Gun Control Analysis

Tyler Blevins
Mrs. Mcdiarmid
English 104
29 June 2016

Gun Control Analysis

         Gun Control. This is a problem seen reoccurring within both these United States and the world in a general sense. Differences of opinion on the controversial matter pave the way for formal political debates as well as flashy CNN news specials and law reform. The following paper is in response to The Federalist article appropriately titled: "No, A Lack Of Gun Control Didn't Cause The Charleston Shooting" by Sean Davis. This particular source was chosen because of it's attentive detail in regards to the use of logos, as well as specific examples detailing gun laws and concealed carry permissions. The article cites the incident at the South Carolina Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal church in Charleston around this time last year where 9 people lost their lives from a man wielding a firearm shortly after mass. Due to his overwhelming use of of both pathos and logos, Sean Davis' article is an accurate and effective statement regarding the current state of gun control.

         The first of the 3 rhetorical appeals is known as ethos. Ethos can be defined as an appeal to the ethical sense of a person's well being. Ethos is a means of convincing someone of the character or credibility of the persuader. In this particular article ethos appears to be lacking. At the start of the article Davis brushes the idea of this being an issue of race due to the fact that it was a predominantly black church and the man wielding the gun was white although no official police statement has been made regarding whether or not this was actually a hate crime. The writer of the article is not a credited gun expert or law enforcement officer. He is merely the writer on a website that happens to dabble in controversial subjects such as gun control, so it can be inhered that this article is mostly opinionated without any prior experience on the subject. The only ethics in question within the article are the references to backhanded political tactics used by local politicians in response to a gun control related tragedy. The article references a tweet by local Senator Harry Reid who stated that "I do not know how much longer we can thwart the views of the American public on taking reasonable gun safety measures." David argues that politicians use events of terror such as this as a spring board for their own political agenda. He mentions Obama's first chief of staff publicly stating that "crises are a great opportunity to push your agenda on a populace that really wants nothing to do with it." Davis quotes Rahm Emmanuel, current mayor of Chicago stating that "You never want a serious crisis to go to waste and what I mean by that it's an opportunity to do things you think you could not do before." Based solely off of this information, it is reasonable to state that yes, the fundamental principle of ethics is severely lacking in a majority of politicians when an issue revolving around guns and gun control occurs.

         The second of the 3 rhetorical appeals is logos. Logos is defined as an appeal to the logical sense. Logos is a way of persuading the audience through sense of reason. Logos happens to be the most apparent of the rhetorical appeals seen in this story. This is a tragedy which occurred in South Carolina, which Davis mentions is 1 of only 5 states in the country that ban the open carry of firearms, regardless if they are legally owned. He mentions how in South Carolina you can only legally carry a concealed firearm by going through a somewhat rigorous process which included undergoing a criminal background check as well as submitting sets of fingerprints to the state, and taking a firearm safety course and written test. It is a known fact that South Carolina explicitly bans the carrying of firearms in religious houses and other places of worship regardless of legal status of the weapon. Places of religious sanction in South Carolina are known as "official gun free zones," so Davis makes the case that perhaps this could have been avoided if the god given right of protecting oneself wasn't stripped away in a place of worship. Overall, the use of facts and logos in this article makes a strong case for gun control or lack their of not making a difference.

         The final of the 3 rhetorical appeals is known as pathos. Pathos is an appeal to the emotional sense. The use of pathos is a way to convince an audience of an argument by instilling an emotional response through the use of particular wording. The pathos appeal can be seen many times throughout the entirety of this article. Davis does a remarkable job choosing his words in order to better depict the situation. Davis describes the church shooting as "more than a tragedy," as that is not intense enough to describe the event. "It was a massacre, a slaughter, a blatant act of terrorism by an individual who deserves not to have his name and visage plastered all over the news, but to rot in obscurity." Davis is heard referring to the statement by major Emmanuel as "crass and calculated behavior of the classless Democratic congressional leader." Vivid words such as these help paint the canvas that is this horrible event. At one point Davis decided to include a tweet from the daughter of one of the victim which gives the whole article a very intimate appeal. The tweet states "Evil knows no color. My grandmother Alberta King was shot down & killed by a crazed black man while playing the organ in Church." It is very clear in this article the way Davis feels about the events which unfolded in South Carolina. He is not only angry at the killer himself, but also at the politicians taking advantage of the situation for personal gain. Another rhetorical device Davis touches on in this article is the use of amplification-the repeating of words or ideas for emphasis. The two most used words in this article are "evil" and "gun." The writer intentionally made these words reoccurring ideas as an enhancement technique to highlight his stance. He made it abundantly clear that he feels no remorse for this man or any other who would dare attempt such a crime. Davis does a superb job writing with emotion to convince the reader of his stance.

         Overall this article is beautifully written. The use of rhetorical appeals is astounding for the most part. Throughout the writing plenty of feasible facts and numbers can be see to back Davis' stance on the issue. Ethics are put into serious question when he puts politicians on trial with his direct quotes of said politicians using gun incidents such as this for their political propaganda. Finally the reader is intimately swayed towards Davis' side as he uses brilliant, colorful words to help further describe his strong emotional feelings towards the subject. There are few negative aspects of this article. The only way this article could be improved in a way that would further sway readers would be if Davis had included more facts and figures to really put the whole issue of gun control into perspective. Towards the end of the article Davis scratches the subject of gun reform in the country as a whole, but leaves it at that. If he were to reference gun reform in depth with more examples besides just this one particular case, he would have had a stronger argument to convince the reader with. In conclusion Davis' article is an accurate and effective statement regarding gun control due to strong usage of rhetorical appeals to persuade the reader.