A Rhetorical Analysis Essay: The Case For More Guns By Jeffrey Goldberg

Rhetorical Analysis Essay on The Case For More Guns

In “The Case for more Guns”, the author Jeffrey Goldberg staff writer for the Atlantic, implies why more people with concealed carry permits could keep American citizens safer. Goldberg’s purpose is to inform the reader that guns in the hands of criminals are dangerous, but also that more people with the proper training to handle a gun could keep us safer. Goldberg’s points are valid and based on events that have occurred and if a reader is not pro-2nd amendment they could be persuaded with the facts that he points out. Following are examples of Goldberg’s purpose for writing this article and the audience he is trying to reach by explaining why we need more guns. Goldberg begins the

He identifies an argument that he can make in the case for more guns based on his own experience “On December 7, 1993, a bitter and unstable man named Colin Ferguson boarded an eastbound Long Island Rail road train…” and he was carrying a Ruger 9mm pistol. “…He killed six people and wounded 19 others before three passengers tackled him.” (Goldberg 71). This occurred on a train on which Goldberg regularly traveled and here he provides a first person point of view of his experience had he been on that train using a logos argument. Up to this point Goldberg has used logos data that a reader is familiar with or could easily find details on and are events that would have made the national news. Goldberg shares his first person experience how he could have been one of the victims of a mass shooting, and up to now Goldberg has shared details of the locations of the shootings, where guns are not allowed. These spaces are considered gun free zones, and an individual is not allowed to carry a concealed weapon. Goldberg next moves to emphasize cases where an armed individual has stopped a mass shooting. “In 1997, a disturbed high-school student named Luke Woodham stabbed his mother and then shot and killed two people at Pearl High School, in Pearl Mississippi. He then began driving toward a nearby junior high to continue his shooting spree, but the assistant principal of the high school, Joel Myrick,

Many people who read the article would be familiar with Columbine, the movie theater in Aurora, or some of the other university shootings that have occurred. By using those examples it shows that Goldberg researched the events that took place, and shares the experience of victims or family members to the reader. The events that occurred at every location imply that gun free zones are not completely free of those who want to commit a crime. In Goldberg’s statement, “There is no proof to support the idea that concealed carry permit holders create more violence in society than would otherwise occur,” (Goldberg 74) He makes an informed opinion on conceal carry permit holders. Goldberg implies that permit holders commit fewer crimes than individuals without the permits, and it helps to strengthen his argument as to why we need more