ENGL 102 Ali Faour
Get a knife, get a dog, but get rid of guns
Molly Ivins, a liberal columnist who was made well known by
picking fun at her home state of Texas and mocking politicians, battled
breast cancer before she died in 2007. Although her essay, “Get a
knife, get a dog, but get rid of guns” is over a decade old, her words
are still a warm topic today. Molly Ivin’s essay takes on the gun control
debate, engaging the audience with a sarcastic perspective that
leaves them asking themselves if they just read an entertaining irony
or a convincing and thoughtful piece. Even though good points were
made as to the reason why guns are bad, now not everything is easy
and believable to agree with.
Molly Ivins supports her reasoning to get rid of guns with
entertaining exaggerations, some confusing back and forth views, but
also her humor and momentum. She begins by emphasizing she is
not “anti-gun”. Immediately after that she makes sure to announce she
is “pro-knife”, this was the first wave in the water that confused me as
a reader. Was she attacking the gun owners making fun of the
expression bringing a knife to a gun fight? At first, I thought she would
have a similar view with the Mexican Restaurant, Chipotle. Boring yet
safe Chipotle expressed their unbiased view by asking the gun owners
to politely not bring assault rifles around them. In doing so they do not
completely lose their gun owners sales. I think she was using a similar
tactic to secure some readers from not just throwing the book away at
first glance. Unless she was using this as a slap in the face to the gun
owner’s stupidity and a quick chance to get a laugh from the “knife
advocates”. Ivins continues with a view against guns and in favor of
knives, which would “promote physical fitness” as she says a person
would have to chase down their victim and catch up to them to stab
them. She compares this to the obesity issue in the US by making fun
at the relationship between lazy obese people
To conclude, I think that Molly Ivins explained her point of view with
no biases and with honest opinion. As guns are a different topic to
discuss, people should have a clear explained reason to use them. I
feel many could benefit from reading such article.