As the number of polarizing issues in the United States seems to increase every day, it becomes easier than ever to lose track of some of the most pressing topics that face our nation. One debate, however, continues to arise in headlines more frequently than other contestable topics: the discussion about gun control. For as long as this exigence is on the forefronts of the minds of concerned students, teachers, and parents, advocates from both sides of the isle use a combination of strategies in order to sway the public. This political cartoon tackles the commonplaces that support the idea that individuals having access to guns makes people ultimately safer, in addition to combatting the image of perpetrators of mass shootings as mentally ill exceptions to the overall reliability of gun owners. By appealing to the compassion of its audience, the cartoon reaches the very root of the issue of gun control; despite any benefits that guns may provide for personal security, there must be some kind of change simply because there are children dying on a frequent and unusual basis.

Gun control, however, is not the only commonplace being debased in this cartoon. The choice to portray a father as opposed to a mother or sibling expertly attacks another misconception which states that grown men can’t cry. In fact, the intentional disruption of this social norm only further emphasizes the abnormality of the situation where a father is this afraid to send his daughter off to school because of the risk that she could become the next victim of a mass shooting. This diversion from stereotypical behavior that is being portrayed in this cartoon reminds people that our current state of affairs is not, and never should be accepted as normal.