Abdoulah 1

Lea Abdoulah
Ms. Yeaton
Pre-AP Period 2
4 February 2018
Columnist Article 1
Guns - When Trump Can’t Even Tweet ​by Gail Collins

Citation:
Collins, Gail. “Guns - When Trump Can’t Even Tweet.” ​The New York Times, ​The New York
Times, 24 Jan. 2018, ​www.nytimes.com/2018/01/24/opinion/guns-kentucky-twitter.html​.

Part 1: Article Analysis:

Gail Collins writes how President Trump’s response, which is a tweet expressing his
“thoughts and prayers”, to the continuous gun shootings show a lack of focus on the main goal of
cementing gun regulations in America’s laws. Collins expresses that these tweets aren’t a
solution to the shootings in the U.S., but they are a reflection of the lack of concern the president,
Congress, and other representatives have towards stopping lives from being lost and from guns
being bought by murderers to kill, resulting in the unfortunately popular terms Americans have
come to be very familiar with - mass or school shootings.

Tone:​ Gail Collins applies a confident “matter-of-fact” tone occasionally utilizing an assumptive
tone to point out what people, specifically government representatives, are missing concerning
guns while assuming Trump’s level of sympathy and compassion is lacking.

Context:​ Collins provides the current state America is in regarding gun regulations, background
checks, and certain responses to gun shootings, ultimately suggesting that they are weak or either
non-existent. Therefore, readers have a good understanding of the problem America is stuck
with; however, it would be beneficial for readers to get some sort of knowledge on what
President Trump thinks of people of different ethnicities seeing that is where his real concern is
when it applies to these American shootings.

Appeals:​ Gail Collins primarily focuses on convincing through all ethos, pathos, and logos.
Ethos makes a significant appearance when Collins confronts government representatives and
their remarks on gun shootings. Pathos and logos convince by describing the alarming amount of
deaths the gun shootings have caused resulting in a problem Americans are wanting to solve with
a non-responsive Congress and President Trump.
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Strategies and Devices:​ Collins utilizes mostly simple syntax while also employing a rhetorical
question and a contrast between President Trump and the prime minister of Canada to provide a
very apparent claim.

Organization:​ The article follows a main idea with supporting details, concluding with a hopeful
remark.

Diction/Word Choice:​ This article is very decipherable and could be understood by most high
school students. Words like “issue”, “tweet”, and “story” makes Collins’ article alluring and
recognizable. These words dive into a topical article that discusses what comes off as too
intellectual, but Collins’ word choice makes it an easy but intelligible read.

Part 2: Personal Response:

Gail Collins opens up her piece by introducing a certain gun shooting incident and goes
off from that, discussing the lack of focus and concern America’s Congress and President have
for creating gun regulations, securing background checks, and for their insensitive responses to
these shootings. Collin’s main idea is specifically that. Collins addresses that President Trump’s
occasional tweet sending his “thoughts and prayers” are not a solution to the gun shootings that
are killing many people. Gail Collins, in the late beginning of the article, suggests that gun
regulation needs to be in place and more needs to be said about guns from President Trump than
just him using social media to send what he thinks to be a “thoughtful” remark, but rather shows
him as the opposite of introspective on this ongoing gun issue. The article is based on authentic
statistics and focused assumptions. Gail Collins didn’t put a finer point on the solutions she
wrote about; her solutions came off as very broad and vague. I would like to have heard more
detailed descriptions of how to move forward. Her assumption level was elevated when it came
to profiling Trump. His sympathy level was assumed and judged rather than taken into
consideration. But then again, a simple tweet from America’s president is denouncing the level
of power he could use to take the broad solutions that Gail Collins suggests. This is where I
agree with Gail Collins. As president, I feel that Donald Trump should voice his opinion in a
broader sense, not mostly confined to a social media platform. I agree with Collins how it is truly
concerning that Trump talks when a shooter is of different ethnicity but is quiet when the topic
points towards gun regulation.