Article Analysis - Gun Control

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Article Analysis - Gun Control

The article, Taking Aim at Gun Control by Daniel D. Polsby and Dennis Brennen was written October 30, 1995 for the Heartland Executive Summary. The article deals with current gun control issues, and uses both statistical information, and emotional ideology to convince you of the authors’ opinion.

The article is broken down into five sub topics, that are each supported by statistical information. In the first sub topic the main heading claims, "There is no relationship between the number of privately owned guns and the amount of violent crime in the United States." It is then supported with the statistics that gun ownership has increased by forty-five percent, and the homicide rate fell by ten percent. The article also quotes various studies taken from criminologists, such as Gary Kleck and E. Britt Patterson.

The authors tend to begin their argument with factual information. They then use that information to cultivate their emotional argument. This can be seen in each of the sub topics. The first three topics, "There is no relationship between the number of privately owned guns and the amount of violent crimes in the United States," "There is no relationship between gun control laws and violent crime," and "Data from the City of Chicago cast further doubt on the effectiveness of gun control laws," use studies and statistics to prove their point. The last two sub topics, "Why do gun control laws fail?" and "What do we do about crime and violence?", offer the authors’ emotional argument. This is the section of the article where the true opinion of the two authors is seen. They sum up their beliefs, with what they consider to be a better solution to improving society without gun control. They suggest that by educating the public on proper gun safety and handling, fewer people would be hurt. It is also their belief that by making guns more accessible to responsible citizens, criminals would be less likely to commit acts of violence. They speculate that an armed society would be able to prevent criminals from perpetrating a crime before it is even committed.

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