Thursday, November 17, 2011

Gun Control In America

Anti Gun Control

http://gunowners.org/protect.htm

The link above is the website Gun Owners of America (GOA) a non profit organisation formed in 1975 interested in preserving and defending the Second Amendment rights of gun owners.

The website relies heavily on the support of the public shown through the headings such as ‘Take Action’, ‘Join GOA’ and mentioning the public as having a ‘central role’ driving the point of ‘the united voice’ in order to get results. It contains news reports, a radio station and a store where the public can buy various GOA merchandise such as t-shirts to show their support.

The feature I liked most about the website was the Source Studies page, which detailed studies that support the use of guns, which I thought was important as it actually provided reliable evidence, rather than just opinions. One I found particularly interesting was the ‘International Crime Victim Study’, which declared Britain as having the worst crime rate of all major countries, following a near total ban on civilian ownership on firearms. This shows the public the potentially bad effect it could have on America. I think the GOA website provided a sufficient amount of information as to why it is important to defend the rights of gun owners, through persuasion.

Pro Gun Control

http://www.bradycampaign.org/

The link above is the website run by the Brady Campaign whose aim is to prevent gun violence allowing the nation to feel safe in their communities. The Campaign is interested in reforming the gun industry by enforcing sensible regulations and increasing public awareness of gun violence.

The website tries its best to influence the public through bold writing such as ‘Enough is Enough’ and facts at the top of each page such as the one below, creating the feeling of urgency.

http://www.bradycampaign.org/xshare/pdf/facts/Brady_GodBlessAmerica.pdf

Similar to GOA, the website also contained facts and figures supporting their cause for example States with higher gun ownership and weaker gun laws were found to have more gun deaths than those with strong gun laws and households with less guns. A thing I found particularly striking was in the right hand corner of the homepage it displayed how many people have died from guns this year and also today in America. When seeing something such as this in numbers, it drives home the point of why gun control is needed in America.

I thought both websites displayed a good amount of information and used persuasive techniques in order to draw the public in to their way of thinking mostly backed up with facts and figures. I found that the Brady Campaign was the most convincing as it displayed a lot more emotive statistics such as the significantly high deaths in America compared to other countries. Although I originally found the GOA website to have valid points that were successfully backed up, these points were only to protect the second amendment and the use of guns. I found the Brady Campaign instantly more important as it was protecting human life and seemed to be in the best interest of Americans.

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