Gun Control

Gun Control is a controversial issue that lends itself to bad rhetorical strategies, true of both sides of the issue since both sides are guilty of emotional rhetoric that is not based on logic but appeals to emotions such as fear and sympathy rather than to reason. The results are numerous fallacies of argumentation and the objective is to persuade rather than to present factual evidence of cause and effect. Individuals committing a fallacy often believe that their argument is reasonable, while others resort to lies and other means of deception in their attempt to persuade others to accept their position.

Both sides of the issue are guilty of using the same language and strategies to get their point across. For example, the alarmist title of a book by an anti-gun control organization, Dial 911 and Die by Richard W. Stevens, warns readers that the police have no legal obligation to protect citizens. Republican Congressional Representative Barbara Vucanovich in arguing against the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act (also called the Brady bill) used appeal to emotions rather than logic when she linked the bill to the 1990 serial murders in Gainesville, Florida. If the Brady bill had been law then, she argued, "who knows how many more young women would be dead in Gainesville because they had to wait to protect themselves" (137 Congressional Record). Vucanovich's statement is a fallacious argument directed to generate fear, lacking relevancy since she presented no evidenc

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ames Brady who was shot and permanently disabled by John Hinckley, Jr. in 1981, it was then President Reagan who was the target of the assassination (Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act wikipedia.org). McClurg cites Reagan as "the single most important factor influencing the 1993 passage of the Brady bill" (68). He contends, however, that the pro-Brady bill forces use of Reagan's support for their cause "was an improper appeal to authority" (75). McClurg further contends: Mr. Reagan is not an expert on gun control. He is not criminologist or constitutional law scholar. He is simply a popular former President�(and) his opinion on the bill should carry about as much weight with the public as a popular entertainer's endorsement of a consumer product (75). A prime example of an inductive fallacy is the use of the false analogy, when two entities are compared that are significantly dissimilar. Previously in this paper, an example was given of Sen. Edward Kennedy using the emotive word "epidemic" to back up his position that handguns must be controlled. While Sen. Kennedy is a well-known politician and not an expert in epidemics, the argument he presented is one used by true experts such as the U.S. Centers for Disease Control a

Category: Government - G