FORGETTING COLUMBINE
a new gun culture in Italy
The Columbine High School massacre was a school massacre that occurred on 20 April 1999 in the USA, not far from Denver (Colorado): two students, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, broke into the building armed and opened fire on fellow students and teachers. It was one of the bloodiest school massacres in US history. They killed 12 students and one teacher. The massacre was followed by a long and heated national debate on legislation to control the sale and availability of firearms, as well as the possession of firearms, but the debate essentially failed to bring about any such reforms.
Today, Italy produces and supplies weapons that are used in all recent war scenarios. Production is also renowned abroad, especially in the U.S.A. which is the main export market. Beretta Holding, one of the largest Italian arms manufacturers, reported a turnover of 1,400 million euro, +72% in two years on a global scale, while turnover in Italy grew by 30% in the last year.
A report by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (S.I.P.R.I.) on arms companies states that sales of arms and military services by the 100 largest companies in the sector reached 592 billion in 2021, an increase of 1.9% over 2020 in real terms. The increase marks the seventh consecutive year of global growth in arms sales.
In a climate of increasing exaltation of arms by the arms industry and militarism by the marketing of video games, as well as new sports disciplines of military tactical simulation, younger and younger children have easier and easier access to weapons and to a rhetoric extolling their uses.
The risk, of course, is as obvious as it is concrete, namely a new and strong education in the use of weapons: an object that exerts a very strong fascination, especially on the youngest, also thanks to the complicity of fair events that are increasingly open to minors, where they can also practice shooting with virtual reality in increasingly realistic scenarios. Almost an incentive, with the results we already know from the Columbine massacre.