Gun Violence Advertisement Analysis

A Child’s First Toy an AR-15: An Analysis on Gun Violence
Remember the mass shooting where two young boys opened fire at Columbine High School killing a dozen young students and injuring twenty-four before taking their own lives? Or the massacre in Jonesboro, Arkansas when two middle school students opened fire killing five students and injuring ten? Or the mass shooting at Virginia Tech or Sandy Hook elementary school the list goes on. We see mass shootings happen yearly. In 2015, there were reported 372 mass shootings in the United States, which is equivalent to one mass shooting everyday of the year and as of June 2016 their were reported being 133 mass shootings in the year 2016 (gun violence archive). The accessibility to guns has become
more lenient as the years go. In states like Wisconsin it is legal to obtain and own a rifle, shotgun or handgun with no permit. Having these lenient gun laws leads to firearms falling in the hands of the wrong people and it has the ability to affect each and every one of us. We are now seeing firearms being used in terrorist attacks, mass shootings and suicides. This issue is split down the middle between conservatives who fight for the right to bear arms and liberals who push for stricter gun laws.
Moms demand action is a liberal organization that fights to end gun violence and have gun laws changed for the betterment of society. They believe that gun violence is becoming an epidemic in our country and the only way to end it is by establishing laws that require background checks and ban the sale and use of major assault rifles. The main concern for Moms Demand Action is that policies get established that will protect children worldwide. The majority of the advertisements that are published by Moms Demand Action use a mixture of logos and pathos in order to prove their point and demand change.
Moms Demand Action released a series of advertisements that focuses on the use of school children to achieve their goal. Also, these advertisements contained an informative quote that made you ask yourself, “If we don’t allow something like that then why do we have guns?” All their advertisements send a powerful message to anyone who comes across it. I will be focusing on one specific advertisement from their series. This advertisement depicts two young boys standing in a school gymnasium each holding an item in their hands. One of the young boys is holding a red dodge ball that we use to see in many school activities and the other is holding a major firearm that is twice his size. The advertisement displays a powerful statement that reads, “One child is holding something that’s been banned in America to protect them. Guess which one.” This specific advertisement also has a important fact that in most cases will shock many people. The ad reads, “We ban dodgeball because it’s viewed as being too violent. Why not assault weapons?” This advertisement is really strong when it comes to its pathos and its logos, which I believe is why these advertisements have become extremely successful in promoting change in our guns laws and overall gun safety.
The advertisement does a strong job at appealing to the emotion of the audience. When we think of children we usually think of youthfulness and innocence and schools are meant to represent protection and safety in our society and displaying the assault rifle corrupts that view. Using school children reaches out to all the parents who send their children to school everyday because no parent wants to see an assault rifle in the schools that their children attend. The advertisement shows a young child with an extremely large assault rifle, which strikes fear into the minds of the audience and is a reminder of the many tragic mass shootings that occurred in schools, such as the Sandy Hook elementary school shooting and the Columbine High School shooting that could have been prevented if gun laws were stricter. The two young boys could be seen as representation that school shootings do happen and they could affect any child at any time unless something is changed. Taking a closer look at the two children displayed in this advertisement you can see that each face displays a look of sadness, discontent and fear, which is a strong way to appeal to the audience’s emotion. In many advertisements that display children you usually see children with their eyes glowing with smiles across their face to depict their happiness, but in this particular advertisement the children’s eyes and eyebrows are slanting downwards, which is where we can see the sadness and fear.
The advertisement does more then appeal to the emotion of the audience; it also does a strong job at appealing to the audience’s logic.
As previously mentioned, the advertisement displays a fact that explains how an innocent sport like dodge ball is banned from schools, but something violent and dangerous like an assault rifle makes its way into our schools. The fact represented on the advertisement is shocking, but is true. Dodgeball across the country is being taken out of the curriculum because of its “aggressive” nature. Many schools believe that dodgeball will lead to many students becoming aggressive, as they grow older. It is true, that dodgeball has left many students with bruised elbows, knees, and the occasional face, but the damage a dodgeball game may due does not compare to the damage an assault rifle can do. The many mass school shootings that have occurred in our country proves that assault rifles find a way into school. The sad truth is that more effort is being put into banning sports like dodgeball, rather then putting an end to gun violence. The logical comparison that is being made is a strong way to appeal to the audience’s logic. This comparison allows the audience to see how absurd society is becoming by banning a rubber dodgeball, but still allowing a deadly weapon to be easily accessible to children. Gun statistics show that over thirty-six people are killed by gun violence everyday, but to this day we have not seen a single death or serious injury caused by a game of dodgeball. This advertisement asks the question of what is more important dodgeball or assault rifles and which is more important to protect our children from? Bruises or gun wounds? It is up to the reader to
decide. The amount of violence that is caused by firearms is exponential. Guns find their ways into our homes, workplaces and our schools. As previously mentioned, schools are meant to be safe zones for our children and we trust that schools will keep our children safe and out of harms way, but in many cases you can see that this idea is diminishing with the amount of gun violence that occurs in our schools. Moms Demand Action is one of the many organizations that are taking the necessary steps to fight for stricter gun laws. They fight to bring safety back into our schools and into our country. They want to ensure that the safety of every child around the country is protected. No parent should have to suffer the devastating loss of their child and no child’s life should be at risk while attending school. According to gun violence statistics over twelve thousand children and young teenagers have been killed due to guns violence and Moms Demand Action fight to end the number of deaths caused by gun violence (the trace).