Just Take Away Their Guns by James Wilson: Analysis - Article Example

Just Take Away Their Guns by James Wilson: Analysis Summary Based on James Wilson’s article, it is apparent that legal limitation on lawful buying of guns is useless because most illegal guns are mainly stolen or accessed through private purchases, which cannot be traced by government laws. Wilson cites research conducted by Gary Kleck, that every year more guns are used in self-defense exceeding those fired by the police. Therein, he sets out to persuade his audience that focusing of the guns legally issued does help in solving the increasing crimes involving firearms since the focus is misdirected. Wilson therefore postulates that reducing illegal guns from unlawful possession should be the major focus, as opposed to making it more difficult for citizens to obtain guns. Rhetorical Analysis Wilson assumes various rhetorical choices to explain how removal of illegal use of guns must be the focus of the government. In the article, he employs logos or logical appeal with persuasive facts that are likely to appeal to an American audience majority of whom is security conscious and by his own admission, they are likely to control the gun control laws but they are not sure they are going to be effective. In this case, Wilson begins by stating that creation of tougher gun control laws is not an effective method of dealing with illegal possession of firearms. Legal restrain of citizens to possess guns has little effect in dealing with illegal use of firearms.. Many guns are stolen, borrowed, or attained through private purchases and therefore, the government gun laws would be ineffective (Wilson) Wilson succeeds in selling this particular idea to the readers because, from a logical perspective, he has statistically proven that the guns used in crime are guns acquired by illegal means which the new laws are not going to have any effect on. By so doing, he has managed to effectively prove that the new laws are redundant and misguided since they will be unlikely to address the problem at hand. Wilson further uses exemplification and appeals to expert opinions, to clarify the importance of ensuring that the public can access guns legally without limitations. Gun control supporters largely disregard the need for self-defense among the citizens citing that the government can provide this necessity. However, Wilson cites Gary Kleck, a criminologist who has conducted research, indicating that every year guns are fired for self-defense purposes more than a million times what the police use. This research therefore indicates that the numbers of citizens that defend themselves with guns are more than the number of arrests that occur for violent crimes. Wilson provides an example to show the legitimacy of self-defense that discourages criminal activity. It is evident form the National Crime Survey that citizens that defend themselves with guns are less likely to suffer loss of property or be harmed than those that do not. Further, statistics indicate criminals are scared of victims with guns in many instances (Wilson). Wilson adopts the definition rhetoric choice in helping the reader understand the importance of government efforts in seizing illegal firearms. He defines the word “frisk” as parting down an individual’s outer garments, which occurs during a physical search. Frisk is an important part of the operation that law enforcement agencies must be encouraged to adopt to remove illegal guns from the public. It is thus unequivocal that the government’s effort to search for illegal firearms from criminals is more important than disarming the citizens. This is because the main problem is caused by criminals in procession of illegal weapons as opposed to law abiding citizens who have obtained guns for their own safety. Rhetorical Situation Due to the increased rate of gun violence, there is an urgency that has motivated exigency in the article is created by the call for tougher laws to restrict people from acquiring firearms legally. This is a problem because disarming the public takes away their power to provide self-defense to themselves from violent criminals and other assaults. The most effective method is to have government put full focus on eliminating illegal firearms from the streets by conducting a frisk upon reasonable suspicion and adopting modern science to create machines that can detect guns from members of the public (Wilsonn). The article addresses the government, supporters of gun control, and opponents of gun control to realize that through their efforts to create awareness the public, can assist in dealing with criminals in possession of illegal firearms (Wilson). Ultimately, the government has the power to ensure that stronger methods of seizing illegal firearms from the public are achieved. In this way, the police officers must be trained to identify possible suspects and search them for illegal guns. Unless the state makes deliberate effort to assist the officers such as high tech devices and information especially paroled criminals other efforts such as constitutional changes will be obsolete. When police cannot control the actions of the criminals, the issue of guns is rendered immaterial since lawlessness will thrive either way as such, it’s not an issue of how many guns they have but the extent of the free reign availed to criminals. Modern devices are necessary to make the work of police officers easier by ensuring that guns can be detected even from a distance of 10 to 15 feet (Wilson). The corollary herein is that current laws are discriminative against offices and may potentially favor criminals, when officers are accused of harassment for doing their work they get demotivated. Additionally, criminals are confident because they know that the police will only confront them only in circumstances when they have evidence otherwise they may let criminals walk fearing a lawsuit. Therefore, from the thesis, it is evident that the president had called for tougher laws that restrict gun possession; the article’s contention is to emphasize that focus should be on ensuring reductions of unlawful weapons. Wilson achieves significant success in defending his claim; this is because by virtue of his proving that the main threat is from illegal guns he redirects the attention of the reader from the gun laws to the real danger which is the unlicensed weapons. It is also evident from the article that it is a mistake to disarm people who acquire guns legally, since it is a tool of self-defense. Works Cited Wilson, James. Just Take Away Their Guns, March 20, 1994. Web. 9 Sep. 2013. . Read More