1. Dows policy positions that he sees are absurd are the facts that people believe if the gun control laws were more rigorous the shootings would not have happened and that if people had packed more heat they could of gotten the shooter at Aurora. The gun control laws becoming more rigorous as to who can have them will help the situation but, it will not stop people from selling them to others or from people stealing them if they know their friend has one. Also packing more heat would not have maybe made the shooter struggle to get away but by the people doing this they are putting more people at risk of getting shot and or the situation escalating. That is exactly what Dow’s pointed out in his arguments of this as well, to him though more of the problem is the mental illness that comes with people who are able to get the guns not as much of how they are getting them.
2. By Dow bringing up the other mass shootings it helps his main argument because in both situations once the shootings happened it was said that their was mental illness. Each one of the shooters has been linked to having a mental illness that does not come up until after they have done the horrible thing of a mass shooting and killed and injured innocent people. Dow believes that mental illness needs to start being talked about more so that people feel more comfortable talking about this subject.
3. Dows metaphor of the death penalty is talking about the fact that it took four shootings for people to realize that the shooters should be punished for what they are doing but also that it may be extremely harsh and we are closing the door to fixing this problem in society just because we give them the death penalty will not stop the shooters. Most of them commit suicide soon after they realize what they have done. Instead of focusing on the real issue we are putting a wall up and blaming it all on the shooter not on the fact that he may have a mental illness that caused him to do this .
4. By Dow saying we are all responsible for ignoring all the James Holmses of the world it once again goes back to the fact that we ignore the fact that someone may show signs of a mental illness and that they need help. That part falls on society because if we felt more comfortable talking about it and knew more things about mental illness’ we may be able to help the James Holmses of the world instead of talking about them after they have already broken and there is another mass shooting to talk about and another James Holms to blame for it.
5. Dows argument relates to culture because in society today we hate change and when things we never talk about start to become public we are quick to shut it down instead of allowing the people who have something to say about the topic say it. Instead we tell them they can’t and that they are wrong. Society does not like to admit that there are problems in the world and instead likes to blame what happens on the individuals who did it instead of taking a pinch of credit. We constantly push big conversations that need to be had to the back burner or we just wait for them to die down because we know as a society that if we do not give it attention it will stop being talked about. That is where we are wrong we need to start standing up for what we believe in and fighting for it until everyone see’s the problems it is creating and chooses to do something about it instead of forgetting about it.
cpudlo 