8
CRITICAL THINKING
SKILLS
Aleksandra, Anastasia, Jonė, Rūta, Viktorija
Author
Joseph Neil Schulman
Joseph Neil Schulman (April 16, 1953 – August 10, 2019) was an American novelist who wrote Alongside Night (published 1979) and The Rainbow Cadenza (published 1983) which both received the Prometheus Award, a libertarian science fiction award.
LIBERTARIANISM
Definition
Libertarianism - (from Latin: libertas, meaning "freedom"), or libertarism (from French: libertaire, meaning "libertarian"), is a collection of political philosophies and movements that uphold liberty as a core principle.
- Libertarians strongly value individual freedom and see this as justifying strong protections for individual freedom.
- Libertarians endorse strong rights to individual liberty and private property; defend civil liberties like equal rights for homosexuals; endorse drug decriminalization, open borders, and oppose most military interventions.
- It is popular to label libertarianism as a right-wing doctrine. But this is mistaken.
Characteristics
Critical Thinking Standarts
J. Neil Schulman's SELF CONTROL Not Gun Control, published in 1995
IN DEFENSE OF THE NRA
Article
NRA - NATIONAL RIFLE ASSOCIATION - an organization which promotes the right to possess gun in the United States since 1871
NRA
- Includes 5,5 million members
Summary
- Author explains that media writes about NRA as a representation of “merchants of death” with only commercial interests to sell their product.
- Schulman gives examples to explain the media’s hostility to civilian firearms as “dark side phenomena” concept (events which happens in way that they can’t be easily seen or calculated).
- The answer to the question “why aren’t crime victims reporting their gun defenses” is given which is the prejudice in our society against gun ownership itself.
- The author talks about several cases with the gun being used and claims that news only show incidents where the gun is used for a crime but never for a beneficial reason, “even if it deserves a front-page” headline.
- Schulman talks about different political parties and their relationship with NRA.
Summary
NEGATIVE
Negative
Fairness – RED
Accuracy - YELLOW
Depth - PINK
Clarity - GREEN
Precision - ORANGE
Relevance - PURPLE
Breadth - BROWN
Logic – BLUE
FAIRNESS
FAIRNESS
133 As I said, it depends on whom you're going to trust: the people at the NRA who have 124
134 years of institutional experience dealing with firearms, or a bunch of ignorant, politically
135 biased pundits who believe the lies they tell each other
DEPTH
DEPTH
CLARITY
CLARITY
PRECISION
PRECISION
POSITIVE
Precision - ORANGE
Relevance - PURPLE
Breadth - BROWN
Logic – BLUE
Positive
RELEVANCE
RELEVANCE
46 where a firearm is involved in harming an innocent person. Gary Kleck, Ph.D., professor in the
47 School of Criminology and Criminal Justice at Florida State University, is considered the dean of
48 criminologists on firearms issues by his colleagues in the American Society of Criminology, who in
49 1993 awarded Kleck its coveted Hindelang Award for his book Point Blank: Guns and Violence in
50 America (Aldine de Gruyter, 1991). Kleck's unimpeachable liberal credentials--he's a registered
51 Democrat and a member of Common Cause and Amnesty International, as examples—precludes
52 any possibility of pro-conservative or pro- NRA bias. He takes no funding from any partisan in the
53 gun-control debate.
PRECISION
PRECISION
67 Every 13 seconds, an American gun owner uses her or his firearm in defense against a criminal. If
68 you're only counting handguns, it's every 16 seconds. Compare this to the "once every two
69 minutes" that the much-ballyhood Death Clock in New York City's Times Square clicked off an
70 incident of "gun violence."
71 Handguns are used 1145 times a day against
72 robbers. Handguns are used 1510 times a day in defense against criminal assaults.
LOGIC
LOGIC
108 Two months after the much-reported October 16, 1991 incident where a madman randomly
109 murdered 23 lunchers, and wounded another 19 at a restaurant in Killeen, Texas, postal clerk
110 Thomas Glenn Terry, who had a license to carry his concealed .45 semi-auto pistol, saved 20
111 hostages in an Anniston, Alabama restaurant from takeover robbers--one of whom had
112 murdered a motel clerk just a few days earlier. No TV network news program mentioned it. A
113 madman with a gun is news. A hero with one isn't.
Positive or negative -
what do you think?
?
The author mentioned the researcher connected with a Democrats who are in general gun-sceptical.
Gary Kleck, Ph.D., professor in the
47 School of Criminology and Criminal Justice at Florida State University, is considered the dean of
48 criminologists on firearms issues by his colleagues in the American Society of Criminology, who in
49 1993 awarded Kleck its coveted Hindelang Award for his book Point Blank: Guns and Violence in
50 America (Aldine de Gruyter, 1991). Kleck's unimpeachable liberal credentials--he's a registered
51 Democrat and a member of Common Cause and Amnesty International, as examples—precludes
52 any possibility of pro-conservative or pro- NRA bias. He takes no funding from any partisan in the
53 gun-control debate.
Opinion
CONSISTENT
- The author provides a very clear story line. From the very beginning till the end he tries to prove that our opinion on gun ownership is framed by anti-gun media.
- The author is very consistent in his libertarian viewpoint hence the whole article promotes the idea of citizens' freedom which should not be limited by the state.
CONSISTENT
MANIPULATIVE
MANIPULATIVE
- the author uses too many rhetorical questions which are supposed to shape readers' opinion
- the author tends to oversimplify complex problems in order to make them support his viewpoint
- Shulman uses strongly marked phrases like "the news terrorize you" in order to impose his viewpoint.
BIASED
Schulman not only uses plenty of oversimplifications but also takes into consideration only one viewpoint. He concerns the right to gun ownership only from the perspective of liberty skipping such such factors like state's duty to protect its citizens or mass shooting at schools.