Eng 105 - Rhetorical Analysis

 Erick Barrera Ramirez

ENG-105

9/19/2015

Dr. Goodman

Rhetorical Analysis

Imagine having a cold, hard barrel pointed right to your head with someone with their finger on the trigger, ready to pull it and they do, now keep that in mind. In recent days it is easy to attain a weapon. The essay, “A Senate in the Gun Lobby’s Grip”, by Gabrielle Giffords, explains how a group of senators were scared to vote in favor of a bill that would create stricter gun laws for anyone who wants to purchase a weapon. She then went on to tell how they should have feared the power of the voters, because those voters are people like the parents of the kids who suffered from the incidents of the Sandy Hook Massacre and those voters are people like herself,  that have suffered at the hands of lunatic criminals with guns. Giffords is effective in persuading the audience to believe her claim because she uses reason to present her information in an organized manned, she established her credibility and she uses her appeal of emotion.

Gabrielle Giffords was inspired to write her article, which was based off of Washington, after she believed various senators would vote in favor of a bill which would provide stricter gun laws. Giffords herself, was a senator and a victim of gun violence hence she believed her colleagues would be on her side but that was not the case. Giffords wants to accomplish the goal of educating the voters of dangers of gun violence and she wants them to be aware of the kind of senators are in office so that they can vote for senators that do care about the people and their safety.

Ms. Giffords presents her information in an eloquent and organized manner. She starts off by comparing the fear of the senators brought by the National Rifle Association & gun lobby and the fear that the victims of the Sandy Hook Massacre had. She then goes to explain how her fellow senators did not pass a bill that would have done background checks on people to make sure criminals and people with mental illnesses are not able to attain weapons. After that Giffords then goes on to tell experiences as a senator and how this should have been an bill easily passed but the senators made it into a “complicated issue.”  

Gabrielle Giffords presents herself as ex-senator and a person who has suffered from gun violence. She establishes herself as an accredited person to speak in this issue. She talks about her experience as she saw her friend get shot and killed right in front of her.

Likewise, Giffords appeals to the sense of emotion. She makes the reader vulnerable to facts of what happen in Sandy Hook. “But I think that fear must be nothing compared to the fear the first graders in Sandy Hook Elementary School felt as their lives ended in a hail of bullets. The fear that those children who survived the massacre must feel every time they remember their teachers stacking them into closets and bathrooms, whispering that they loved them, so that love would be the last thing the students heard if the gunman found them” (Giffords). Giffords explains how the children felt as the criminals killed them. She uses this strong imagery to get her point across.

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