The Assignment
For this assignment, you will restructure your argument in order to demonstrate your gained knowledge of audience by composing a public piece, an argument presented in a medium that has been planned and executed with the intention of being staged in the public domain. Therefore, your audience for this will be the general public and not the academic community.
The purpose of this assignment is twofold: (1) You will practice crafting effective arguments to various audiences, using appropriate mediums. (2) You will demonstrate your understanding of the relationship between content, audience, and medium by composing an effective public piece.
After you compose your Public Piece, you will post it to the Discussion Board and then engage in a critical conversation with your peers. You should respond to two peers with thoughtful discussion as you evaluate audience effectiveness.
Assignment Options:
- An original editorial cartoon that would be published in a newspaper
- A public service announcement in the form of a video/commercial (1-2 minutes)
- An original poem or song that reflects thoughts and emotions relevant to your stance
- A brochure or pamphlet highlights the key pieces of the paper that would be presented to a specific audience
- A poster for public display that uses images and limited text to highlight the issue and arguments presented
*All work is to be original and created by the student. Students cannot simply locate a pre-made piece and submit it as original work.
Assignment Requirements:
Your public piece should:
- Establish a clear audience and purpose.
- Stand as an authentic, engaging, and polished piece that the public could consume.
- Communicate an argument effectively with no gaps in logic or credibility.
HERE’S WHAT NEEDS TO BE RECONSTRUCTED:
Elimination of Gun Free Zones
Gun free zones are basically made to mitigate suicides,violent crimes, unintended injuries as well as deaths.Theoretically gun free zones eliminates or reduces the gun presence in these locations thus reducing the risk of fire arm related injuries as a result of criminal activity, recklessness or escalatory conflicts. Conversely if the potential presence of armed civilians prevent violence ,these zones can be more attractive targets to mass shooters or violent criminals since those perpetrating will not encounter armed resistance in such locations. In defiance of some claims suggesting that elimination gun free zones might have an impact of protecting a lot of children, schools at the same time must be gun free zones to enhance safe spaces for children maintaining their learning environment, mitigating those who use guns with no proper training.
Gun free zone refers to those locations where possessing or even using a gun is prohibited and is considered a criminal offense if found. Let’s take an example of the Florida shooting in a school. A lot of violence was perpetrated against the school going children. Gun men have now started targeting those areas where guns are not allowed. Statistics show that 90% of all instances of mass shooting in the United States happen in gun free zones such as Florida school. Antigun liberals argue that this instance of mass shooting doesn’t occur in other countries. However that is not true given that US in not even in the top ten countries with high rates of death resulting frommass shooting.
The Gun-Free School Zones Act (GFSZA) enacted in 1990 prohibits any individual who is unauthorized from knowingly possessing unsecured or a loaded fire harm at a location where the person has a reasonable cause to believe or knows is a school area. This Act applies to private public and highs schools and elementary schools as well as private property within a thousand feet from the school. However, it has a provision that allows sates as well as their political subdivisions to issue licensed that exempt the people licensed from the prohibitions. This Act has been in use since 1994 (Gehrig, 45).
The Crime Prevention Research Center recently gave statistics of mass shooting worldwide. According to them these shootings claims not less than five or more lives in public areas. These shootings are intended to kill following the definition of the FBI. These statistics exclude fights involving gangs since they are basically motivated by drug turf battles. Deaths resulting from other crimes are also excluded. There are also those attacks which are motivated politically. These attacks are not included in our definition. For this reason we exclude serious mass shootings such as the one that happened in Russian Chechen conflict. Another case happened in 2002 where more than 450 individuals were wounded and 130 killed Dubrovka Theater in Moscow in a three day siege.
Following the establishment of gun free zones the education system has continued to be secure. Majority of shootings that happen in school are as a result of few peoples involved making the wrong decision. Establishment of gun free zones ensured that teachers and also civilian s visiting those zones avoid being in possession of fire arms (Kopel, 54). This ensures that even if there will be a confrontation fire arms will not be involved as opposed to if these zones did not exist. For instance some parents disagree with teachers on the way they sometimes treat their children. When they engage in these tussles there are high chances that guns can be involved.
The introduction of this gun free zones have reduced gun shooting in schools. This has enabled children to feel more secure since the risk of gun shooting is mitigated. Statistics show that the level of performance in schools has gone high since the introduction of gun free zones. They have also ensured that teaching and learning environment is conducive for both the teachers and their students. Other provisions in the ACT also ensured that there is security in learning institutions. When children are in class and they know that someone is in possession of a gun then they can feel intimidated and therefore their level of concentration in class goes down .The same applies to the teachers who cannot deliver their duties as expected. The gun free zones ensure that everyone is free and does not feel intimidated by the risks of people owning guns.
There is however several ways in which these problemsassociated with gun free zones can be addressed. For instance take the incidence in the Florida shooting. Only one guy in the entire school was armed. He therefore executed his plans without any hurry. He was aware of the situation in the school and therefore he was not even afraid to shoot openly. One of the things that attract these perpetrators is the big signs at the gates of the schools declaring the area to be a gun free zone. Many people would not take guns there because they know the consequences if they are, found. Therefore the bad guys take that chance since they don’t obey the law.
One of the ways to mitigate this problem is to strengthen the laws that govern the use of guns. Hefty fines should be introduced so that whoever does not obey the law feels the pain.These laws should also allow more people to be in possession of guns in such areas. Since this area have become soft target recently, eliminating them could also prove beneficial to the society as a whole. Schools should also be harmed so that student’s fear the consequences of possessing guns in school. It is also important that schools improve their security systems to mitigate any incidence of violence. If the gun free zone is going to be fully eliminated and more students in schools enjoy their education with no form of interference, they should compete and fight for safer education for others.
Gun free zones have improved security in school in the last couple of years after the GFSZA was introduced. However since gangsters have started targeting these zones new measures need to be taken to reduce such incidences. Schools on the other hand have that right to be protected from crowd shooting (Safra, 58). Also to ensure safer schooling gun free zone Acts should be adhered to in schools. I f gun free zone will be fully eliminated and more schools enjoy the contusive environment, there will be lee or no violence and mitigation in all schools since the laws will have been well strengthened.
Works Cited
Gehrig, David S. "The Gun-Free School Zones Act: The Shootout over Legislative Findings, the Commerce Clause, and Federalism." Hastings Const. LQ 22 (2014): 179.
Kopel, David B. "Pretend gun-free school zones: A deadly legal fiction." Conn. L. Rev. 42 (2009): 515.
Safra, Seth J. "Amended Gun-Free School Zones Act: Doubt as to Its Constitutionality Remains, The." Duke LJ 50 (2010): 637.
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