decided to have it in black and white to show the seriousness and how controversial shooting a gun is. My favorite shot is the gun it the dried flowers. This picture can be interpreted different ways. You can see it as beauty and peace suddenly being interrupted or even hiding the evil within the gun. You can also see it as the gun killing whatever it touches, hence the dead flowers. Lastly there is another still of the gun to wrap up the series of photos and bring you back to the beginning.