Cassandra Powers 6th

Obamas Speech
Rhetoric is communication intended to persuade. On October 01, 2015, Obama gave a
speech on the shootings at Umpqua Community College, Roseburg, Oregon. In his
speech he talked about the grief our country is not only facing from this one event, but
all the other events that have repeatedly happened like this shooting. He also gives his
liberal opinion on how to mend the ongoing problem in our country using pathos, an
emotional appeal, and logos, a logical appeal. Some people may say that Obamas
speech was not effective, but I will argue that his speech was effective because of the
rhetorical strategies he used to demonstrate how our country needs to change its
current gun laws.
Obama uses pathos to strategically establish an emotion in his audience. He
explains that we should change our current gun laws by producing the emotion of grief
and guilt. He implies that we are the reason our country has these shootings, and that
We collectively are answerable to those families who lose their loved ones because of
our inaction (3). This statement announced that we are the reason those people died
from the shooting in Oregon, creating an emotion of guilt in his audience. It also creates
an emotion of grief in the audience because death is a sad thing, and most people dont
want to see their loved ones die. He is rhetorically using this emotion to convince the
audience that gun laws need to change.
Even though Obama used pathos as a rhetorical strategy, he more successfully
uses logos. He expresses his liberal opinion effectively by logically persuading his
audience to see his side of the situation. He uses the reasoning assessed to principles

of validity by identifying that when Americans are killed in mine disasters, we work to
make mines safer. When Americans are killed in floods and hurricanes, we make
communities safer. When roads are unsafe, we fix them to reduce auto fatalities. We
have seatbelt laws because we know it saves lives (3). Based on this knowledge of
regulations and mandates his logic is sound in the case that we should have stricter gun
laws after repeated mass killings from guns. By using the rhetorical strategy logos,
Obama demonstrates the need for gun law to change in our country.
Obama rhetorically uses logos by using examples of facts and evidence. He
states the fact that We know that states with the most gun laws tend to have the fewest
gun deaths. So the notion that gun laws dont work, or just will make it harder for lawabiding citizens and criminals will still get their guns in not borne evidence (2). This
clearly states that there is evidence that gun laws will reduce the amount of shooting
and is a reasonable fact thereof. By using evidence in his rhetorical strategy logos,
Obama makes his argument stronger and gently forces the audience to think to
themselves, Makes sense. This exemplifies the need for change in our country if we
want fewer mass shootings throughout America.
Together, pathos and logos to make Obama's argument strong. His logos would
not be as strong as it is without his use of pathos, and his pathos would not be as strong
without his use of logos. They work side by side coherently throughout his whole
speech, drawing his audience in with their emotions and logical judgment. In every
pathos statement obama gives there is logic within it. For example when Obama states
that We are the only advanced country on Earth that sees these kinds of mass
shootings every few months, he is using to logos and pathos. He is using logos by

showing that we are an advanced country with the ability to change the gun laws to
make our country safer, yet we choose not to. He uses pathos in the sense that we want
to see change in America and keep it a safer place. He does this by rhetorically
combining logos and pathos into to one statement, making his argument stronger. Both
of these strategies coincide throughout the speech to convince his audience that his
opinion is the right way. Using both of these strategies together demonstrates how gun
laws in our country need to change.
In conclusion, Obama uses the rhetorical strategies logos and pathos to appeal
to the audience's emotion and sense of logic to create a strong argument on the need to
change the gun laws in America today. He demonstrates a way to stop the mass
shootings in our country and rhetorically uses logos and pathos to make his audience
believe that he is right.