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Rhetorical Analysis on article “Why Our Campuses Are Safer Without Concealed Handguns” BY wa00750 Rhetorical Analysis Paper In the essay we read, entitled “Why Our Campuses Are Safer Without Concealed Handguns”, we see the author use five main points, as well as using appeals to Ethos Logos and Pathos to help reinforce his view on the topic.
The five main reasons that the author feels that college campuses are safer without concealed handguns are introduced to us in the opening of the article, listed as bullet points.
The author then goes on to break the article into these separate sections to allow him to go more in epithet and explain his position. In this way, he appeals to the reader’s sense of Ethos throughout the entire article by convincing us that he knows what he is taking about.
However, the author does not stop here. The author uses an appeal to Ethos a couple more times throughout the article, one of the most obvious is in the section where he makes the point that “concealed carry permit holders are not always ‘law-abiding citizens”.
Concealed Carry Essay
The author continues in this section to write about how easy it is for certain people to obtain firearms and concealed carry licenses, even though they should not be allowed to legally. The author blames this problem on a series of systems that are in place, that are nowhere near enough, putting the blame being on communication, or lack-there-of, between states and the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICE).
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The author then uses examples of how state governments often simply do not submit pertinent records to databases such as NICE.
This can result in convicted felons and mentally ill persons having the ability to purchase a firearm or receive a concealed carry permit, which we have seen can lead to very bad results. In the same way that the author uses Ethos throughout the article, he also appeals tryingly to the reader’s sense of Logos, or logic. The main reason for this is because he must back up his strong opinions with logic and statistics to support what he is writing. This is shown easily in the opening, when the author provides statistics on homicide rates for college campuses versus the rest of the nation, and shows them to be drastically different.
This same technique is used later in the article to emphasize the fact that many college students use mind altering substances such as drugs and alcohol; and that adding firearms, concealed or not, would add a new variable to Seibel suicides and intra-student violence. In addition to all of these statistics, the author also uses reason to make the point that college classrooms are places where you should be able to speak freely and without fear of possible retaliation. The author feels that if students do not know who may or may not have a concealed weapon on them, they may be less likely to speak their mind and learn all that they can.
Last but not least, the author also makes an abundant use of appeals to the reader’s Pathos, appealing to the reader in a way that reaches them in a personal raw the reader in, as well as to open them up to the information that the rest of the article provides and leave the reader thinking about it. He begins the article by mentioning some of the more infamous college campus shootings, such as those that occurred at Virginia Tech and Northern Illinois University, and then proceeds to make his case against concealed firearms on college campuses.
This viewpoint is prominently displayed in the third section of the article, in which the author writes about how students who go on these shooting rampages set out knowing they will ii, and plan only on taking as many people with them as possible. The author goes on to say that students and faculty that may be carrying a concealed weapon would not deter these individuals, but may actually become a target, in hopes that they will return fire, possibly killing more innocent people.
In addition to this theory, the author writes that with more people running around with guns, police would have a much more difficult time figuring out who was the actual threat, and eliminating it. In this article, the author is against having students be allowed to carry concealed firearms. I do not think that this is a good position to take in this situation. I feel that responsible gun owners, who have passed proper safety courses, and who meet all of the requirements needed to obtain both firearm and license, should be able to carry their firearm where they feel it is warranted.
The author states that concealed handguns would distract from a healthy learning environment. However, I do not think that this would be the case. I think that despite the presence of a gun on campus or in class, things would go about as usual. I do not feel as though people would be threatened into not speaking their mind, and I finitely do not think that the possession of a firearm or any possible “weapon” automatically makes an individual more violent. I have known many people who carry knives with them any time it is appropriate, and they do not strike fear into everyone in the room.
They don’t stab people Just because they are in a position where they have what could be a weapon. No, they have learned over time how to carefully handle a knife, and I feel perfectly comfortable being around them. I feel that the same is true with firearms, concealed or not. Although I do not agree with many of he statements the author makes, I do feel that he makes a good point that in order to obtain a concealed carry permit, you should be screened more thoroughly, and you should have to have some sort of nationally regulated test in which you must qualify with the weapon you wish to carry.
I feel that there should be a coordinated effort to make sure that the NICE database is updated regularly. In relation to the section of the article where the author says that school shooters would not be deterred by concealed carry holders, I do not think that this matters. If someone sets their mind o coming to a college campus and shooting anyone in sight, then they are going to do it, whether or not I am able to protect myself.
Possibly, instead of simply not allowing it, schools could implement a program where all firearms on campus, for concealed carry or not, would have to be registered thorough thee school. This would allow the school to know which student has which guns. Throughout the year security would be able to collaborate with the student and teacher gun owners including having them qualify with their firearms on a regular basis, and incorporating them onto any plans to counteract violence on campus.
I think if colleges were able to or end a confrontation that could have more fatal consequences. With proper training from security or police personnel, I think students and teachers would be able to help keep campuses safer, while being able to observe their right to bear arms. I do not know for sure that college campuses would be safer if students and teachers were allowed to carry concealed handguns, but I know that proper measures could be taken to make the gun owners more responsible, as well as to make campus a safer place.
Why Our Campuses Are Not Safer Without Concealed Handguns. (2019, Dec 06). Retrieved from https://paperap.com/paper-on-why-our-campuses-are-safer-without-concealed-handguns/
