Week 8 - Gun Control

http://www.csgv.org/

This is a pro gun control website for the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence. Their mission statement is 'The Coalition to Stop Gun Violence seeks to secure freedom from gun violence through research, strategic engagement and effective policy advocacy.' They are made up of 48 national organisations who work together in order to reduce gun violence. The website makes valid points about loopholes in legislation surrounding guns, such as being able to purchase guns at gun shows without needing a background check. The site also highlights some of the tragic results caused by guns for example '9 children die everyday due to gun violence'.

http://home.nra.org/#/home

This is the website for the National Rifle Association which is anti-gun control. They have described themselves as 'America's foremost defender of Second Ammendment rights'. The NRA has nearly 4 million members making it a much bigger and more dominiring force when compared to the CSGV. However when simply scanning over the websites I found that the language used on the CSGV site was more powerful and persuasive than the NRA, when reading the headline titles which are intended to grab the readers attention. The CSGV site also slanders the oppossing argument more often. An example on the CSGV site is 'Yes, people kill people, but without easy access to guns it would be a lot harder'. This is in relation to school shootings and the argument that these tragedies happened because of the mentality of individuals. Article headlines on the NRA site are less opinionated and more matter-of-fact. 'Armed forces retirement home bans vet' gun'. The issue is simply stated without using any emotive language. I also found that the CSGV site used rhetorical questions a lot when arguing their points ' Could it be that the gun industry has an ulterior motive to push for less gun control?' I found this to be more persuassive as it gets the reader to think more about the issue and they make the gun industry to sound more sinister.