Oklahoma City Bombing Summary

In this scene, Michael Moore interviews James Nichols, (brother of Terry Nichols), about the Oklahoma City bombing. Terry Nichols was one of the men behind the Oklahoma City Bombings of 1994. After the bombing, James’ house was searched, but nothing was found connecting him to the bombing.

Moore makes a mockery of James by including clips of his poor grammar, poor decisions, and his fraternal relationship with a terrorist. James repeats “Why was it blowed up?” instead of “blown up”. James also puts the gun to his temple as a joke. Moore is displaying a person, who has an opinion that opposes his, as a fool. Moore expects us to assume that because James is foolish, all people who share his opinions must also be foolish as well. This logical fallacy is known as a hasty generalization. The conclusion that all people with James’ opinions are

For example, towards the end of the interview, Moore began to question the extent of the second amendment. Eventually, Moore and James have a heated argument about what are considered legal firearms. Moore asks,”Do you think you should have the right to own weapons grade plutonium in your farm?”At first, James believed that any American should be able to possess any type of weapon. However, Moore’s constant pressure, pressured James into the answer that the audience wanted to hear.

The logical fallacy straw man is apparent when Moore uses weapons grade plutonium as an example of arms under the 2nd amendment. If Nichols defends it he will seem crazy to most of society, so he is forced to answer no. Moore assumes that pro-gun lobbyists are okay with people in possession of any type of weapon, including WMDs. Also nuclear missiles did not exist during the birth of America. Our Founding Fathers were incapable of imagining that a weapon of that magnitude was even possible. Moore's logic isn’t sound because of these logical