ARE AMERICANS SAFE?

AXE 5: FICTIONS & REALITIES                                       

GUNS in the USA: Delusion or necessity?

KEY QUESTIONS:    

Are Americans safe?

Why do Americans feel the need to own a gun?        

What is the social cost of gun ownership?

Télécharger 1 AXE 5 FICTION OR REALITY GUNS worksheet

MISSION 1: BRAINSTORMING

What do you know about guns in the USA?

MISSION 2 : THE II AMENDMENT

Document 1: The 2nde Amendment of the US Constitution.

Document 2: What is the 2nd Amendment?

MISSION 3: The NRA, a very powerful lobby

to peck at = picorer

Télécharger 1 VERY POWERFUL LOBBY GUN VIOLENCE IN THE USA

MISSION 4: a very powerful lobby

Document 3: Learn about the NRA

NRA Drops to 4.3 Million Members since Corruption Scandal

Washington DC - Last night, The Reload reported that the NRA has lost one million members since its 2019 corruption scandal, dropping its total membership

https://giffords.org/press-release/2023/02/nra-drops-members-since-corruption-scandal/

MISSION 4: On your own

Gun crime statistics

Mass shootings in the US: 2022 could be the second-highest year | CNN

This year is likely to be the second-highest year for mass shootings in the United States on record, according to data compiled by the Gun Violence Archive, a nonprofit that tracks gun violence ...

https://edition.cnn.com/2022/11/23/us/2022-mass-shootings-tracking-second-highest/index.html

SPEAKING TIME

WATCH THE VIDEO BELOW

1. Summarize what you have understood in English

2. What is the goal of this document?

3. Did you find it convincing?

Doc 3: Evan, Sandy Hook promise

VIDEO TIME

GUNS WITH HISTORY

Watch this video and answer the questions on your worksheet.

Debate in class.

Télécharger GUNS WITH HISTORY worksheet

READING TIME

THE COLUMBINE MASSACRE

Télécharger COLUMBINE QUESTIONS

MUSIC TIME

NO GUNS ALLOWED...

Watch this video and answer the questions on your worksheet.

Debate in class.

ORAL TIME

Comment on a political cartoon by OLLE, a Swedish cartoonist, 2011

1. Make a full description of what you can see.

2. Comment on the speech bubble.

3. What does this American woman embody?

4. What is the cartoonist's goal?

EXTRA DOCUMENT

The Parkland shooting

Background information

Following a shootout at a school in Parkland, Florida (February 14, 2018), youth organized a movement and protests for increased gun control in the United States on March 24, 2018. These Parades were called March For Our Lives and brought together more than a million people. The most important took place in Washington DC and one of the spokespersons was Emma Gonzalez, a survivor of the Parkland killings.

Télécharger 1 Gun in HISTORY and US LAW

How Parkland Students Are Taking on Politicians in the Gun Control Battle

It's lunchtime on a Tuesday, and the kids are piling into a pizzeria booth in Coral Springs, Fla., to plot a revolution. "The adults know that we're cleaning up their mess," says Cameron Kasky, an ...

https://time.com/longform/never-again-movement/

Background information

The shooting of Aurora (a suburban Denver town, hence the name of Denver Shooting) took place in a movie theater on the night of July 19 to 20, 2012. The gunman killed 12 people and wounded 70. The journalist mentions this event earlier in the interview.

THE DENVER SHOOTING

GUN ART

Does Art play a role in public debate?

Télécharger FEED 3 GUN ART worksheet

Gun Country, Michael Murphy, 2014

Mission 1: Do research on Michael Murphy

The anamorphic sculptures by artist Michael Murphy | Collater.al

Michael Murphy is an American artist known for his anamorphic sculptures and for the Perceptual Shift series of three-dimensional installations. Michael Murphy is an American artist who lives and ...

https://www.collater.al/en/anamorphic-sculptures-michael-murphy/

Perceptual Art

Online portfolio featuring the work of sculptor Michael Murphy

https://www.perceptualart.com/portfolio.html

Mission 2:

Read the following article and collect information about Michael Murphy’s piece of art.                   

What is the artist’s goal?

Gun Country: A Map Of The USA Consisting Of 150 Toy Guns

Conceptual artist Michael Murphy recently created a controversial installation called Gun Country, which creates a map of the contiguous United States consisting of 150 toy guns. The plastic guns ...

https://www.boredpanda.com/gun-country-installation-usa-map-michael-murphy/

Gun Country, 2014

EXTRA READING

1200 Black Ping Pong Balls Form a Deadly Assault Rifle

For one to truly appreciate this new installation by artist Michael Murphy, one must view it from a specific angle. Called , the sculptural work consists of a sea of 1,200 ping pong balls, painted ...

https://mymodernmet.com/michael-murphy-damage-ping-pong-balls-gun/

Mission 3: Read about Andy Warhol’s painting entitled Gun and find out why Andy Warhol decided to paint this Gun?

Gun, Andy Warhol, 1981

'Gun', Andy Warhol, 1981 | Tate

Medium Acrylic paint and silkscreen on 2 canvases Dimensions Support, each: 1782 x 2286 x 40 mm Collection ARTIST ROOMS Tate and National Galleries of Scotland Death emerged as a distinctive theme ...

https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/warhol-gun-ar00231

On your OWN: Watch the following video

HOMEWORK: Learn more about Valerie Solanas and recap what you have understood.

Valerie Solanas

Valerie Jean Solanas (April 9, 1936 - April 25, 1988) was an American radical feminist and author best known for writing the SCUM Manifesto, which she self-published in 1967, and attempting to ...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valerie_Solanas

Télécharger Je me prépare à décrire une OEUVRE D'ART

Télécharger Gun culture VOC

Listen to the GUN CULTURE vocabulary and practice your pronunciation