Rhetorical Analysis Of Why Our Kids Are Killers By Jack Watts

In the 2002 documentary Bowling for Columbine, American political activist and filmmaker Michael Moore sets out to explore the primary causes of the 1999 Columbine Highschool massacre, as well as the roots of gun violence in the United States in his trademark provocative yet satirical manner. Bowling for Columbine takes a deep and often disconcerting investigation into the motives of two Colorado student shooters, responsible for the deaths of over 12 people at Columbine High School on April 20, 1999, and examines other gun-related issues as well. From obtaining free guns at a bank, to reviewing America’s violent history, and interviewing a variety of people, Moore demonstrates that the conventional answers of violent national history and entertainment, as well as poverty are inadequate of causing this violence, for other nations share the same factors without the same levels of carnage. In order to arrive at a possible explanation, Moore takes on a deeper inspection of America’s culture of fear, and violence in a nation with widespread gun ownership. Ultimately, the documentary implies that the high incidence of gun deaths in America is caused by the deadly combination of cultural paranoia and easy accessible firearms that is, to some extent, effectively established through rhetorical techniques of ethos, logos, and pathos.

Guns are vital in today’s society, dividing the country, especially families with debates over the use of guns. Sarah Vowell is a citizen who disagrees with the use of guns, talking about her experience with a gun and her family in her essay “Shooting Dad”. Using many rhetorical techniques in her essay, she sends a message within her story, telling the audience reading her story that guns are not worth it. Vowell’s use of many different techniques helps the story come to life, explaining her life with guns around and how someone gets weak when someone has a gun around.

Schools are no longer a safe havens for furthering knowledge; instead violence is occurring at alarming rates. Common occurrences in schools include: physical altercations, severe property damage, and bullying behaviors. According to “ThefutureofChidren.org,” youth violence in schools costs the public 158 billion dollars each year. In this decade, that rate of children inflicting violence on other children and teachers is staggering. Today’s teachers are being trained on gun safety, school lobbies are being installed with bullet proof glass, and counselors hold

Last but not least, the author also makes an abundant use of appeals to the reader’s Pathos, appealing to the reader in a way that reaches them in a personal and emotional way. The author begins and ends this article with this same appeal, to draw the reader in, as well as to open them up to the information that the rest of the article provides and leave the reader thinking about it. He begins the article by mentioning some of the more infamous college campus shootings, such as those that occurred at Virginia Tech and Northern Illinois University, and then proceeds to make his case against concealed firearms on college campuses. This viewpoint is prominently displayed in the third section of the article, in which the author writes about how students who go on these shooting

On this day in 1999of April 20, two teenage gunmen kill 13 people in a shooting spree at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, south of Denver. At approximately 11:19 a.m., Dylan Klebold, 18, and Eric Harris, 17, dressed in trench coats, began shooting students outside the school before moving inside to continue their rampage. By 11:35 a.m., Klebold and Harris had killed 12 fellow students and a teacher and wounded another 23 people. Shortly after noon, the two teens turned their guns on themselves and committed suicide. This event made me feel safe around schools with uniforms because it makes it more unlikely for students to bring weapons. It shows that teens may be all able to get weapons easily making me aware of the people surrounding me.

In “The Kids Are Not All Right ,” author Joel Bakan argues that it is necessary to believe that childhood itself is now in a crisis. He states that it is necessary to reignite the guiding of ethos and practices of the century of the child. Bakan claims that children are endangered due to the exposure to violent media, potentially harmful psychotropic drugs, and increasing quantities of toxic channels. The author believes that we should work together as citizens to provide a safe community, through democratic channels and institutions, to bring change.

The picture is showing how much we haven’t really changed at all in anything. Everyone has their own way of doing things in there life, their way of saying what is on there mind. But then you have those people who end up getting pushed around every which way the turn their head. One of the main reason behind the shootings is kids feeling like they need to make a point about how people do not listen to what they have to say and the shooting is the only way to (wake up some people or the town itself) According to Dewey G. Cornell and Matthew J. Mayer say on my second journal say “All too often, the response to school violence has centered on simple solutions, such as declaring that schools are gun-free zones or, alternatively, recommending that teachers arm themselves in order to ward off attacks. Perhaps the most simplistic solution has been the widespread adoption of zero-tolerance policies, which have resulted in thousands of students being expelled from school each year.” (1). That’s supposedly helping stop the shootings, expelling them and making them even more angry at the school, maybe at themselves too and wanting to do it even more so. So instead of watching the world go insane, go help others, go be the reason people finally wake up to the one word that is losing its self. There is more to life than watching what everyone else is

In the United States alone in 2015 thus far, there have been 353 mass shootings and 74 of those alone were school shootings. Wayne LaPierre, CEO of the National Rifle Association, argues that the use of guns and/or armed security in our schools across America could potentially prevent school shootings. In order to support his claim, LaPierre appeals to emotion, trust, logic, and ethics in his speech following the Newtown shooting. In the speech, LaPierre says, “ A child growing up in America witnesses 16,000 murders and 200,000 acts of violence by the time he or she reaches the ripe old age of 18.”

After the tragedy, questions of how and why this happened, and what could have been done to prevent the attack, were widely discussed. Some blamed the shooters’ actions on violent video games while others blamed bullying as the reason for the massacre. It may never be fully clear why Harris and Klebold committed such a terrible act, but measures to prevent it from happening again began almost immediately. Strides were taken to make schools a safer environment for students through changes to school policies and the addition or enhancement of anti-bullying programs; law enforcement officials began placing a larger emphasis on active shooter training; proposals for new gun laws were presented, and widely debated; and in popular culture, the influence of Columbine can be seen in books, films, and video games. While some of these influences seem to have caused more hurt than healing, others have led to meaningful additions to our schools and culture, as well as opened up discussion regarding violence in schools.

In his 2002 documentary, Bowling for Columbine, Michael Moore touches upon the problem of gun violence in the United States. By conducting many interviews in the United States and in other countries, Moore searches for the root that causes gun violence in the U.S. in comparison to other countries and how social factors can affect the American culture. Moore focuses on a school shooting at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado and tries to analyze why the two killers shot up the school. As a Criminal Justice major, gun violence is a crucial issue in the U.S. and with easy access to guns and an overexposure of violence in media, there should be imposed limitations to minimize violence.

It seems like an epidemic to turn on the television and have the screen be bombarded with news broadcasts surrounding a school, college, and even churches and having those two words engrained at the bottom, “Mass Shooting”. In just those two words dread stabs its way into our hearts. Soon the media interviews a bystander that witnessed the massacre. They describe how the blissful harmony of mundane life was broken by the abrupt thwack of lead as it glides through the air. The number of mass shootings has exponential increased. What drives a person to such an immoral act? Finding the irrational motivation behind this problem goes deeper than blaming firearms, instead it means finding the cure to the virus of mass shootings through the three causes in the seeking of glorification, lack of an authoritative figure, and the obsession of some radical ideology that devalues respect of human lives. These three factors are in part what have allowed the once random acts of mass shootings into an increasing occurrence of everyday life in America.

"I'm angry someone would do this to us. There are lives ruined, families ruined, and our whole school year is ruined" (Brackely 1). Casey Brackely, once a student that attended Columbine High School, remembers the tragedy of the horrific Columbine shooting that killed and injured many students. Mass shootings in the United States have been on the rise since the 1980’s, especially in the last decade. These shooters motives and profiles are almost all terrifyingly alike. Many of these shooters try to imitate and parallel the tragic shooting of the Columbine High School in 1999. These shootings have made peaceful organizations, such as an elementary school; become a place of violence and death. Currently, in the United States, an epidemic of

In the U.S. there are more school shootings than anywhere else in the world. It is not completely the minor’s fault when they commit a violent act. Many factors contribute to when minors make decisions but there are a few that stand out. When a minor commits a violent act parents, peers, and the media are to blame.

The fear that something unpredictable can happen at any time has been injected into our society. Whether it be a terrorist attack or a school shooting, it’s practically impossible for anyone to see these incidents occur. Due to these situations, the media and corporations have our society almost paranoid. In Michael Moore’s documentary, Bowling for Columbine, we can see that our society isn’t one that is usually violent or dark, but it’s the fear the drives the American history of Gun issues and shootings.

Unfortunately, the notion of schools being a safe place is no longer a trend across American schools. Disturbing mass shootings in the U.S continue to shock the media. A school shooting is when someone attacks a school using a gun. The Secret Service says these shootings are "deliberately selected as the location for the attack". The reasons massacres occur in schools is because of poor security, violence in video games/media, and bullying. Shockingly the U.S. has the most school shootings than any other country in the world. According to the FBI, mass shootings occur, on average, every 2 weeks in the U.S. While the cause of school shootings are sometimes unpredictable, it is a growing issue and they need to be prevented. Most shooters don’t have mental issues, they have a plan to kill, so there is no singular cause that creates violent people. On April 16th, 2007, the most deadly school massacre occurred. Seung-Hui Cho killed thirty-two students at Virginia-Tech. As Americans, we no longer should turn on the news and witness these gruesome murders. We try to make sense of these murders, but it’s ineffectual. There are measures we can take as a society to help. The number one question in a school massacre is, "why would a person that has a capable sense of mind even do that?” It is our moral responsibility to fix these issues. In order to stop this problem, we need to find its roots.