Is Self-Defense using Guns Justified?
By Lexie Corcoran
Self defense with the use of guns is justified. The U.S. Self defense law states, “self defense is the right for persons to use reasonable force or defensive force, for the purpose of defending one’s own life or the lives of others, including, in certain circumstances, the use of deadly force.” Many lives have been affected by this law because it allows citizens to defend themselves without severe consequences. U.S civilians use guns to defend themselves and others from crime at least 989,883 times per year. This means that over 989,883 times per year, innocent lives are saved and protected.
Let’s say a robber broke into someone’s house with a gun. It would not be considered unlawful if one pulls a gun on the other to protect themselves and run them out. Some may ask, Why not call the police first, or run out of the house? Why is a gun the first choice? Well, if someone is being held at gunpoint they aren’t going to be able to call 911 or be able to run out of the house, the criminal isn’t going to let them. This is just like a true story that happened to a man in June, 2009.
A man from Sarasota, FL came home from work to see a black pick up truck in his driveway. As he unsteadily walked towards his house, a man came out of the truck and pinned the homeowner to the ground and told to stay put, threatening him with the gun. In a panic, the homeowner grabbed the criminals handgun and shot him in the stomach. The criminal was badly injured, but the situation was lawful because of the self defense law.
If someone was trying to hurt you, why would you be penalized to defend yourself to survive? Even if it ends in a serious injury,or even death, the self defense would be considered justified.
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Sarasota man reference:
https://www.learnaboutguns.com/2009/06/14/sarasota-armed-robber-shot-in-self-defense/
Self defense law:
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-defense_(United_States)
All statistics:
http://www.justfacts.com/guncontrol.asp
Hey, the way you justified the use of guns in a self-defense case is quite swell. The use of logical appeal is nice. I don’t want to get robbed by a hooligan and I have no way to defend myself. The only thing I think you should improve on is the emphasis on gun defense. Your essay is nice and sweet, but that leaves room for a stronger counter-argument to defeat your argument about the use of guns. Try and bring up the side that is against your claim and make it sound stupid (The use of guns may be morally wrong against a human being, but I don’t want to be the one that’s getting shot at.” GGWP Keep up the good work, Lexie! Kappa.
Follow me on IG @ayeeee_jayyyy
-AJ Blando 7th Period Mrs.Stenger’s class
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Beatriz, 7 Period
Your essay was really good, good job. You managed to justify the use of guns in self-defense very clearly, I do believe you should have stressed on your point of gun defense.
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The logical information was good. It seems like you did good research & it helped reach your point well. I wish there was more persuasion & connection your audience as to why it’s justified. You could have given more examples & explained your opinion on why you think this certain way. The ending was pretty vague & incomplete but overall I feel like you’re trying to get somewhere with your statements.
-Nathalie L. Nava/ 5th period
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Your logos appeals were great, but I wish you used more persuasion and were more connected to your topic. Towards the end, your conclusion got undetailed and vague. Other than that, your appeals are satisfactory.
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Though I am in complete agreement with your argument, and the use of the specific example in the second paragraph helped make your point more clear, you should have elaborated more on the introduction rather then stating your thesis as the first sentence. Though it may seem difficult, the easiest to hook a readers attention in the introduction is to provide background information upon the topic.
-Ealton Barcelona 6th
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Both sides of an argument should be presented. For example, you could have presented another case that happened in Montana not too long ago. A foreign exchange student was found inside a garage of another resident, but the student was lured into stealing from the garage because of a past experience of the resident. The resident then shot the student with a shotgun multiple times, striking the student once in the head. You can justify the position of the resident and can be used as a counter argument because the resident was found guilty.
-Carl Dumlao 6th
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Your essay is short and gets to your designated point. Although you did a fascinating job on logical appeal, you can add more emotional appeal. This would help you strengthen your argument. Another thing that would strengthen your essay is to use counter arguments. Just bring up an opposing view and “spank” it.
– Khoamartin 5th
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Your essay was straight forward and to the point, but you could have hooked the readers in the beginning of the essay with a more engaging hook. Also, if you would have elaborated on the example you gave about the man from Florida after your statistical information and then added your logical appeal then I believe it would have strengthen your paper.
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Your argument isn’t strong because it doesn’t bring up the flaws in self-defense by using guns. It true in some cases a gun can help protect the individual but it’s been seen everywhere on social media how guns cause more bad than good. Owning a gun does not always mean the person will use it to just defend him/herself.
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Your piece was well written altogether! However, I noticed a few mistakes here and there. There was alot of grammatical errors throughout the argument, and led to me getting distracted from the actual essay. Also, you lacked citations, which is necessary for you to have Ethos, or credibility. You coulod have also developed your topics better. I wish you the best of luck in your writing career. Also your argument is not strong because it never addresses the other side of the argument.
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Before anything else Wikipedia never use Wikipedia maybe to find info and double check with another site in this case a .gov presumably. The essay itself was wonderfully executed drew the audience in and told us why with a story. Only thing I would have liked is an example in which the self defense resulted in death. More appealing to emotion and shows exactly how important the topic is.
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Andrew Period 7
Your essay starts off very well, the use of the quote to help push your side of the argument is very well done. I feel like your essay is very well done, but as everyone else said, i believe there is room for counter-arguments and proof on how your side is better. but other than that, you’re logical appeal and your argument is structured. Keep on working, you’re doing great!
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Your essay was good straight forward and to the point! Though I do think you should’ve added the down side of using guns as self defense. For example you said it could lead to deaths, you could’ve stressed about how the victim would feel after he/she killed someone to save their own lives.
Angie Villanueva, 6th period.
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To me, self-defense being justified depends on perspective. In a self-defense scenario like the one mentioned in your essay, in the point of view of the “victim”, he was pinned down by an unknown stranger who was armed, and in “self-defense” he used that same gun to shoot him. Then take the stranger’s point of view, who you called a criminal, whereas he did not shoot anyone (the victim did), all he did was threatened the “victim.” The moment the man (landowner) took the criminal’s gun and shoots back at him, it’s then the supposed criminal becomes the victim, and the victim being the criminal.
All in all, your thesis addressed the issue. Good use of anecdotes, and logical appeals through the use of questions. An advice could be that you could have use counterarguments and use more evidence.
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Your essay makes a strong case in defense of Weapon usage in terms of self-defense. It allows the reader the unique opportunity of viewing self-defense from a practical stand point. In the beginning of the essay your great use of direct quotes from law and statistical facts allow the reader to see that you are well versed in the topic at hand. Furthermore, your use of sufficient and relevant evidence such as the case pertaining to the man from Florida, allows your essay to appeal to the target audience’s emotions and morals as they read making for an overall more effective argument. Great job.
– Allen Shine Mrs. Stenger’s 6th Period
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Your argument and examples are on point, But you need to reword your first paragraph better, I had a few troubles reading the first paragraph with all the fragments, and you could have made a stronger case. But aside from that, your article was fine.
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I like your essay, as you make use of a great story from a modern source, thus bringing credibility to your argument. However, to strengthen your essay, I would additionally bring in a new highly controversial story to intensify your argument, lengthen your paper, and bring the reader in with an interesting controversial matter.(EX:Michael Brown) You would then need to strongly take a side and disprove your opponent’s argument. Good job, and add more controversy to achieve higher reader interest.
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During your introduction I was a bit confused as to which position you were taking, but in the second paragraph it became clear. So I would just make sure you clearly state your position in your introduction so your audience won’t be wondering. I like how you used factual evidence about self-defense laws to support you argument, I felt that that strengthened your argument. I also like how you used a real life example of the man that lived in Florida and how you mentioned that he did not get in trouble due to the self-defense laws. Your transition into the third paragraph was also really good. To improve I would suggest again I clearer position that is stated in the introduction, and stronger diction.
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During your introduction I was a bit confused as to which position you were taking, but in the second paragraph it became clear. So I would just make sure you clearly state your position in your introduction so your audience won’t be wondering. I like how you used factual evidence about self-defense laws to support you argument, I felt that that strengthened your argument. I also like how you used a real life example of the man that lived in Florida and how you mentioned that he did not get in trouble due to the self-defense laws. Your transition into the third paragraph was also really good. To improve I would suggest again I clearer position that is stated in the introduction, and stronger diction..
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You did excellent job on the essay and made a strong point for the audience to agree with. The thing that must work is talk more about that topic. Give more reason to audience to convince them entirely to support your point of the use of guns as self- defense. With that being said your essay was short, sweet, and straight to point.
Philip Thomas 6th
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Although this argument is well written and supported. People often abuse the law and their rights by first prevoking innocent people. It is very likely that often people carry weapons hoping that someone dioes something enableing them to use a gun saying it was self defense.
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Your essay starts off well, you did a good job with the use of the quote to help push your side of the argument .Although I do believe there is room for counter-arguments and proof in the essay. Other than that you’re logical appeal and your argument is structured. Keep on working, you’re doing great!
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This essay was well written, you connected with the audience and made them think. You presented the argument by using examples, and appealing evidence. The only thing I would say to work on is your introduction. Make sure to make clear what position your taking. Overall job well done. Your essay was straightforward and easy to understand.
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This is a very good essay. It’s very well thought out and it’s obvious you put a lot of effort in it. Though your examples do further explains the reason for self-defense with a firearm, you lack the persuasive part to me. You have it down but I believe it can be better improved. To improve, try to analyze the situation more. Something like “Without his quick thinking to use the firearm against the criminal, the situation could have gotten worse. Even a possible death of the victim.” I believe this will make your supporting evidence stronger.
-Charles 3rd
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Really good start, and use of evidence. However, if I had to point out any area of improvement, rather than saying “let’s say someone broke into someone’s house,” you should say “someone broke into your house,” so you can better relate it to the audience and have an emotional appeal to your argument.
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The above comment is by Vivek Patel – 4th period Ms.Stenger
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Matthew Crews
6th Period
One of the best essays I’ve seen on this website. You did very well defending your argument and using strong and specific examples. On your example that you mentioned the “man in 2009”, it would be more impressive if you could remember a name of the person or the location it took place at. Also you could have added some more bulk/explanation to your conclusion, but overall you had a very good essay.
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I appreciate how narrow and individual your topic was. Also, I enjoyed how you utilized logos appeals in the way that you did. However, during portions of your essay I began to lose interest or see how well the writing was affecting your argument. In your second to last paragraph I would recommend continuing into how and why the victim was allowed to shoot the intruder and the implications of the situation. Overall great job!
Logan Harvill 4th Period
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You did well at clearly supporting your stance, but I think you could have used your examples better, they sounded made up with no real citation, perhaps some more information from them such as a date or a news company that reported these stories, also I think you might have been able to draw in the 2nd amendment to support your argument as well. (Michah H. Stenger 3rd)
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Good essay! You should consider using more connections with the audience and pulling emotion from them. You have a lot of good stats and valid points but you don’t have any connections with the reader. Also make your conclusion more clear. The more supporting evidence you have, the better you’ll be set for a debate.
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Great organization for your essay. I liked how you used a example and used the actual story of the example to support your argument. i would however, added more evidence and more examples to help out my argument. Other than that ,great job!
-Juan Quiroz-Guerra 4th period
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Rex Coca
4th
Although I agree with your argument, I believe that you could have elaborated more on your introduction so you could have showed the audience which side you were fighting for and let us know what the topic is truly about.
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You did a very good job in presenting your arguement but you did have some flaws. For example you could have provided some background information in order to draw your readers in, the way you start an essay is very important because that is what will keep the reader reading. You could have also done a better job presenting the opposing side of your argument and refuting it which would only make your side stronger and more effective .
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Your essay is very well written and it allows your audience to connect easier due to the real-life examples you use. But I feel like you could have strengthened your essay if you would have elaborated more on your paragraphs that contain your examples. It would be harder to counter argue if you detailed why self defense is justified in cases such as the man from Florida. Or if you would have used a better example, a more controversial one with an outcome that proves your claim.
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Your essay was good and you did a wonderful job supporti g were you stand in this argument. However you could’ve used more examples to get the readers more interested by using examples that relate to us. Your examples were kind of straight forward and they didn’t really have an explanation to follow .
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