What’s the real Problem 

Since the beginning of its creation, guns have created an impact that has allowed the world to be as we know it. Throughout time we have seen guns in wars, organizations like the mafia or the police force, and unfortunately in all types of mass shootings as well. Guns are power weapons that can kill in a matter of seconds making those with one a lot more powerful than those without. While it is true that the use of guns has brought people to deal with conflict among countries faster in times of war, it is obvious that these weapons are dangerous and must not be accessible to the common citizen. There are hundreds of different cartoons that touch on the topic of gun control, but the one that caught my attention and I would like to analyze is called “Taking a Knee” by R.J. Matson which appeared in the Washington post. I am going to evaluate the cartoon to show who the author made the cartoon for, his purpose for creating it, as well what did he do to get his overall message across to the reader. 

This immediately caught my eyes because of the whole take a knee situation that has happened with President trump and the NFL. Players refused to take a knee during the playing of the national anthem of America, in which it is played before every single game and Trump had his opinion towards it. The reason players refused to take that knee during the anthem in the first place was because they felt that if they did, they would be accepting and agreeing with how America is going, with how Trump is running it. Trump replies to those who aren’t taking the knee as being disgraceful to the country, for violating the original traditions. Now this doesn’t have anything to do with gun control but its rather clever how the author took a famous previous event and tied it to a greater ongoing problem by using the praising on the flag against him and having him praise the NRA and not the American people. Also, I believe the purpose why the author decided to call it taking a knee was to make fun of how Trump is supposedly in control as president, yet he’s is not really controlling major things that he should be. The reason being is because there are a lot of more serious things going on in the world and trump focused on people not taking a knee in a free country. The artist uses Ethos strongly in this cartoon by targeting one of, if not, the most important man to the united states and targeting his character as he is not setting the proper regulations the people feel needs to happen. The fact that the artist involved not only situations that has happened in the past but also an ongoing topic adds credibility to the work and makes the audience really believe that this is what’s happening, and this is what’s not. Furthermore, the artist is using that concept against trump as a means of clowning him, to make fun of his profession. This I feel targets Trumps intelligence because it shows the simplest things like not taking a knee before a sports game is seen as a huge problem for him yet when the topic is gun control and there are mass shooting happening across all of the United States he doesn’t discuss anything about the issue. 

The Cartoons show the NRA (National Rifle Associations) stepping on Trumps back along with the senator in which are all republicans, looking into an angry mob holding posters and protesting for gun control. With this the artist is making a powerful statement that the executive branch is not taking proper action to ensure the safety of the people and are letting the NRA ignore their concerns when it comes to the production and availability of guns to the common people. The artist is using Pathos when he sets the location of the art piece in parkland Florida. Of course, he could have set any location for his cartoon was already powerful, but he purposely chose this location because of a mass shooting that has happened there, to provoke our emotions into feeling bad for what has happened and to get us to side with him that the NRA is stepping all over the government. To continue, there is a very important paper shown in the cartoon underneath Trumps foot that originally said, “raise age limits” but has the word “raise” crossed out and substituted by the word no. With this shown the artist audience would be Americans interested in social Issues. Since this is a major social issue ongoing till this day, I believe it’s clear the artist audience would be to everybody who can see it, but heavily targeting the people of the senate and executive branch who can make the necessary changes needed. This is important because in this country we are the ones who vote for our president and senators so by the artist targeting these members it sends a message to help the country or the people will vote against them and for someone who will. 

In this cartoon we can see the NRA men looking very serious and the angry mob while trumps is looking away from the crowd and at the NRA men. The author did a great job sending the message that the higher powers aren’t stepping up to solve or call for gun control. Instead they are relying on the NRA to handle it themselves. This is a problem because the NRA are all for the second amendment, the right to bear arms, so the only changes that they would make would be the ones for the creation of more guns and for the  removing of barriers so that more people can buy guns.  In the cartoon Trumps facial expression looks as if he’s is nervous or worried, depicting him as soft and reliant on help, strengthening the authors overall message. The NRA men have serious faces and have a foot on trumps back which give off that impression that they are the superior ones in the cartoon to the audience. The artist doesn’t really use Logos in the art piece, he expects people to know what has been going on in the past decade and finds a clever way to tie them together without taking way from the main problem at hand which is gun control. 

To sum up, guns have been around since its creation and have influenced the world to be as we know it today. While guns still hold purpose, we can all agree that the world would be a safer place without it. With the use of gun there has been countless killings and school shootings and so it’s understandable why people want to call for better gun control to make it less accessible to the common people. Hearing and seeing so many reports of the same problem the executive branch must be lacking knowledge or not care to not pass anything to resolve the issue so it’s good that the author depicts them to be a smart as they act in the real world. Gun control is not easy to call for, for guns are needed for those in the police force but more can be done, and this cartoon did a good job getting at who can be we target and how we move to what’s next. Do you?