Response to the Taser comments and other stuff

Thanks to all that wrote good things about my presentation! It made my day to read your nice comments!:) I wanted to take this blog to respond to some of the arguments brought up in class after my presentation. While I was secretly hoping you wouldn’t bring these up, you guys are smart, so I should have figured…..

First off, yes, the Taser is tested on animals. I am sorry to say that many things are tested on animals before being used on a human. If I have the choice of testing on a human or animal though, the animal is going to be selected first. Not many people are going to select humans to try out something that could be lethal in the long run…. I’m just trying to be reasonable, not callous or insensitive. I do care about animals, but I think that if we are working to better society and keep society healthier or safer, animals are being used for a great cause.

Second, I understood the concern about normal people (not officers) owning Taser guns. I DID NOT intend to address that in my presentation because it is a separate issue altogether. I only wanted to address the issue of police being able to use them. There are still some states that will not allow officers to carry the Taser gun and I think they would benefit from allowing their officers to use them. As I said in my presentation, THEY ARE SAVING LIVES.

Another issue is the safety concern. Yes, they can be dangerous. What weapon isn’t? Yes, they do cause unsightly bruising…..(oh well, you shouldn’t have been threatening the officer in the first place now, should you have been?) A bruise will go away and the hurt will fade fast; a bullet hole will not go away so fast…. I think suspects are let off too easily. I’m one of those “harsher punishments for parole violators” (thanks Miss Congeniality) people who believes these criminals and suspects need to be kept in check. Tasers do that, but not to the extreme extent of a deadly firearm.

As far as the ethos, pathos, and logos part of my presentation, I believe I had TONS of logos. Ethos, I struggled with, honestly, to try and figure how I could be perceived as credible. The only way I could figure is that I grew up around law enforcement my whole life and knew enough about what goes on to take a strong stance about the issue. As far as pathos goes, I tried to let the audience see it from the point of view of a little girl who was scared that her father might be killed out in the field. These are honest emotions that a kid feels when she sees her parent doing incredibly dangerous work. Though I have to admit that as a kid, I didn’t realize the extent of the danger my father was in when he left every time. It became normal to see him in a swat team uniform leaving the house. I understand much more, now that I’m older, the risks he was taking as an agent.

So, in conclusion here, thanks everyone again for your comments. I hope I did convince a couple of you or at least educated you more on the subject.