In the midst of his article, Charles M. Blow supplements his argument for stricter gun laws by examining and discussing major shootings in recent U.S. history. In introducing these acts of gun violence, he asserts his claim through the repetition of the phrase, “When we learned, to our great horror,” describing the context of a major shooting after each clause. After explaining the context of each instance, he emphasizes on the point that no significant government action was taken in any of these, thus prompting the nation to step further and further towards the decline of the debate on guns. At the end of this build up, Blow juxtaposes “the blood running through our streets” to the “increasingly unfettered right to bear arms,” proposing the
