This is kinda sad...

[SparksFly]

Daring report. Gun control is a triggering topic and sure to get you a bad grade, and possibly more.

Just my opinion...But if you know your school and teacher are skid marks in life, just go full bore dude. Let em know what they can't handle. Hopefully they show you respect...But if they don't and you're standing in front of a mean or stupid audience, smile and believe in your freedom of speech.

Luckly I have a great teacher who is very unbiased when it comes to grading. He is very fair and doesn't grade based on topic, but rather quality, information, and the progress since your previous speech.

 

[SparksFly]

TeacherSmurf has it right, I would work it in stages, and don't bang away at one set of points. Further, I would engage your class mates/teacher with "Historic facts" about America and the Gun, why we have them, and why we have the rights we have, I would also make the point of; No nation on earth can/ ever would attempt to invade because the very real threat We The People pose to such an attempt. I would also point out the historical conflicts fought by a people defending their freedom from would be aggression. Finland/Norway/Sweden, are great examples of this, no one has ever succeed in those countries because the citizens are all armed!

Good luck to you, this is a pretty big challenge!

That's what I was planning on doing. Slowly easing them into the topic given how controversial it is, then begin working my way up to the main point.

 

[SparksFly]

You may actually have to go to the school board to bring a real weapon to school. Our play director had to for a play about the American Civil War, and we are a small rural district. Your principal may be able to skirt that by having an air soft gun or toy gun used instead. You can always have diagrams/visual aids instead and that should not be a problem.

If this is a speech and you will be able to do a debate later, you may want to break up your ideas. In other words:

• Informational speech-how a gun works, how they are used properly, the requirements to obtain one and who is already on the no-no list
• Persuasive speech-people who own guns are normal, everyday people not the nut jobs you see on TV all the time
• Anniversary speech-the history of firearms and why they are so ingrained in our culture
• Debate-gun control laws don't work

With the research you are doing, you have a lot of resources and important information. It would be difficult to fit it all into even a class period. Do a speech, give them time to think about that, then hit the class with another aspect on the next speech.

You may find that the students (and teachers) will look forward to how you are able to work guns into all your speeches. I had a student last year that loved Taco Bell and she would flawlessly work it into every speech.

Sorry, went into "teacher mode," but I hope it helps.

No problem, I am open to any and all advice. Our teacher went all speech mode when we went over the Rhetoric. I wasn't planning on bringing a real firearm, or a fake one for that matter, due to the armed guard at the front doors. I was going to bring some unloaded and unprimed brass but am still going to talk to my teacher and the principle about it. Good thing my family has a history at this school and we are good friends with the principle, otherwise it wouldn't be as easy to ask "can I bring rifle brass to school?" I was going to set up an interactive slide show about how the different actions work, how the different parts of a firearm work together, and how the bullets work. This is going to be a medium speech, minimum time of 4 minutes.

 

[762pilot]

Very proud of you for stepping up to do this. Reminds me of the report I did back in high school, along with speech in College. The nice thing is there is plenty of reliable data to build a solid speech. You've probably learned that some of the important steps in structuring an effective speech are to engage the audience by making eye contact and having a confident delivery. The only way I could get there was to deliver my speeches to an empty room, with a make-shift podium and to do it over and over again. It's a pain at first but it makes all the difference. Layout your speech on some flash cards with bullet points for each topic you plan to cover. With enough practice you will be able to use basic key words as reminders for what to say, thereby minimizing your glances at the flash cards. With the topic at hand you may not get a warm invitation from some of your audience but if you will dismiss that and focus on winning them with a convincing argument it can be an exciting experience.

Regarding the brass, if you are finding a challenge getting it approved, I'd recommend this: Either print up some info sheets to hand out with life-sized rounds pictured side by side. Or you could perhaps present them for approval mounted to a board or as a display, as that may change the interpretation of their effectiveness in the eyes of simple-minded school officials.

Have fun!

 

[Diamondback]

Good luck, young man... up here, they have problems with even WORDS related to firearms--never mind that when I was a kid in the mid-Eighties spent brass was perfectly cool and a hit at show-n-tell.

WTF HAPPENED to people over thirty years? Did they put something in the water that made everybody go Full F---ing RETARD or something?

 

[Camelfilter]

...WTF HAPPENED to people over thirty years? Did they put something in the water that made everybody go Full F---ing RETARD or something?

Agenda, $, power.

 

[B3dlam]

Id pull up the FBIs stats on mass shootings as I recall their standard for what a mass shooting is different from the recently pushed stats.

A flamethrower definitely stands out the hi-point is less surprising they're cheap and plentiful.

 

[v0lcom13sn0w]

also, might be worth explaining what tyranny is and that the right to keep and bear arms is also our natural right to self defense and isnt just about guns. the word ARMS isnt limited to guns.

a gun is the only way a 90lb person has a fighting chance against a 250lb attacker. it is an equilizer.

our second amendment right is how we keep the government in check from being tyrannical


(i know its been repeated but i get all fired up. u know what im sayin)

 

[v0lcom13sn0w]

Good luck, young man... up here, they have problems with even WORDS related to firearms--never mind that when I was a kid in the mid-Eighties spent brass was perfectly cool and a hit at show-n-tell.

WTF HAPPENED to people over thirty years? Did they put something in the water that made everybody go Full F---ing RETARD or something?

hand outs, entitlements, the media, uneducated brats, participation trophies, laziness? just a couple things that come to mind.

 

[PBinWA]

You may also want to consider the inevitable country comparisons - you should have a list of population and density of the most likely "comparison" countries. For example the population of Canada is less than California but the land mass is larger than the US.

 

[3MTA3]

Good luck, young man... up here, they have problems with even WORDS related to firearms--never mind that when I was a kid in the mid-Eighties spent brass was perfectly cool and a hit at show-n-tell.

WTF HAPPENED to people over thirty years? Did they put something in the water that made everybody go Full F---ing RETARD or something?

I went to Junior High shop classes in the 1970's where a popular project was to make a new gun stock for their Dad's or even their own rifle. Pretty much every boy got a .22LR on his 13th or 14th birthday, usually from Sears. Kids brought the rifles in to fit the stocks and to show off the final project, but did get permission from their teachers.

In High School every truck had a rifle rack in the rear window and half of them had a 30-30 in it. Never raised an eyebrow.

A generation before me kids brought their own rifles to school so they could hunt nearby fields on their way home after they got out of class.

Somehow mass shootings were avoided... and we were rougher then - it was common to settle differences with a fight, and sometimes the other guy wound up being your best friend.

 

[Misteramax]

also, might be worth explaining what tyranny is and that the right to keep and bear arms is also our natural right to self defense and isnt just about guns. the word ARMS isnt limited to guns.

a gun is the only way a 90lb person has a fighting chance against a 250lb attacker. it is an equilizer.

our second amendment right is how we keep the government in check from being tyrannical


(i know its been repeated but i get all fired up. u know what im sayin)

Liberals are predicting this argument from us and will make fun of us. The argument I use, that shuts em down all the time, is by telling them why I vote pro gay among other things. It's ultimately freedom you're voting for. If I said we should vote pro gun but vote no on gay rights, freedom of speech, or yes on laws that spy on People, we are being hypocritical. It's important to vote down all forms of extreme laws that violate an individuals freedom.

 

[Camelfilter]

I went to Junior High shop classes in the 1970's where a popular project was to make a new gun stock for their Dad's or even their own rifle. Pretty much every boy got a .22LR on his 13th or 14th birthday, usually from Sears. Kids brought the rifles in to fit the stocks and to show off the final project, but did get permission from their teachers.

In High School every truck had a rifle rack in the rear window and half of them had a 30-30 in it. Never raised an eyebrow.

A generation before me kids brought their own rifles to school so they could hunt nearby fields on their way home after they got out of class.

Somehow mass shootings were avoided... and we were rougher then - it was common to settle differences with a fight, and sometimes the other guy wound up being your best friend.

Mental health was handled completely differently at the time, with institutionalization caring for folks whom would never fit into society.

 

[3MTA3]

Mental health was handled completely differently at the time, with institutionalization caring for folks whom would never fit into society.

One of the few things Reagan blew was to cut the funding that kept those institutions going. I can say, though, that very few kids in my schools wound up institutionalized, and I think things are different today more to social programming than innate mental instability.

 

[3MTA3]

@SparksFly Kudos to you for advocating something very politically unpopular in the Portland school system. True courage is standing up for what you think is right when it's against the beliefs of the majority, even when those beliefs are due to ignorance.

The only advice I can give you in addition to what others have said is to make your speech in three major parts:

1. Tell them what you are going to talk about, e.g. firearms, how they function, firearm safety, gun control facts and fallacies. Since the audience knows what is coming they will be less likely to interrupt with question later, and instead ask question that are more pertinent to the topic when you are in part two.
   
   
2. Give the the speech body, all the details in the same order as step one
   
   
3. Finally summarize the key points you just talked about and connect the dots as to how A relates to B which relates to C, etc..

I speak frequently and I have found this to be the best way to open people's minds to the subject matter and to retain the information.

 

[11Charlie]

Good on you @SparksFly I think it is great what you are doing! I commend your parents for raising a good kid with thoughts of his own that is not afraid to speak the truth in today's society. That is rare most kids your age don't even show respect to there elders.

 

[Caveman Jim]

Compare the rate of mass shootings to those who die each day in the USA because of Hospital Acquired Infections. Then move on to how many die each day from properly prescribed and properly ingested pharmaceutical drugs.

I've been saying this for years!!!! There are 700k+ registered Dr's in America and over a million people die from being misdiagnosed & prescription drugs..... But guns are the real killers....

 

[Gbirk]

Freakonimics did an interesting podcast on guns. May be worth reading through.
How to Think About Guns: Full Transcript - Freakonomics

 

[SparksFly]

Good luck, young man... up here, they have problems with even WORDS related to firearms--never mind that when I was a kid in the mid-Eighties spent brass was perfectly cool and a hit at show-n-tell.

WTF HAPPENED to people over thirty years? Did they put something in the water that made everybody go Full F---ing RETARD or something?

I think they did.

 

[SparksFly]

Very proud of you for stepping up to do this. Reminds me of the report I did back in high school, along with speech in College. The nice thing is there is plenty of reliable data to build a solid speech. You've probably learned that some of the important steps in structuring an effective speech are to engage the audience by making eye contact and having a confident delivery. The only way I could get there was to deliver my speeches to an empty room, with a make-shift podium and to do it over and over again. It's a pain at first but it makes all the difference. Layout your speech on some flash cards with bullet points for each topic you plan to cover. With enough practice you will be able to use basic key words as reminders for what to say, thereby minimizing your glances at the flash cards. With the topic at hand you may not get a warm invitation from some of your audience but if you will dismiss that and focus on winning them with a convincing argument it can be an exciting experience.

Regarding the brass, if you are finding a challenge getting it approved, I'd recommend this: Either print up some info sheets to hand out with life-sized rounds pictured side by side. Or you could perhaps present them for approval mounted to a board or as a display, as that may change the interpretation of their effectiveness in the eyes of simple-minded school officials.

Have fun!

Thanks! I have a feeling I will be allowed to bring the brass if it is unprimed and cleaned but I will definitely print out some information sheets.