Chris Haley

English 1201

Professor Cassel

4 August 2019

CaseBook

Agresti, James D., Smith, Reid K. & Guerra, Rebecca. “Gun Control Facts.” Just Facts. 23

February 2018. Web. 23 June 2019. www.justfacts.com/guncontrol.asp.

The authors of “Gun Control Facts” are James D. Agresti, Reid K. Smith, and Rebecca

Guerra, the source is a website and it was posted in 2018. The website starts off by giving some

basic definitions for firearms. It then lists the ownership of firearms in the U.S. it concludes that

around a third of households have a gun. It covers other polls that involve reasons for owning a

gun and the breakdown of the types of people who own them. The website goes on to talk about

firearm usage in crime and self-defense. They conclude that at least 1 million times a year people

use guns to prevent a crime from occurring. It summarizes that when firearms are banned their

usage in crimes rises. The authors purpose for writing this piece is to give the facts and statistics

for firearm usage and crimes. There is not really any opinionative writing in this it is more just a

collection of statistics relating to firearm usage. The audience for this piece is anyone who is

looking to write about firearm usage as this website gives a lot of statistics about them. There is

not really a large context for this piece as it is just a large group of statistics with relevant

information about them. The writers of this piece are James D. Agresti, Reid K. Smith, and

Rebecca Guerra. They are credible because they cited all the information they used in the
website. The website was not an article but rather just a collection of statistics so it is all reliable

from all the statistics that were cited. I will use this source to help me answer my research

question because this source contains a lot of cited statistics about firearms, their usage, and pre

and post bans in other countries. This source will provide me the logos part of my argument for

the paper as it cites all the information. It should help to clarify what firearms are used for and

the potential impacts of placing more regulations over them.

Brown, Jeffrey T. "Don’t Mistake Victims of Gun Violence for Experts on Gun Control."

Opposing Viewpoints Online Collection, Gale, 2019. Opposing Viewpoints in Context,

https://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/JZEIGS291937805/OVIC?u=cen84565&sid=OVIC

&xid=1bc7d50c. Accessed 23 June 2019. Originally published as "The Yelling of the

Lambs," American Thinker, 23 Feb. 2018.

The author of this piece is Jeffrey T. Brown. This piece is from Opposing Viewpoints in

Context, a database. The main point of this article is to state that the kids who talk after a

shooting often have less of an idea about the issue going on than they are shown to have. The

article starts by talking about how decisions about individuals rights should not be decided by the

raw emotions of people who were directly impacted by what had happened. That the rights of

millions should not be decided by children with rapidly changing minds. Those who are attacked

or who are victims of an atrocity are not any smarter than before it occurred. The need for the

change that we hear about is because of the left’s need for power and the quickest way for the to

obtain this power is by de-arming the nation and taking away their ability to fight back. The

progressive change that they demand is not always what is the best decision for the nation. The
writers purpose for this article is to bring into question why we are listening to those who are the

least stable to voice their opinions on the issue of firearms. The audience for this piece are people

who wonder why the kids who talk about firearm control are talking about it. This was written

after the Parkland shooting, this impacted the writing because there were a lot of protests about

gun control going on at this time with kids often leading the discussion. The author of this piece

is Jeffrey Brown, he is credible because he is a contributor for the American Thinker. This

source is reliable because it is from a peer reviewed database. I will use this source to lead to

why the question of gun control being the solution came from and this source will also be helpful

in bringing into question why this is seen as the answer.

Gottlieb, Alan. “No Gun Law Would Have Prevented Virginia Beach Tragedy.” USA Today,

Gannett Satellite Information Network, 4 June 2019,

www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2019/06/04/no-law-prevents-virginia-beach-tragedy-

second-amendment-editorials-debates/1346757001/.

The author of this article is Alan Gottlieb. This is a news source from USA Today. The main

point of this article is to get those to understand why firearm control is not an effective way a at

preventing mass shootings as in this one it was caused by firearms that many feel do not need to

have restrictions. The Virginia Beach shooting was a tragedy, however it should not be the

publics first thought that firearm restrictions need to be put in place and restrict the rights of

million law abiding citizens. The firearms that were used in this shooting were purchased legally

and would not have been solved with any of the firearm control that has been presented. Many

people wonder why the United States cannot put a ban like that of New Zealand; however this
would violate the rights of millions of lawful firearm owners. This movement of banning

firearms is now something that those who are proponents of this are now openly admitting that it

would be ideal to completely remove all firearms from their owners. No law that is in effect or

that has been proposed would have been able to prevent this shooting in Virginia Beach as he

had no criminal record other than traffic violations. The purpose of the author writing this is to

explain that this act of violence could not have been prevented with legislation. The audience of

this piece is people wondering about what can be done to fix this problem of mass shootings.

This article was written right after the Virginia Beech shooting, this would lead to a larger

connection to the viewpoint you have on firearms. The author of this piece is Alan Gottlieb. He

is credible because his piece was posted on USA Today’s news site. He has enough information

to write this piece because it is more an overlook of what occurred in Virginia and how it

impacts firearm control. This source is credible because it is more of an opinionative look at this

event and just and overview of what happened and less of an argument. I will use this source to

help give an example of how using firearm control is not always effective way at preventing

violence.

Guardian, The, director. Gun Nation. YouTube, YouTube, 16 Sept. 2016,

www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUpCqBonOFw.

The source of this documentary is The Guardian. This is a video documentary on YouTube.

This sources main idea is to show the reason that people enjoy their firearms and the use of

firearms in the United States. With so much violence occurring many wonder why people are

hesitant to even the smallest amount of firearm control. A police chief would prefer that there is
a little more strict regulation on firearms to make their job easier because so many are used in

crimes. Murders can be committed with almost any object and if firearms are taken away they

will use other things, potentially a butter knife. The riots to regulate firearms started with

Columbine. Some gun owners do not use the proper storage when using them. The constitution

guarantees the individuals right to own and use a firearm. Some believe that a properly trained

teacher or staff member would be able to prevent school shootings. The reason that this

documentary was made to show why people enjoy firearms and what people use them for. This

documentary shows some of the history of shootings in the United States. The audience of this

piece is people looking to understand the use of firearms and what people’s feelings are

regarding guns and shootings. This source was filmed in Tennessee which is an area where guns

are more commonly used in the US. The writer for this is The Guardian. They are credible

because they are a large news source. The authors information is adequate because this

documentary explains how people feel about firearms more then it does give a way to feel about

them. It is pretty down the middle in terms of the viewpoints that are addressed. I will use this

source to explain how the question of why firearm control is seen as the solution but also to

come to the answer of why people do not want firearm control. This will help me answer why

this is a debated topic in our nation today.

Heer, Jeet. "Televising Footage of Shootings Does More Harm than Good." Opposing

Viewpoints Online Collection, Gale, 2019. Opposing Viewpoints in

Context, https://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/DXLYSO661297213/OVIC?u=cen84565&
 sid=OVIC&xid=6166eb8e. Accessed 23 June 2019. Originally published as "Don’t

Circulate Videos of the TV News Killing in Virginia," New Republic, 26 Aug. 2015.

The author of this piece is Jeet Heer. The source of this is the Opposing Viewpoints in

Context database. The thesis of this piece is that viewing and televising videos of shootings is a

bad thing to do. The Virginia Beach shooting was filmed by the shooter that presents a view

much like a first person shooter video game. Being that the video exists, it begs the question if

media sources should post it for people to view it. It is disrespectful to view and to share videos

and pictures of killings. Releasing videos of police brutality can be a helpful thing to do as it

exposes an injustice. However, by releasing a shooting video it does not expose anything and

does not give closure to the loved ones of the victims. Some argue that the videos need to be

released so that it will show was s going on so it will push people to be for gun control. The issue

with this is that when viewing the video you will view it in their own political view. The authors

purpose in writing this piece is to present the idea that visuals of murders and mass killings with

no prejudiced injustice. The audience of this piece is anyone who has heard about the video that

was taken of this shooting. This piece was written after the Virginia Beach shooting video was

released. This made the emotions very high as there was a visual showing of the violence. The

writer of this piece is Jeet Heer. They are credible because he is the senior editor from New

Republic. The author has adequate information to write this piece as it is a look into the morals

of videos of people being killed posted online and how they affect those related to the victims.