Why Gun Violence Can T Be Our New Normal By Dan Gross

Owning guns in the United States is not a novel concept. What seems to be changing is the awareness of the American people of the dangers guns possibly pose; heightened awareness brought on by news breaking stories about large mass shootings have sparked major controversy in regards to the nation’s gun regulations and accessibility. In a Ted Talk given by Dan Gross: Why Gun Violence Can’t be Our New Normal in Vancouver, British Columbia, Gross boldly states his unwillingness to accept gun violence as a societal norm in the US and in his Ted Talk argues that gun violence may be greatly reduced if guns were managed and regulated properly, and by putting in place Brady background checks nationwide to ensure that guns will truly be kept away from

Suddenly my family was thrown into the middle of a nightmare (…) and now what’s amounted for Matt is a lifetime courageously recovering from a traumatic brain injury. He is definitely my hero” (Gross). While telling his brother’s story Gross is obviously emotional and teary eyed. The audience and viewers of the Ted Talk can clearly see how distressing it is for him to talk about what happened to his brother, which would really move the audience and viewers to sympathize with Gross and understand the effects of gun violence from a personal account by the speaker himself, helping his argument for reduced gun violence. In addition to pathos, logos or logic, is an important rhetorical appeal because nothing is more representative of reality than accurate facts and statistics, and Dan Gross used logos many times in his Ted Talk to help make his argument more appealing and effective. When expanding on his argument about how many Americans share beliefs about background checks he says that “90% of Americans agree on expanding Brady background checks” (Gross) on all gun sales. Ninety percent is a significant number of people, and there are both people who do not want guns and people who are for guns included within that 90%. Gross is pointing out that despite contrary beliefs about guns, a significant amount of people can come together and say that it is proper to have effective Brady background checks to make sure that guns are kept out of the hands of dangerous people; Gross is solidly building common ground that is backed by