Assignment #5

Group of 2

According to those who support guns control there are way too many guns in the United States and  it is easy for those who want to do harm to acquire guns and more should be done to stop people who want to do harm from being able to get guns. Many states have adopted stricter gun laws which makes hard to get a gun such as NY and Illinois. While these measures seem like good ideas in theory the statistics show that they are not working. Chicago is a city where it was very hard to get a gun due to the state and the laws in the city itself and violent crime had been on the rise for quite a while. When the state of Illinois law overturned a law that made it illegal to have a concealed carry people in Chicago were finally allowed to carry guns suddenly the crime rate started to go down and even reached a new low this year. It is also no coincidence that the states with the strictest gun control are also the ones that have the highest rates of murder such as New York, California, New Jersey, and Illinois. This shows that while the intentions of those who want to make acquiring a gun legally are good the statistics of the matter show that stricter gun control laws do nothing to stop crime and may even cause an increase in crime.

The most effective part of the paragraph is the fact that it gives both sides of the argument instead of just giving one. Many times when trying to prove a point the writer only gives his own argument without taking into considerations the other side or simply ignoring it. This is not the case here as the writer starts with the opponents’ argument instead of his own and then giving reasons for why the opponent’s argument is incorrect instead of just flat out saying the opponents argument is wrong. The paragraph gives both sides of the story while the writer also gives his view on the topic and what his opinion on it is making it a strong paragraph.

-Gary Bryanskiy

The most important element of this paragraph that makes it particularly effective is a strong topic sentence followed by sufficient use of evidence that supports the introduction statement and overarching thesis. The first statement in this paragraph gives the reader a different take on his thesis, setting up a clean segway into his evidence, which will immediately reinforce his claims. The evidence is relevant, valid, and further reinforces his thesis. Regardless of the reader’s opinion on gun control, they have no choice but to recognize the cogency of statistics and facts from legitimate sources.

-Matthew Epstein