11. Rhetorical Devices
With all the foreign aid the United States does, with all the money in
the federal budget, can’t we afford to put a police officer in every
single school? Even if they did that, politicians have no business and no
authority denying us the right, the ability, and the moral imperative to
protect ourselves and our loved ones from harm.
Anaphora
12. Rhetorical Devices
With all the foreign aid the United States does, with all the money in
the federal budget, can’t we afford to put a police officer in every
single school? Even if they did that, politicians have no business and no
authority denying us the right, the ability, and the moral imperative to
protect ourselves and our loved ones from harm.
Anaphora + Tricolon
13. Rhetorical Devices
I call on every parent. I call on every teacher. I call on every school
administrator, every law enforcement officer in this country, to join
with us and help create a national schools shield safety program to
protect our children with the only positive line of defense that’s
tested and proven to work.
Anaphora + Tricolon
16. Framing
Rather than face -- rather than face their own moral failings the
media demonize lawful gun owners, amplify their cries for more laws,
and fill the national media with misinformation and dishonest thinking
that only delay meaningful action, and all but guarantee that the next
atrocity is only a news cycle away.
Media = liars,
gun owners = truth tellers
17. Framing
But since when did “gun” automatically become a bad word? A gun in the hands of a
Secret Service agent protecting our president isn’t a bad word. A gun in the hands of a
soldier protecting the United States of America isn’t a bad word. And when you hear your
glass breaking at three a.m. and you call 911, you won’t be able to pray hard enough for a
gun in the hands of a good guy to get there fast enough to protect you.
guns = protection devices
18. Framing
We care about our president, so we protect him with armed Secret Service agents.
Members of Congress work in offices surrounded by Capitol Police officers. Yet, when it
comes to our most beloved, innocent, and vulnerable members of the American family, our
children, we as a society leave them every day utterly defenseless, and the monsters and the
predators of the world know it, and exploit it.
we protect what we care
about...
20. Appeals to Emotion
There exists in this country, sadly, a callous, corrupt and corrupting shadow industry that
sells and stows violence against its own people. Through vicious, violent video games with
names like “Bullet Storm,” “Grand Theft Auto,” “Mortal Combat,” and “Splatterhouse.”
Appeal to disgust
21. Appeals to Emotion
But what if -- what if when Adam Lanza started shooting his way into Sandy Hook
Elementary School last Friday, he’d been confronted by qualified armed security? Will you at
least admit it’s possible that 26 little kids, that 26 innocent lives might have been spared
that day? Is it so important to you (inaudible) would rather continue to risk the alternative?
Is the press and the political class here in Washington D.C. so consumed by fear and hatred
of the NRA and American gun owners, that you’re willing to accept the world, where real
resistance to evil monsters is alone, unarmed school principal left to surrender her life, her
life, to shield those children in her care.
Appeal to fear
22. Appeals to Emotion
This is a time this is a day for decisive action. We can’t wait for the next unspeakable
crime to happen before we act. We can’t lose precious time debating legislation that won’t
work. We mustn’t allow politics or personal prejudice to divide us. We must act now for
the sake of every child in America.
Appeal to patriotism
25. Topic Sentence
Wayne Lapierre in his remarks for the NRA at a
December 21st press conference tried to
reframe the debate about guns in society as
necessary tools for self-protection.
26. Set-up
As LaPierre imagines the media’s response to
his argument, he uses a series of examples to
demonstrate why guns are useful tools.
27. But since when did “gun” automatically become
a bad word? A gun in the hands of a Secret
Service agent protecting our president isn’t a
bad word. A gun in the hands of a soldier
protecting the United States of America isn’t a
bad word. And when you hear your glass
breaking at three a.m. and you call 911, you
won’t be able to pray hard enough for a gun in
the hands of a good guy to get there fast enough
to protect you.
28. We can see that all three examples are of people
protecting valuable people with armed weapons.
LaPierre’s major rhetorical hurdle here is that guns are
associated in many minds with violence and murder. In
order to counter that, he reframes the word “gun” as a
protective device, one that good men need to resist the
evil men. Guns provide us with us safety in an unsafe
world. The natural fear that surrounds the
circumstances of the Sandy Hook killings can only be
countered by appealing to an action-movie imagery--
secret service agents, war veterans, regular guy heroes.
29. LaPierre wants us to see guns as the solution rather
than the problem to violence in America. His
argument--as aggressive as the weapons he supports--
lacks any concession at all, but instead contends that
only with a hyper-masculine re-arming of America will
we be able to protect ourselves from the monsters who
stalk us.
30. Other notes:
Changing the subject
Finding other villains
Ethos--honest law-abiders vs. corrupt Eastern-ers
