Zhenliang Lu

Oct. 17th 2015

ENGL101X
Prof. Landrus

Rhetorical Analysis of Obama on Oregon school shooting

President Barack Obama called on the American people to make "common sense gun
safety laws" a priority and urged lawmakers on every level to take action following mass
shooting at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg on Thursday. President Obama
presents his speech passionately and persuasively after a student at the school shot and killed
another student before taking his own life at Oregon school. Obama aims to appease publics
heartache and to appeal the improvement of relevant laws being introduced. He claims that he
cannot solve shooting problem by himself. He appeals to individuals and parties through the
use of ethos, pathos and logos call for peoples support to promote stricter gun control.
The author of the speech is the President Obama, whom the whole country expects to
stop the tragedy from happening again. Obama, just as other presidents in history, makes his
efforts to prevent gun violence in his country. However, it is still a difficult problem which
involves multiple interests. The audience of the speech includes school students, parents,
teachers in school and those who cares about gun violence all over the world. Gun violence is
such a widespread topic that almost every individual is involved. Both males and females,
educated and uneducated and old and young have the common demand for safety from gun
violence. They show solicitude to Obamas speech because of the sympathy for the victims
and the aspiration that it will never happen again. School shootings always have great
importance since they happen constantly in the country, which make parents always being
worried for their childrens safety.
In the beginning, the speech effectively uses classic appeals such as logic, credibility and

emotion. President Obama cuts into the chase at the beginning of the article. He appeals to
emotion by pointing out that families will be changed forever whenever gun shooting
happens. President Obama shows his compassion by using the word stunned with grief to the
victim families and he share pain with those who loses their loved ones. The emotion appeal
makes the audience's sense of identity as well as narrows the distance between speakers and
audiences. Although President Obama is physically distant from audience, he makes efforts to
create an intimate distance so audience is more likely to listen to his speech. Shooting event
happening continuously stimulates public nerve and makes them concern their own family
security. The author effectively use stasis of value to create exigence. Following, Obama
appeals to credibility by claiming that he has been to Roseburg, Oregon. Also, he tells the
audience that he has handled shootings at Columbine, Blacksburg, Tucson, Newtown and
Aurora. He appeals to credibility and trustworthiness to make audience convinced that he has
experience to solve this problem. President Obama appeals emotion by saying Young men
and women who were studying and learning and working hard with their eyes set on the
future, their dreams on what they could make of their lives. And America will wrap everyone
who is grieving with our prayers and our love. Author describes an ideal typical American
dream but the dream is threatened by gun violence. The contrast between the ideal world and
the real world makes audience long for the ideal world without gun violence.
In the second part of the speech, President Obama continuous to appeals logic, emotion,
credibility as well as styles to appeal the audience to support him. One significant style of the
speech is comparison. According to the speech, President Obama appeals logic by claiming
that the U.S. has mental illness who wants to do harm to other as well as other countries,
nevertheless, U.S. is the only advanced country in the world that witnesses mass shootings
every few months. The application of contrast between U.S. and other countries shows
contradiction. To deal with the opposing argument more guns more safety, President

Obama asks rhetorical question Does anybody really believe that? to voice his opposition.
Rhetorical questions is an effective way to define authors own position. After that, the author
appeals logic by claiming that states with the most gun laws tend to have the fewest gun
deaths which is a powerful advocate for strict gun control. Thus Obama is the only way to
stop school shooting and audience should support his proposal. President Obama use
rhetorical methods of reiteration. ..our thoughts and prayers are not enough. It's not
enough.(Obama) The author uses plenty of short sentences to repeat his view points with a
determined tone in his speech. He also says it with each word spoken loudly. He makes
himself more determined appeals to his credibility as a president who wants to solve gun
violence threats.
In the last section of the speech, Obama utilizes rhetorical methods to call for
coordinated action supporting his long-term plans to stop firearms violence. Proposing
solutions here is a valid Kairos which means it is the right time. After plenty of words the
audience is convinced by President Obama of the seriousness of the issue, they are eager to
find a solution against gun violence. The author appeals logic by saying the country has even
spent more than 1 trillion dollars and an entire agency fighting territory attacks. However, the
Congress blocks any progress on preventing shootings. President Obama employs a strong
rhetorical question: How could that be? Through this appeal, Obama urges audience to
have Congresss support. People watching the speech are likely to be affected emotionally
and be back of their president. Subsequently, the president uses analogy to prove that gun
violence should be solved as effectively as other issues like mine disasters, floods and
hurricanes. He appeals to audiences patriotic enthusiasm that United State acts when
disasters happen. He also admits that gun issues is unique because they involve freedom and
citizen rights. President Obama aims to gain gun owners support by saying that. President
Obama uses the aids of rhetoric to assert the exigence of taking actions rather than thinking

and praying. The author repeats the word routine by saying Somehow this has become
routine. The reporting is routine. My response here at this podium ends up being routine. He
appeals logics to convey the message that such an important issue need to be solved. The
overarching premise of the article is to reunion the whole country fighting gun violence and
school shooting. The purpose of this rhetoric is to arouse audiences awareness of the
seriousness of the event which is no longer unique but frequent. If people in the country are
still completely indifferent, more innocent lives will lose in any second. At the end of the
speech, the president calls for the country being all of one mind on this issue. With so many
rhetorical methods he applies, his appeal is likely to make a difference.
Overall, Obamas speech affects a large number of people by appealing to ethos, pathos,
logos. He arranges the article well and affects the audiences emotion. Likewise, he uses
rhetorical everywhere in the speech. The whole speech bridges distance between speaker and
audience. First-Person Reference and Second-person Address can be seen throughout the
article. He uses all of that to gain peoples support to promote gun control progress.

Work cited:
Barack Obama, Obama on Oregon school shooting (full transcript), The Oregonian,
Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House, Oct. 1, 2015. Obama Speech.