Blog Post #3

Joe Harris discusses multiple ways to better an argument throughout the chapter titles “Countering”. He explains that to truly strengthen an argument, you need to somehow incorporate both sides of the disagreement in order to further addition in the debate and not contradiction. Ed Jennings uses this technique in his article, “Stopping Bad Guys with Guns”. Jenning’s believes that the prohibition of guns would result in a decline in gun violence. He imagines a world without guns, since the majority of American citizens have not even come in contact or even seen one. He examines both sides of the argument by stating “Sure you can look at the published reports suggesting there are hundreds of millions of guns in America and accept the word of Joshua Sugarman of the old Handgun Control group who said that a gun lasts forever and virtually never wears out, but why should you think of that?” (Jennings) By including this, Jennings is allowing for the reader to comprehend both sides of the argument, while still persuading them to side with him. This technique also allows Jennings to be very civil in his argument. At no point in the article does he take on an extremely aggressive side to prove his point. His words are mature and collected and can easily spark a friendly conversation about the topic between those who disagree. Jennings is very firm on his stance and does not dissent to any other views on the topic. His argument is greatly strengthened by using these techniques.