How to Protect Citizens From Violence: The Gun Control Essay Example

American activist, Emma Gonzalez, in her speech for the March for our Lives campaign, encouraged young people to advocate for change in gun control. After the tragedy that happened at Stoneman Douglas school, a group of students went to Washington, DC to fight for gun laws. One student from that school, Elizabeth Gonzalez, the powerful woman she is, took it upon herself to fight for the lives that America has lost to guns. Gonzalez’s purpose is to stand up to the government about how gun laws should be stronger.  Through her use of logos, repetition, and analepsis, she uses a determined tone in order to MOTIVATE THE CITIZENS OF AMERICA TO TAKE PART IN HELPING TO MAKE GUN LAWS IN AMERICA STRONGER AND TO MAKE SURE THIS HORRIBLE ACT DOES NOT HAPPEN AGAIN.

In the sixth paragraph, Gonzalez uses logos in order to utilize specific evidence to give an example of why gun laws in America should be tighter. She introduces the fact that other nation’s aren't having this problem and how America is the only one by stating, “Because Australia had one mass shooting in 1999 in Port Arthur (and after the) massacre introduced gun safety, and it hasn’t had one since. Japan has never had a mass shooting. Canada has had three and the UK had one and they both introduced gun control and yet here we are” (lines 26-31)  By using these statistics, this allows her to show the audience, if every other country in the world can change their laws this easily, America can as well. Therefore, these examples give her the ability to stand up to the government even more since she has real facts to show that making gun laws stronger will make a big difference. Thus, the audience, after hearing this evidence, will realize that taking action could help end the ugly massacres that happen in this country. This will make the audience want to contribute to this change even more since they understand the impact that will become of it. 

In order to express her feelings about the people who allowed this vicious act happened, she utilizes repetition to emphasize that this was not the victim's fault but the people who were constantly around him. She asserts how “...the people who encouraged him to buy accessories for his guns to make them fully automatic, the people who didn’t take them away from him when they knew he expressed homicidal tendencies, and I am not talking about the FBI” (lines 57-59) are the ones to blame. Since she directly points out who should also be held accountable for this terrible act, it allows her to give more evidence on why gun laws should be stronger. Hence, she vilifies the people who allowed him to do everything he was able to do to complete this act. Those people could have stopped this from happening. Consequently, the people, who did allow this to happen, will realize the part that they had in this tragedy and will become aware that they are the reason so many lives are now lost. Furthermore, society feels as though they need to be more aware of what is happening around them to make sure this does not happen again. For that reason, everyone will want there to be a change on how America handles laws so not only are they safe, but their own children are as well. 

Gonzalez concludes her speech by using analepsis to emphasizes on the fact that everything the government is saying is false and that they will not believe it, so they will act against it. She states, “They say no laws could have prevented the hundreds of senseless tragediesthat have occurred. We call BS. That us kids don’t know what we’re talking about, that we’re too young to understand how the government works. We call BS.” (lines 95-97) Through this statement, Gonzalez announces that what everyone is telling the citizens of America is false and that we will fight against it and prove them wrong. As an example, her purpose is to get stronger laws on guns and when the government told her no, she knew that it was false. Since she used the evidence in the speech before, it shows that it can be down. That being so, she understands that her generation is looked down on but this shows that she knows what she is talking about. There, she lets off a powerfulness with that statement which allows the audience to trust her. The audience will feel encouraged then to fight against what the government says, so they can make some change happen with gun laws. 

The tragedy that happened at Stoneman Douglas, this sparked a big campaign to ‘fight for our lives’. Gonzalez stood up to the government by using real evidence on how changing gun laws has an impact, repeats the words “the people” to put the blame on the real people who caused it and not the victims, and uses analepsis to repeat the phrase “We call BS” who emphasizes the false statements the government is giving us and make us want to change our country even more.