Ben Sorensen

Guns Don’t Kill, People Do

        

English 1A MWF 9-9:50

           

The debate on gun control is a big issue in our nation and it’s even worse here in California. The majority of California’s population is liberal, and liberals tend to be in favor of gun control. I am very one-sided when it comes to this topic, and I feel that gun control should be very limited and relaxed. I have created a 3D object to convey my view that guns aren’t the problem; it’s the people behind the weapon that are the issue.

            My object that I have constructed is a pyramid made out of foam poster board. I like to call it the, “Pyramid of Reality” as is written on the flag at the top of it. When one thinks of a pyramid, they think that the majority of the object is at the bottom or the base, and it tapers off as you go up. You may be asking yourself what a pyramid has to do with gun control; well the main point that I am making is that guns don’t kill; people kill. Stats show that in 2011, drunk drivers killed twelve thousand people. This is the bottom level, or base level of the pyramid considering that it has the most casualties. Knives killed six hundred and fifty people in 2011, and that is the level directly above the drunk driving. Blunt objects such as a hammer killed four hundred and ninety six people; this belongs directly above the knife. To top the pyramid, assault rifles killed only three hundred and twenty three people. This goes on the top because it takes up the smallest amount of the pyramid, meaning that it has the lowest number of deaths among the rest of the objects.

            I understand that I couldn’t just write in “drunk driving” or “knives” directly on the poster board as the would only display mediocre and lazy work. I also understood that a three dimensional pyramid has 4 different faces to it. It would look tacky to leave one of those faces blank so each of them had to contribute to the goal of conveying my message. The first face has a three dimensional representation of each object. For instance at the top, I have created a play dough version of an AR 15 and used black play dough to make it look more realistic. I then created the hammer out of the play dough as well. The hammer has and orange handle with a black head. Then for the knife, I cut two knife shapes out of a tin can; one of them is a dagger and the other is more of a chefs knife.  The bottom of the pyramid displays the drunk driving category. I have carefully constructed a car out of red and yellow play dough mixed up. I also used black play dough for the tires of the car. Then I used green play dough to make a beer bottle and mounted that next to the car.    

The second face of the pyramid has the number of deaths that each instance has caused. These numbers are written in the corresponding positions as the first face. The third face has each of the names written in for the cause of death. This also is written in the corresponding positions on the pyramid. The fourth and final face has the words “Guns don’t kill, People do” written on it. These words will be written in big black writing. To divide the levels of the pyramid, I will draw red and blue lines around it. The red and blue demonstrates patriotism and trust in our country. These are two staples that this nation was built upon and it would be senseless to strip people of their rights to protect themselves with firearms.

            My object should be displayed everywhere across America, especially in areas of high liberal concentration. Liberals are definitely my target audience, as I want to try and persuade them that law-abiding citizens need firearms. My goal is to inform pro gun control individuals that when we prohibit the use of firearms, we are only stripping them form trustworthy citizens. Just because they are made illegal doesn’t mean that a criminal will go to all costs to illegally obtain one. If a criminal has intent to kill, then he or she will do so. I don’t think that they would be worried about breaking the rule of obtaining a firearm.

            Our last assignment was focused on different genres of text. We had to analyze an academic journal, a visual text, and then a third genre of our choice. The artifact that I have created can easily relate to any of those three genres. For instance each of those texts had one purpose, and that was to get a point across. I believe that my three-dimensional object most certainly gets a specific point across; that point being that gun control should be limited. Each of the texts from the last assignment had a target audience. My three-dimensional object also has a target audience; being liberals.

            This assignment was very difficult and time consuming, yet fun, interesting and challenging. I was forced to go outside of my comfort zone and get artistic with something. I believe that I gave full effort in constructing this piece not only to get a good grade, but because it deals with a topic that I am very passionate about. I wanted to creatively get my point across, as well as inform others about the reality of the topic.

Ben Sorensen

English 1A

Felischer

17 March 2014

Visual Rhetoric

            The object that I will be creating is an assault rifle. Due to university restrictions, I would not be allowed to bring in a real gun, so clay will suffice. I will most likely use an air-dry clay and get as detailed as possible with it. I also am going to be wildling my own hammer out of wood and attaching a piece of metal to the top to create the head. You may ask: well why is he making a hammer? The answer to that question would be, because in the year 2011, blunt objects, such as the hammer, caused more deaths than the assault rifle. This shows that assault rifles have a terrible connotation to them and people (especially liberals) think that they are the root of all evil.

            I am going to paint a piece of plywood and mount both of the objects upon it. The plywood will be painted red and under each object will have the number of deaths that they caused painted it in white numbers. This will stress my point of view that gun control is not something that this nation needs and people need to understand that its not the weapons that do the killing, but the people using them. Prohibiting the right to bear arms will only take guns out of the hands of law abiding citizens, rendering it impossible to stop a killer who goes to all costs to illegally obtain a firearm and commit mass murder.

Ben Sorensen

English 1A

Fleishcer

MWF 9-9:50

11 March 2014

Do Guns Kill or do People Kill

            Within the past few years, there have been an ample amount of debates dealing with gun control. It’s usually someone of a conservative mindset that advocates for minimal gun control, whereas those who have a more liberal frame of mind usually want to get guns out of Americans’ possession and terminate the 2^nd amendment which protects the right for individuals to keep and bear arms. Me being a to-the-bone conservative, I feel very passionate about this topic and wanted to learn more. I chose 3 texts; one being a very pro gun control academic journal, the second is and ad from the The Looking Spoon defending the NRA, and the third is a song against gun control. I will be comparing and contrasting these texts as well as giving a personal analysis of all 3.

            The first text that I chose was an academic article, and a difficult one to read to say the least. It was written by a man named Simon Chapman and is called Guns Don’t Die. People Do. I would like to start off by saying that this man is not even an American. He is from Australia where gun control is heavily in effect. He also has extremely liberal views on gun laws. Nonetheless, he wrote a very infotmative article. Unlike my other two genres of text, his article is very formal. It is formatted into columns and looks like it was taken from a newspaper. Where in fact, it was an article from the British Medical Journal.

            As I said before the writer displays a very liberal tone in this article. Chapman states facts explaining that Australia and Japan have the most heavily regulated gun control laws and also have the least number of gun related deaths. The tone in his article is very different from the tone of my other 2 texts. The other two aren’t as formal and take a completely opposite view of the topic.

            The language and writing style that he uses is very formal and informative. The article’s purpose is to inform people about gun control and the effects of people having access to guns, however there is a very liberal undertone to it. For instance, chapman states “…the astonishing things about the gun control debate in the US is the way that the gun lobby here is succeeding in arguing that possessing guns actually ‘reduces’

 Violent crime and death.” This statement has implications that Americans are wrong when stating that we believe crime is reduced when law-abiding citizens posses guns.

            My second genre of text that I chose to analyze was a picture from The Looking Spoon, in defense of the National Rifle Association, or NRA.

Unlike the first text, this one is a picture and has a completely different layout. As you can see it’s an ad explaining that hammers killed more people than guns did in 2011. It is very informal and kind of plays a condescending joke on the liberals who think that guns are the root to all evil.

           

Like I said the tone is a very condescending one, however effective because of it. The first genre of text that I chose had a very formal and informative tone. The text is still informative, only in a different manner. Its purpose is to explain that its not guns that do the killing, its the people pulling the trigger. The ad’s intended viewer is the people who advocate for gun control as it shows them that guns aren’t the bad things. The joke is that we should ban hammers because they evidently kill more people than guns do.

            The third and final genre that I chose was a song called Guns by Justin Moore. This is in the format of a song, and the tone is very personal. Moore sings about how it is his right to bear arms and it is necessary to do so. One of the lines in the songs goes “If we don’t have em’ what will we do tell me where we gonna go somebody break into my house I'm gonna need my colt 44.”

            Again, I feel like the target audience for this song is the people who try and promote gun control. The purpose is to explain to these people that it’s a right for us Americans to bear arms and you can’t take that away. Moore also sings about how people should focus more on drug dealers selling crack on the streets instead of harping on good Americans for doing something well within their constitutional rights.

            I think that in order for a particular text to be effective, it must be clear and concise. It can’t be something that is hard to understand for its target audience otherwise that would render it completely ineffective. It also must convey a meaningful message. Someone isn’t going to care if they see and ad that says smoking is bad. Now if they see an ad that displays the number of deaths caused by smoking then it might have a little bit of a stronger effect on its target audience.

           

Out of the three texts that I chose, I feel like the most effective one is the ad defending the NRA. It’s especially effective in 3 ways; first being that it is true. The second reason is that it is funny because it stresses the fact that guns get such a bad reputation and are a terrible, terrible thing in the eyes of some, whereas hammers, a common household tool have caused more deaths. The 3^rd reason why it’s effective is because it catches your eye. The poster has a nice display of an assault rifle right next to a hammer with the number of deaths caused by each object under it.

            The text that I found to be the least effective was the academic article. This was also very ineffective for three good reasons; first being that the author doesn’t give the other side of his argument. He makes claims about how Australia has the least amount of deaths from guns because they have the most gun control. Now this may be true, however, according to freerepublic.com, Australia also happens to have the most burglaries/breaking and entering’s among every other nation in the world. We gun-supporting Americans just like to protect what’s ours at all costs. The second reason why this article is ineffective is because the author isn’t even American. The article is about American gun control and is written by an Australian man so it’s obviously going to have bias. Hell, he opens up the damn article with a quote saying; “‘We must stop walking down the American path of gun culture.’” this quote implies that Americans are doing something wrong when it comes to gun culture. The third reason why this article is ineffective is because the British Medical Journal publishes it. I have personally never heard of the BMJ and I'm sure most Americans haven’t. This article has no concern with the British so I don’t understand why it would be in their medical journal.

           

In general, I do believe that most of the texts we read do have an impact on our society and us as individuals. These very 3 texts that I chose have impacted my outlook on gun control. The academic journal gave me insight of someone with an opposing view. I learned about the different statistics and opinions of the opposition. Not only did this ensure my belief in the right to bear arms, however it has strengthened it and motivated me to take action upon this issue. The song and advertisement made me realize that there are concrete reasons as to why I support the second amendment.

Ben Sorensen

English 1A

Fleishcer

MWF 9-9:50

9 March 2014

Do Guns Kill or do People Kill

            Within the past few years, there have been an ample amount of debates dealing with gun control. It’s usually someone of a conservative mindset that advocates for minimal gun control, whereas those who have a more liberal frame of mind usually want to get guns out of Americans’ possession and terminate the 2^nd amendment which protects the right for individuals to keep and bear arms. Me being a to-the-bone conservative, I feel very passionate about this topic and wanted to learn more. I chose 3 texts; one being a very pro gun control academic journal, the second is and ad from the The Looking Spoon defending the NRA, and the third is a song against gun control. I will be comparing and contrasting these texts as well as giving a personal analysis of all 3.

            The first text that I chose was an academic article, and a difficult one to read to say the least. It was written by a man named Simon Chapman and is called Guns Don’t Die. People Do. I would like to start off by saying that this man is not even an American. He is from Australia where gun control is heavily in effect. He also has extremely liberal views on gun laws. Nonetheless, he wrote a very infotmative article. Unlike my other two genres of text, his article is very formal. It is formatted into columns and looks like it was taken from a newspaper. Where in fact, it was an article from the British Medical Journal.

            As I said before the writer displays a very liberal tone in this article. Chapman states facts explaining that Australia and Japan have the most heavily regulated gun control laws and also have the least number of gun related deaths. The tone in his article is very different from the tone of my other 2 texts. The other two aren’t as formal and take a completely opposite view of the topic.

            The language and writing style that he uses is very formal and informative. The article’s purpose is to inform people about gun control and the effects of people having access to guns, however there is a very liberal undertone to it. For instance, chapman states “…the astonishing things about the gun control debate in the US is the way that the gun lobby here is succeeding in arguing that possessing guns actually ‘reduces’

 Violent crime and death.” This statement has implications that Americans are wrong when stating that we believe crime is reduced when law-abiding citizens posses guns.

            My second genre of text that I chose to analyze was a picture from The Looking Spoon, in defense of the National Rifle Association, or NRA.

Unlike the first text, this one is a picture and has a completely different layout. As you can see it’s an ad explaining that hammers killed more people than guns did in 2011. It is very informal and kind of plays a condescending joke on the liberals who think that guns are the root to all evil.

           

Like I said the tone is a very condescending one, however effective because of it. The first genre of text that I chose had a very formal and informative tone. The text is still informative, only in a different manner. Its purpose is to explain that its not guns that do the killing, its the people pulling the trigger. The ad’s intended viewer is the people who advocate for gun control as it shows them that guns aren’t the bad things. The joke is that we should ban hammers because they evidently kill more people than guns do.

            The third and final genre that I chose was a song called Guns by Justin Moore. This is in the format of a song, and the tone is very personal. Moore sings about how it is his right to bear arms and it is necessary to do so. One of the lines in the songs goes “If we don’t have em’ what will we do tell me where we gonna go somebody break into my house I'm gonna need my colt 44.”

            Again, I feel like the target audience for this song is the people who try and promote gun control. The purpose is to explain to these people that it’s a right for us Americans to bear arms and you can’t take that away. Moore also sings about how people should focus more on drug dealers selling crack on the streets instead of harping on good Americans for doing something well within their constitutional rights.

            I think that in order for a particular text to be effective, it must be clear and concise. It can’t be something that is hard to understand for its target audience otherwise that would render it completely ineffective. It also must convey a meaningful message. Someone isn’t going to care if they see and ad that says smoking is bad. Now if they see an ad that displays the number of deaths caused by smoking then it might have a little bit of a stronger effect on its target audience.

           

Out of the three texts that I chose, I feel like the most effective one is the ad defending the NRA. It’s especially effective in 3 ways; first being that it is true. The second reason is that it is funny because it stresses the fact that guns get such a bad reputation and are a terrible, terrible thing in the eyes of some, whereas hammers, a common household tool have caused more deaths. The 3^rd reason why it’s effective is because it catches your eye. The poster has a nice display of an assault rifle right next to a hammer with the number of deaths caused by each object under it.

            The text that I found to be the least effective was the academic article. This was also very ineffective for three good reasons; first being that the author doesn’t give the other side of his argument. He makes claims about how Australia has the least amount of deaths from guns because they have the most gun control. Now this may be true, however, according to freerepublic.com, Australia also happens to have the most burglaries/breaking and entering’s among every other nation in the world. We gun-supporting Americans just like to protect what’s ours at all costs. The second reason why this article is ineffective is because the author isn’t even American. The article is about American gun control and is written by an Australian man so it’s obviously going to have bias. Hell, he opens up the damn article with a quote saying; “‘We must stop walking down the American path of gun culture.’” this quote implies that Americans are doing something wrong when it comes to gun culture. The third reason why this article is ineffective is because the British Medical Journal publishes it. I have personally never heard of the BMJ and I'm sure most Americans haven’t. This article has no concern with the British so I don’t understand why it would be in their medical journal.

           

In general, I do believe that most of the texts we read do have an impact on our society and us as individuals. These very 3 texts that I chose have impacted my outlook on gun control. The academic journal gave me insight of someone with an opposing view. I learned about the different statistics and opinions of the opposition. Not only did this ensure my belief in the right to bear arms, however it has strengthened it and motivated me to take action upon this issue. The song and advertisement made me realize that there are concrete reasons as to why I support the second amendment.