Raise your hand if you have heard about the Columbine school shooting. Sandy Hook? Parkland? Ok, what about Saugus? Hollenbeck? These are just two schools from the list of 45 school shootings that took place in America last year according to a report by CNN.
While looking at this advertisement, the audience is perplexed into what an AK-15 and a children’s book could possibly have in common. Virtually nothing at first glance, but by seating two children in a US library: one with the children’s book Little Red Riding Hood and the other with a major assault weapon, it’s proven to audiences through an intense lens the prevalence and current position of guns in schools.
This ad from “Moms Demand Action” brings to light the dark topic of what the educational system has done to keep guns out of school compared to other so called dangers. To clarify confusion the organization stamps the phrase, “One child is holding something that’s been banned in America to protect them” in white writing and in red writing follows, “Guess which one.” At first glance one would assume that it’s the large gun sitting in the lap of the little girl which is exactly the advertisement’s purpose. It explains that Little Red Riding Hood was banned in schools along with several other children’s books because of the very explicit content, the bottle of wine in her basket.
This image persuades the audience through pathos and kairos more than logos to side with the organization in believing that guns should be banned or controlled more than an innocent child’s book containing alcohol. The American flag in the background further implements the specific target that is the US school system, not the world’s educational function as a whole. Unlike other countries with sophisticated and refined gun control laws, the United States has done little to nothing to change laws of assault weapon ownership. Because so, this establishes a civic common ground between the advertisement and the audience because it now plays into politics and the Bill of Rights or more specifically the second amendment as a whole. This amendment is defined as “the right to bear arms” written during the war pertaining to individual gun rights. But now current society and even the world as a whole has evolved into a very different place where guns quite frankly do not belong. Which is why we must ask ourselves, is being able to carry a gun a right? Or is it more of a privilege? This is exactly what the advertisement calls of the audience to think to themselves of the danger this ancient right has brought into the present and prevent it from impacting the future.
The demonstration of the polar opposite objects, a gun and a fairy tale, emphasizes how ridiculous it is to ban a book before a major assault rifle after viewing this advertisement and the weight that this topic carries today. In recent years school shootings have spiked, now reaching over 40 per year. This is more than any other country in the world. And why? Because there are still people living and breathing today that put their belief in expressing their personal rights above the safety of others.
Parents should be able to send their kids to get an education without having a thought in their head as to if they will see them at the end of the day. The effort and persuasion put forth by “Moms Demand Action” into modern social media platforms, has successfully reached all audiences of all different ages. Young students now are changing lives just as much as their parents through protests, walk outs, and so forth to make a change in gun control in schools and in the outside world. Being able to make a change has no age limit, so why wait to protect yourself, your classmates, and future generations to come?
Thank you.
CNN Statistic Source:
https://www.cnn.com/2019/11/15/us/2019-us-school-shootings-trnd/index.html