Rhetorical Analysis Of The Sandy Hook Shooting

The Sandy Hook shooting in Newtown Connecticut resulted in the death of twenty school children and six adults. Following the shooting, President Obama delivered a speech that moved citizens all over the country. President Obama became notorious for his subtle diction and natural body language that conveys sincerity and truthfulness along with the direct implication of his true thoughts. In this speech he effectively identifies himself not as a Democrat or Republican, but as a parent who wanted nothing more than to protect the children of our country. To do this, he uses vivid diction, open body language, controlled facial expressions, and a somber tone to deliver a speech that made the American people waiver. He identified with the parents

He even uses an anecdote to illustrate the children during the shooting to show himself being moved by the scenario. Hurting right alongside Americans, not as a president, but as a parent wanting to protect his children saying, grief stricken, “we have wept with you. We’ve pulled our children tight (Lee)¨. The purpose of the speech is a call to action to enact gun laws, but President Obama recognized that this scenario could have been prevented with guns in the hands of protectors instead of threats. So to counteract this, he identified himself with the parents who want to ferociously protect their children even if that means using guns, then with a remarkable explanation that with the path we are going on, nothing will change and we will forever be in fear of the children of this country being shot down in a safe place. Saying, “And in that way we come to realize that we bear responsibility for every child, because we’re counting on everybody else to help look after ours, that we’re all parents, that they are all our children......We’re not doing enough. And we will have to change (Lee)”. With showing that he too, only wants to protect the children he was able to identify with these parents and deliver a solution to this constant state of fear. This is important because it gave people a chance to see him as a

Fortunately, Obama uses his inflection to show he is aware of what he is saying rather than just reading from paper. This effectively ensures that the audience sympathizes with him and recognizes his struggle to deliver a speech over such a painful subject. President Obama even directly says, “We can’t tolerate this anymore...In the coming weeks, I’ll use whatever power this office holds to engage my fellow citizens(Lee)¨. The purpose is to show that he is in pain alongside the victims and does not want this problem to be such a constant and preventable one, however it is, so we must enact gun laws to protect our people. This is important because it opened the people to suggestion and is still relevant today because we still refer back to the Sandy Hook Shooting and this speech when calling gun laws to