Guns Essay Introduction

In America all of its inhabitants have certain rights protected by the government under the United States Constitution. One of those rights states that people have the right to keep and bear arms. Recent tragic event that have happened in the United States have brought up the question and many arguments on whether guns should be eliminated or if they should continue to be sold. Patricia Roberts-Miller is the author of “Characteristics of Demagoguery” and “Democracy, Demagoguery, and Critical Rhetoric”. In her texts she takes a looks at what aspects a public debate must have so that it is not only good but that also allows for democratic decision making while also taking a look at certain forms of persuasion that are flawed, manipulative, one sided along with many other details that can make an argument weak. Wayne LaPierre, the National Rifle Association Vice President, gave a speech a week after the Sandy Hook incident in Newton, Connecticut. He gave this speech to reach out to anyone across the United States that has children and cares deeply for their security. In his speech LaPierre argues that the only way we can prevent tragedies similar to those is to train and post people with guns at schools to protect the children. He sees that the only way to protect children from a bad person with a gun is to have a lot of other good people with guns in the same vicinity. Throughout this text I will take a look at LaPierre’s speech while using Roberts-Miller’s text as a lens in order to see how and to what extent certain elements of demagogic discourse I can identify in his speech.