The following assessments can be used for this lesson using the downloadable assessment rubric.
- Aesthetics 2
- Communication 1
- Creative process 3
- Creative process 4
- Critical thinking 2
- Historical context 3
Andy Warhol, Guns, 1981-1982
The Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh; Founding Collection, Contribution The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc.
© The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc.
1998.1.277
In the early 1980s, Warhol painted a variety of iconic objects, including guns, knives, and crosses. He rejected the idea that his work functioned as social criticism and instead described himself as an American artist who was merely depicting his environment. This description suggests that his paintings of guns be read in the same way as his images of Campbell’s Soup, Marilyn Monroe, or Coca-Cola—images of American icons. Yet, as with many of Warhol’s statements and works, there are multiple possible meanings. Gun ownership is popular in America, in part because it gives people a sense of security. Hollywood imagery and video games add to the allure of guns. The gun is also, through its widespread use and availability in America, a tool of real and commonplace violence. This particular gun, a .32 snub-nosed pistol, is similar to the one that Valerie Solanas used in her 1968 assassination attempt on Warhol.
When you hurt another person, you never know how much it pains. Since I was shot, everything is such a dream to me. I don’t know what anything is about. Like, I don’t know whether I’m alive or whether I died. I wasn’t afraid before. And having been dead once, I shouldn’t feel fear. But I am afraid. I don’t understand why.
What country can preserve its liberties if its rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms.
Saul Padover, Jefferson On Democracy, 2013
We essentially have two realities, when it comes to guns, in this country. You’ve got the tradition of lawful gun ownership. It is very important for many Americans to be able to hunt, fish, take their kids out, teach them how to shoot. Then you’ve got the reality of 34 Chicago public school students who get shot down on the streets of Chicago. We can reconcile those two realities by making sure the Second Amendment is respected and that people are able to lawfully own guns, but that we also start cracking down on the kinds of abuses of firearms that we see on the streets.
Barack Obama, 44th President of the United States,
Democratic debate in Las Vegas, Nevada, 2008
I stood up in a social studies class—the teacher wanted a discussion—and said I could never kill anyone or condone anyone who did kill anyone. But that I could on some level, understand these kids in Colorado, the killers [reference to school shooting at Columbine High School in Colorado where 12 students were shot by two classmates]. Because day after day, slight after slight, exclusion after exclusion, you can learn how to hate . . . After class I was called to the principal’s office and told that I had to agree to undergo five sessions of counseling or be expelled from school, as I had expressed ‘sympathy’ with the killers in Colorado and the school had to be able to explain itself if I ‘acted out.’ In other words, for speaking freely, and to cover their ass, I was not only branded a weird geek, but a potential killer, that will sure help deal with violence in America.
Jay in the Southeast
Slashdot, 1999
In small groups, students should discuss the following questions:
After the small group discussions, each group presents a synopsis of its discussion to the class.
Discuss or write an essay addressing the above questions.
The following assessments can be used for this lesson using the downloadable assessment rubric.