TOW #5 - Text

In light of recent events that have taken place all over the United States of America, I read an article that addressed gun violence: specifically, if citizens with a concealed carry license do anything to stop mass shootings if they are present. This article by Eugene Volokh, found on The Washington Post, was posted just over a week ago. Volokh is a professor of law at the University of California, Los Angeles School of Law. He addresses the recent mass shootings in America and questions if there are citizens, not police officers, who stop the shooters with their own concealed carry. He then provides several examples over the past two decades in which a citizen pulled their licensed weapon on the shooter and successfully stopped them before any more harm could be done to the public, one of which describes an event in Philadelphia: "In a Philadelphia barber shop earlier this year, Warren Edwards 'opened fire on customers and barbers' after an argument. Another man with a concealed-carry permit then shot the shooter; of course it's impossible to tell whether the shooter would have kept killing if he hadn't been stopped, but a police captain was quoted as saying that, 'I guess he [the man who shot the shooter] saved a lot of people in there'" (Volokh 1). Volokh, in this case, uses these logical examples very well. He provides the information that the audience desires as proof of his point: that ordinary civilians do step up against crime and have successfully stopped it. He also uses the repetition of the phrase "In what fraction" while questioning the usefulness of the preceding examples. This makes his point less effective, but also shows the audience that there are more events that happen outside of what he showed. Overall, I believe Volokh accomplished his purpose in informing the audience of how normal citizens help the public by taking the matters of justice into their own hands.