Guns and Drugs Don't Kill-People Do

Guns and Drugs don't kill-People do

The cartoon I chose was the drawing by Doug Marlette, published by Newsday in 1999. It is located on page twenty in our textbook, "Reading Literature & Writing Argument." In the cartoon, you see the back views of two vehicles, one being a truck and the other a convertible. The truck on the left is driven by a man with a bumper sticker that reads, "Guns don't kill-people do!" with the license plate that reads, "N.R.A."The man is looking at the man on the right of him in the convertible. His bumper sticker reads, "Drugs don't kill-people do!" with a license plate that reads, "Dealer." This man is driving with the top down, a hat on, and wearing a fur coat. By observing the cartoon, you can see that the man in the truck is angry by seeing the other man, the dealer, using the slogan to justify his illegal actions.

In the cartoon, Marlette used an example of common logical fallacies, false analogy. A false analogy is a false comparison, sometimes expressed as "comparing apples to oranges" (Chapter Two/Examining Thinking and Analyzing Argument 18). The false analogy in this cartoon is the comparison of the use of guns legally to the use of drugs illegally. The man in the truck shows that he believes in the law by being associated with the N.R.A., National Rifle Association. The man in the convertible is trying to associate that his illegal activity is okay, since he is not actually killing people by forcing them to take drugs. The license plates "N.R.A." and "Dealer" are considered comparing apples to oranges.

I agree with the phrase, "Guns don't kill-people do!" It takes a person to point a gun at someone then pull the trigger. The gun does not walk up to someone and pull its trigger. For many years I was against guns because it was, in my opinion at the time, so violent. I did not want to be around one. Now that I have a family and I am the only one that can protect them, I am all for owning a gun. It is not for killing or to...