Textual Analysis President Obama’s Address to the nation was presented on January 5, 2016. His speech was shown on all of the major network stations. The main goal of his speech was to get the point across to the nation about the increasing problem of gun use. His speech really focused on the issue of gun control and if it would benefit the country. Overall, the biggest idea of his Address was that gun control is a large issue in the United States.
The way to prevent deaths caused by firearms can be prevented in other ways than taking peoples guns away. The examples brought up in this Address really stood out to me. The use of personal, national, and global examples really made his speech stronger on the topic of effectiveness. At the very beginning of the speech, he uses many examples of how guns have affected the lives or many. He uses personal appeal, or the pathos method. One of the very first examples he uses is the personal statement about his good friend Gabby Giffords.
She was a congresswoman who was shot in a mass shooting in Arizona. He states, “I was there with Gabby when she was still in the hospital, and we didn’t necessarily at that point think she was going to survive.” When he makes this statement, he is really trying to show how guns can affect anyone in the world at anytime. He is trying to make the point that he has dealt with this matter on a personal level to try and reach out to a certain area of his audience, which are people that have been affected personally by firearms. He tries to touch home to people to get them to listen. He brings up the event of Sandy Hook Elementary by stating “And that’s what we tried to change three years ago, after 26 Americans—Including 20 children, were murdered at Sandy Ho.
.a way that mostly everyone in the United States can relate to. He touches on subjects that are apart of everybody’s everyday life, and that is why it is effective. The idea of gun control is a very debated subject in the United States. Many think that it is needed, and many think we can do without it. His speech brings up many valid points on how the background check process needs to be more thorough and that it should be required everywhere.
Many people are in support of this idea, including myself, because even though there is a process to it, it is not taking the firearms away from the people. Overall, this speech touched on many different subjects like government policies, mental healthcare, Congress, gun technology and prevention of deaths by firearms. This speech was carefully backed up by valid arguments that were supported by statistics and national stories.
