Guns, Sex, and Education

COMM 200 U3
Guns, Sex, and Education Critical Reading Assignment

Jamie O’Meara believes that gun education in our schools curricula would benefit students by giving them a better understanding of the capability of firearms. In his thesis he tells a story of his first experience wielding and shooting a gun and how it made him feel afterwards, bored. O’Meara is trying to get the point across that once students are taught properly and have used a gun in a safe environment they would lose their curiosity about guns. This would better prepare students if there ever came a time when they would believe they would have to use one sometime in their future.

O’Meara’s personal narrative was a very effective and attractive way of reaching his audience because I believe everyone at some point has wished they could have had the opportunity to freely use a firearm in a somewhat controlled environment from a young age. The reader can immediately feel comfortable with O’Meara talking about this subject because he has actually had the experience of using a firearm to shoot at objects, resulting in him gaining a level of understanding that most people do not share. Now that the reader feels comfortable with O’Meara he begins to stray away from the attitude that guns are fascinating and more towards the fact that guns can be pointless unless you actually know how to use one.

O’Meara says that he used a cop stance he had seen in cop show when he was shooting the gun then started to miss his target badly and eventually gave up afterward beginning to feel pain in his hand. I jumped to the conclusion that if taught properly O’Meara could have had a better time using the gun, and would have hit that target more consistently. By giving the reader a personal experience that he had while shooting in his thesis O’Meara in the sense hooks the reader with the belief that gun education can be useful. Throughout the rest of his article he better supports his thesis by explaining the effects of media and comparing gun education with the already widely taught sex education.

In conclusion I believe that by using a personal narrative from his childhood Jamie O’Meara effectively reaches the audience. By coming to an understanding about how O’Meara first felt about guns compared to how he felt after using one greatly gets his point across that gun education would change how young people perceive guns for the better.