Persuasive essay strategies and applications

Current Event

On December 14, 2012 a mass shooting occurred in Newton, Connecticut at Sandy Hook Elementary School resulting in the deaths of twenty children and six adults. The gun used at the elementary school was an AR-15 which was registered to the assailant's mother. This same assault rifle was used in an Oregon mall shooting two days before, as well as in the Colorado movie theater shooting of July 2012 (Zornick). Since this incident, politicians as well as businesses throughout the United States have responded by trying to limit the ability of American citizens to acquire firearms. Specifically the purpose of this research is to analyze what degree the Wal-Mart chain's selling of firearms will have on the American public.

Wal-Mart is currently the largest distributor of firearms in the United States. The store chain has among its inventory major assault weapons, such as the AR-15. They also have an online approval and background check system which means that there is not the three-day waiting period that is found in traditional gun stores. It is unquestionable that Wal-Mart allows for a large amount of people to get serious weapons speedily and also plenty of ammunition. Therefore it can be assumed that by applying stricter regulations to their gun sales, Wal-Mart can diminish the amount of gun violence incidents in the United States.

Other retailers have not been the subject of as much pressure to tighten gun sale restriction as Wal-Mart. Stores such as Kmart which also sell firearms do not have nearly the same amount of limitations or restrictions that Wal-Mart employed even before the Sandy Hook shooting. However, some stores such as Dick's Sporting Goods have agreed to suspend sales of certain guns and limit the purchase of ammunition in order to preserve the public safety (Dudley). Financial impact to the Wal-Mart chain and how great a loss they are willing to accept in the name of public safety must be considered. Since the on-set of the recession, gun sales have been a major part of Wal-Mart's profit margin (Sanburn).

Since the Sandy Hook Elementary shooting, Wal-Mart has agreed to stricter regulations on gun sales and creating measures to ensure that those who use Wal-Mart guns in violent incidences are caught. There are loopholes which allow people to purchase guns in ways which circumvent regular gun laws which do not occur at Wal-Mart. Dangerous people often acquire guns in these ways or through illegal purchasing of guns from private sellers. Wal-Mart has been found to violate gun ordinances in the past. In 2005, Wal-Marts in California were found to have broken several gun laws, including "selling to people that the AG's office had notified Wal-Mart were prohibited from owning firearms; delivering guns to customers before they passed a background check; and sometimes even failing to ascertain a customer's identity" (Zornick).

It is an easily drawn conclusion that if people can easily purchase heavy artillery and dangerous weapons then they will be more likely to fall into the hands of people who are willing to use them. The fear is that the guns will be purchased by people with criminal intentions or the mentally ill. By making guns less able to be acquired, there are less guns which will be on the street and fewer inappropriate people will be able to get their hands on them. It is therefore logical that stricter gun regulations will mean that there will be fewer instances of violence. Therefore companies which profit from the sale of guns have a moral responsibility should the guns they sell be involved in violence. If they sell a gun to someone who is mentally or ethically unsound and that person then perpetrates violence, the seller of the gun allowed the situation to unfold.