My response to Kristof

In response to Kristof’s article regarding gun control in America, I do believe his main claims are not to purely eradicate guns in the United States; but to simply create more regulations upon possessing a firearm. Kristof claims that there are more regulations on items like ladders than firearms, which is shameful. He furthermore believes the idea of guns should not be “shrugged” at, but instead should be taken more seriously than things that create fewer deaths per year.  He additionally helps his cause by bringing to the reader’s attention that in a six-month period, more US citizens have perished in gun related occurrences than have died in terrorist attacks and the Iraq and Afghanistan wars collectively.

As I read through the text, I noticed a substantial amount of evidence for all of the claims delivered. Kristof provides statistics such as those from David Hemenway like “children ages 5 to 14 n America are 13 times as likely to be murdered with guns as children in other industrialized countries “ (paragraph 3). This in itself is an eye opener to the reader that helps them side with Kistof’s claims in just the first few paragraphs. Furthermore, Kristof uses the success of decreasing casualties per year in other places like Australia and Canada that gives the reader confidence that if we as Americans were to implement these principles into our society, there is no reason why we shouldn’t be able to decrease gun deaths per year like these other places.

Kristof very effectively selects his evidence to strengthen his argument for gun control by establishing credibility and trust. Being that Kristof puts himself on the same level as president Barrack Obama, Canadian, and Australian policies shows his security in the idea, which he presents. He reassures the reader that because other places were successful in decreasing deaths per year from gun violence, there is no reason why America cant come to the same kind of result. This faith motivates Kristof’s audience to side with his ideas and do everything in their power to make them true.