Sample Persuasive Speech
Topic: Please Help Keep the World Safe
SP: I want to actuate you to support banning guns
Thesis: We should oppose gun ownership because guns are a weapon of violence and
they increase the number of children who die each year which in turn makes
people blind to the fact they are killing their own children.
Introduction: Question: How many of you think guns are necessary to protect
yourself? Would you feel the same way if you knew how often guns kill children?
I don't think so! Magazines usually tell people how beautiful and powerful guns
are, and never mention how many children get hurt by guns everyday. But I am
here to ask all of you to oppose gun ownership because the fact is that guns are
a weapon of violence, they take more lives away every year, and they make people
blind to the fact they are killing their own children.
Reason one: Having guns around the house creates the opportunity for
lethal violence.
A. People with guns who have unstable feelings
or tempers can lead to violent consequences
very easily.
1. My experience in a Chinese
restaurant. (Explain)
2. A friend of my father shot his
wife because of a simple argument.
Reason two: Guns pose such a significant risk to children.
A. Thousands of children dying by the gunfire each year.
1. Statistic: Eight children every day; and
more than 50 children every week were killed
by the gunfire. And every year,
at least 4 to 5 times as many kids and teens suffer
from non-fatal firearm injuries.
(Children's Defense Fund and National Center for Health Statistics)
2. Do we really need guns in our society?
B. The rate of firearm deaths of children 0-14 years old
is nearly twelve times higher in the U.S.
than in 25 other developed
nations combined.
1. Statistic: In one year, firearms killed no children in
Japan, 19 in Great Britain,
57 in Germany, 109 in France, 153 in Canada,
and 5,285 in the United States.
(National Center for Health Statistics, 1997)
2. According to a study led by Matthew Miller found that in
states where more
guns are available, children are more likely to be victims of firearm- related
deaths.
a.
Children aged 5 to 14 living in one of the five high-gun states were twice
as likely to commit suicide or to be murdered, three times as likely to die
from firearm homicide, seven times as likely to die from firearm suicide,
and 16 times as likely to die from a firearm-related accident.
The study suggests the higher death rates are largely related to gun
availability and are not due to difference in levels of poverty, education,
or urbanization in these states. (Humphries as cited in Miller study, p.
1)
b. People kill people with the use of guns
Reason three: Guns create more family tragedies.
A. Life can be taken very easily by improper use of firearms
1. Quote: "Kalie was my baby sister, she loved
pink. We were playing with her dolls.
I found a
gun in the drawer. It went off. I made Kalie go away. I hate me.
" (Atwan, America Now, 2003. Page 260)
B. People might think that they can keep their weapons properly, but if there are no guns at
all, there would be no chance of any gun-related accidents.
C. Just think of Columbine High School and the senseless shootings there and all the families
impacted by that tragedy.
Conclusion: Bullets cannot be taken back, and the profit of firearm businesses
cannot buy the lives that have been taken by firearms; therefore, we need to
oppose gun ownership. I challenge you, the audience, to oppose gun ownership and
save a life!
References/Work Cited List:
American Now 5th edition by Robert Atwan, Bedford/st Martins, January 2003
Embassies and foreign reporting agencies, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics, unpublished data from the Vital Statistics System, 1997.
Humphries, Courtney. "Childhood Firearm Deaths Tied to Gun Availability".
Focus: Harvard Medical School, March 8, 2002.
http://focus.hms.harvard.edu/2002/March8_2002/injury_control.html.