Power Play: The Rhetoric of the NRA After Newtown
Advisor Information
Barbara Pickering
Location
UNO Criss Library, Room 107
Presentation Type
Oral Presentation
Start Date
7-3-2014 10:00 AM
End Date
7-3-2014 10:15 AM
Abstract
On Friday morning, December 14, 2012, Adam Lanza shot his way through a secured door at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut and killed twenty first-grade students and six teachers. The NRA response to the Newtown shooting, posited that an armed guard could have stopped the gunman and called for armed guards in every school. This response was promoted in two video ads. The first ad, School Security, was launched on January 15, 2013, the day before President Obama presented his gun control initiative. The thirty-five second video challenged the use of armed guards for President Obama’s daughters when America’s children were unguarded at school. The second video expanded on the first video, building the NRA case for armed security at American schools, and derided media elites who objected to the policy. This paper will contend that the ads are illustrative of a vocabulary of power utilized by an organization that occupies a hegemonic position. Moreover, it will examine the use of three ideographs in the videos: , and to bolster this hegemonic status and motivate the NRA target community. The analysis will examine whether the National Rifle Association motivated their constituency to derail a national groundswell to act on gun control legislation, and what effect the strategy will have on the power of the NRA to dominate gun rights policy.
Power Play: The Rhetoric of the NRA After Newtown
UNO Criss Library, Room 107
On Friday morning, December 14, 2012, Adam Lanza shot his way through a secured door at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut and killed twenty first-grade students and six teachers. The NRA response to the Newtown shooting, posited that an armed guard could have stopped the gunman and called for armed guards in every school. This response was promoted in two video ads. The first ad, School Security, was launched on January 15, 2013, the day before President Obama presented his gun control initiative. The thirty-five second video challenged the use of armed guards for President Obama’s daughters when America’s children were unguarded at school. The second video expanded on the first video, building the NRA case for armed security at American schools, and derided media elites who objected to the policy. This paper will contend that the ads are illustrative of a vocabulary of power utilized by an organization that occupies a hegemonic position. Moreover, it will examine the use of three ideographs in the videos: , and to bolster this hegemonic status and motivate the NRA target community. The analysis will examine whether the National Rifle Association motivated their constituency to derail a national groundswell to act on gun control legislation, and what effect the strategy will have on the power of the NRA to dominate gun rights policy.
Additional Information (Optional)
Winner of Outstanding Graduate Oral Presentation